Star Force: 97-100
Author: Aer-Ki Jyr
Date: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Science Fiction; Science Fiction & Fantasy; Colonization; Dystopian; Galactic Empire; High Tech; Military; Space Fleet; 90 Minutes (44-64 Pages); Literature & Fiction; Hard Science Fiction; Adventure; Two Hours or More (65-100 Pages); Action & Adventure; Space Opera; Genre Fiction; War; Health; Fitness & Dieting; Exercise & Fitness; Yoga; War & Military; Space Marine; Teen & Young Adult; Star Force
Description: Anthology containing: Star Force: 97-100
Rights: Copyrights as per source stories

1

April 3, 3593

Unknown System

Unknown Planet

The standard variant lizard in command of this cruiser didn’t have a name. His operational identity was ‘captain’ and he was the primary of the two ships assigned to this mission. The other captain would follow his orders where necessary, but both of them would primarily follow well-established protocol regarding expeditionary missions such as this.

He’d been born some 18 years ago, having fought in three separate ground battles before being reassigned to ship command crew. He’d spent the past 8 years there, partaking in a total of 29 space battles against various primitive civilizations that the Li’vorkrachnika were conquering as well as a wealth of mundane patrol, escort, and guardian missions as crew before being assigned to a newly constructed ship as its captain.

He’d then engaged in a defensive battle over a moderately developed Li’vorkrachnika world that a local power was contesting. His experience there was what had given him the lead command on this mission, for the other captain had no combat experience in full command. Neither of them had expeditionary command experience, but the protocols regarding such things were so well defined that there was no need to specialize that heavily.

Their assignment was simple…travel into a lightly scouted region and put down infrastructure roots on a planet owned by someone else and take control of the planet. The cruiser he’d been given had been configured for expeditionary missions, meaning the necessary startup equipment was buried inside along with the genetic material to grow more Li’vorkrachnika as needed. As for how to conduct a mission such as this, well that was easy. A combination of data files, genetic memories, and adaptation was all that was required, and given the single existing small colony on this planet, a pair of cruisers should be enough in the way of assets to plant the industrial seed.

The tech level of the colony in question was uncertain but guessed to be high, thus two cruisers had been sent to spur the growth faster than normal. That said, he was not to engage the colony directly. That was ingrained into his genetics in such a way that neither he nor another mission commander would make that mistake. His two ships were meant to land and build an army that would later attack, meaning his insertion to the planet was going to occur on the far side and out of view of the single city that had no orbital constructs or ships visible. It was simply a few small structures spread over no more than 3 square miles, but trails into the surrounding area and what looked to be auxiliary structures/sites placed around the perimeter indicated that whoever owned this world had been here a while.

Their identity was one item on the captain’s list of things to discover, for if these inhabitants proved to be too powerful to conquer then it was his responsibility to relay that information back, then a decision would be made whether or not to follow up with more assets or to avoid this location until regional strength increased. Only on the odd chance than the local owners were far more powerful would the Li’vorkrachnika pass them over, and if it took the death of a couple of cruisers to figure that out then so be it. Exploration was necessary in order for them to expand, and simply taking scans from orbit did not tell you enough about new races being encountered. Battle would tell far more.

So the captain brought both cruisers down to the surface next to one another in a jungle region where the trees grew so tall they came up halfway on the starships. Nestled down in between nearby ridges they were hidden from all but overhead scans and the first thing he ordered was for additional camouflage measures be enacted on the upper hull to match the surrounding foliage.

To accomplish that they uprooted many of the trees beneath their landing zones before they touched the surface and relocated them up top. It took several weeks of work, but by the time they were finished his command cruiser was almost completely buried beneath a thin layer of dirt with living trees spreading out their pink/green foliage over top the site. Nearby the second cruiser sat much more in the open and ready to take flight for operations across the planet or into orbit as needed, but if someone did see this location it was more than likely they would only spot the one ship, thus allowing him to hide the second in plain sight beside it for few would expect camouflage of one right next to the exposed other.

It was an old trick, and while the crew of the exposed cruiser scurried across the jungle floor scouting and prepping the immediate area, shafts were being dug beneath the command ship going out laterally and down into the bedrock where they would begin mining ore deposits scanned upon approach.

Other resources would be harvested in close proximity, then trails and tunnels would extend out further to establish secondary sites as the infrastructure web began to grow. When sufficient foodstuff production was established new lizards would be grown and the workforce increased, and from that point on his operation on this world would snowball so long as they were left alone.

He didn’t probe the city or surveil it at all for several months, but eventually he began sending out scouts in small transports to establish listening posts across the planet, slowly creeping their way around until they could observe the city from afar. Not underestimating their sensing capacity, he gave orders to stay hidden and bring no flying assets within line of sight over the curve of the planet, meaning his scouts had to travel by foot for hundreds of miles just to get in position to plant automated surveillance devices that could monitor aerial traffic from afar.

But there was none for a very long time. It was two years before he saw the first ship arrive, slightly bigger than one of his cruisers, and it moved straight down to the colony, landing there and staying for 8 days before leaving again. After that he saw no more ships, nor any planetary aerial craft flying over the colony, which emboldened him to send scouts in for a closer look. The acceleration profile of that ship indicated very powerful gravity drives, suggesting that this race was more advanced than the Li’vorkrachnika. If that was the case, then this mission had greater importance than just claiming the planet. He had to engage them in effective battle in order to ascertain their strengths and weaknesses.

The jumpship that had dropped off the two cruisers in this system didn’t return for another year, at which time he submitted his report and it carried it off as it cycled from one expeditionary site to another delivering a few needed supplies, in this case corovon, and keeping a link between worlds that had not developed the invading presence to the point of building interstellar communications or jumpships. The captain’s mission here would remain off the grid unless visits were made to update the rest of the Li’vorkrachnika as to their progress, but per his orders the jumpship never arrived when the far side of the planet was visible in order to hide its approach.

With the corovon supplements the captain was able to advance their construction rate by adding more specialized equipment fabricated from mostly local resources harvested, and in turn that allowed them to seek out and utilize more of the planet’s natural wealth. Meanwhile data on the planet was continually expanded. Local areas were intricately mapped by patrols with surveillance devices cleverly hidden in the terrain monitoring the local wildlife and anything else that moved. Such devices were also extended up near to the colony where they began seeing small activity of the local inhabitants…

Which is where everything started to go wrong. After the first automated report of concealed bipeds about twice as tall as the Li’vorkrachnika being spotted in the evergreen forests around the colony, the devices began to go offline and the living patrols he had around the perimeter failed to check in. Before he could mount a stronger reconnaissance the supply encampments between the colony and the long hike back around the planet started disappearing.

There was no sign of aerial craft, nor any ground vehicles detected, but one by one the encampments dropped off the grid and the surveillance devices around them shut down before they could register anyone nearby. All the captain knew of was the loss of sites on his information grid, and as the weeks went by the loss of assets passed by the midline mark between their landing site and the colony with the implication of the outages eventually backtracking to their primary base. How they were tracking and identifying every hidden outpost he didn’t know, but whoever was on this world with them was demonstrating abilities beyond his current understanding.

He needed to get eyes on them, whoever they were, before they got to his two and a half cruisers, for a shipyard with a partially constructed hull was sitting next to the pair and ready to churn out more with necessary expansions as resources allowed. So far the losses to his operations were minimal, but if this blackout continued to get within 1/8th of the planet’s curve from them his major mining sites would be jeopardized…and he couldn’t allow that to happen.

So he assembled a significant army of standard variants, producing enough small arms to equip them and assuming he’d lose them all, and sent them out through the network via small troop transports and deposited them well short of the blackout line. From there they moved out on foot and took up position at one hybrid supply/hunting camp and dug in, planting numerous surveillance devices as well as having distant observers that would run away on foot the moment they saw what was happening. The captain had to know what it was he was fighting, and this recently constructed army of over 4,000 was going to be the bait in order to get at least one message or messenger back to him with some reconnaissance so he would know what he needed to adapt to.

It worked. For while the entire force was wiped out and the automated surveillance was shut down before it could even send a diagnostic ping through the network, three scouts looking through basic telescopic cameras observed what should not have been here. Two bipeds, and only two bipeds, assaulted the army in a clearing established so they could have good lines of sight on them, and the images the captain were looking at pricked his genetic memories.

He had never seen an Archon before, but the strength, speed, body type, and bizarre abilities these were displaying matched them perfectly. He knew what they were, with the knowledge bred into him that he could not beat them with so few assets. Even if there were only the two on the entire planet that would be enough to stop his limited development, and there was no way of knowing how many more they had in that colony.

They shouldn’t have been here. This expeditionary mission was on the coreward side of Li’vorkrachnika territory opposite that from the Star Force border. If this altered armor, buildings, and ships were a means for them to conduct surveillance of regions far from their region anonymously then that was a vital piece of information that the templars needed to be made aware of.

But the captain didn’t think his forces would last long enough for the next jumpship to arrive, and if it did it might very well be destroyed if Star Force was now alerted to their presence. He had to get the information back himself, and that either meant building an interstellar transmitter powerful enough to reach the closest link in the chain…which wasn’t possible given the ranges involved…or he had to take a cruiser back at the highest jump speed it was capable of maintaining and suffer through the long, slow coast phase and hope to rendezvous with the jumpship prior to its arrival here.

Either that or get to the next closest expeditionary location, which as far as he’d been informed was some 83 lightyears away. That’d take his cruiser 17 years unless upgrades to the engines were made, and that was assuming their supplies would last that long, which they wouldn’t.

So the captain began cannibalizing his two intact cruisers while pouring all available resources into the partially constructed hull, increasing its number of gravity drives while configuring it for as small a crew as possible. Meanwhile everyone else began prepping the base for the eventual attack and establishing all manner of traps at the surrounding bases in the hopes of slowing down or perhaps even killing one of the Archons.

That was unlikely, but the progression across the planet suggested that they didn’t have too many of them and that they were eliminating every instance of Li’vorkrachnika invasion rather than heading straight to the primary base. At the very least they should have been making a more direct route, assuming they were tracking communications links or raiding the memories of his troops, but they weren’t. They were taking down everything in closest proximity to their colony and working outward methodically, giving him more time to build.

To that end he also established a lot more little bases out there, spread as far as he could, and made sure to interlink them all so they could be found. If this clearing methodology was going to continue to hold, then he could use it to his advantage to buy himself more time to build.

And it worked, for the little bases did draw attacks that spared the others for more days, though the rate of them falling suggested that there were more than 2 Archons in play. No matter, though. However many there were they were coming here and the race was for resources and construction, the latter of which wasn’t possible on many fronts that required more infrastructure than he currently had, namely the production of jumpship-caliber gravity drives.

So what he did was pull drives off the two existing cruisers and add them to those being built fresh, using bulk rather than quality of design to trim years off the journey and even foregoing the placement of weapons on the new ship. If Star Force was here and had naval assets in play, then it wouldn’t matter whether it was armed or not. It would be easily destroyed, so there was no need to waste materiel or weight on them, and the lighter the ship was the faster it would go.

Using every industrial protocol and genetic memory available to him, the captain succeeded in getting the third cruiser built before the closest perimeter bases fell. He assigned the other captain to the ship along with a crew of 6 and stuffed as many supplies into it as they could, both fuel and foodstuffs, then launched the ship along with the second cruiser that accompanied it up to orbit ready to run interference if necessary, but no ships emerged. The messenger ship made the microjump out to the star and eventually signaled back that it was in the clear before it made its long interstellar jump carrying the vital information back to the templars…assuming it would make it.

That was beyond the captain’s ability to control now. His duty to the message was now complete, but his mission here was not. He was to conquer the planet, which was now totally unlikely with the presence of Star Force…yet they only had a small outpost here and an unspecified number of Archons. If they could be eliminated then it was possible that his forces could at least damage their colony, depending on what other defenses they had. It was a long shot, but one thing his genetic memory made clear was that whenever you had an opportunity to kill an Archon you took it. No matter what the cost.

He had two ships left, but he wasn’t going to risk flying them into hidden weaponry at the colony. On ground reconnaissance would be required first, and that wasn’t going to happen with Archons hunting down and eliminating every scouting party and base he had. They had to be the target, and he only had one weapon capable of defeating them.

His cruisers. But if he brought them in and bombarded the next location they hit, assuming he could get them there before the Archons wiped out the next camp, there was no way to guarantee close range bombardment would be able to destroy them if they couldn’t pin them to one location. He didn’t want to lose a cruiser, but with Archons you couldn’t give them an out and expect them not to find a way to take it. He had to attack them in a way they couldn’t defend against, and that left only one option.

So he arranged another camp, a fresh one in a geographic location that was in a wide, shallow depression and he had his people build up fortifications that would slow and pin the Archons down once they invaded, even if they attacked from stealth. When the captain’s ranged scouts reported that the blacked out base was under attack, the second cruiser flew out to it and gained altitude, climbing up to just above the atmosphere before reversing course and accelerating through as fast of a microjump as it could manage while maintaining its course.

The resulting fireball of a cruiser, slicing down through the atmosphere thin edge forward, impacted on top of his own troops...whatever was left of them anyway…and punched them and everything nearby down into the ground in a massive kinetic explosion that was amplified slightly by the concave nature of the landscape.

The resulting mushroom cloud of dust and debris was visible on the horizon from the main base within minutes, and the captain hoped that whatever Archons had been attacking that base had been delayed long enough to have been caught in the blast. And if he was very lucky it would have been the only ones on the planet, leaving him with a narrow margin for victory if all that remained were secondary troops and a handful of their workers.

So with his one remaining buried cruiser he began pumping out infantry as fast as he could grow them and he sent scouts back to establish a network of limited camps across the planet to begin scouting the perimeter of the Star Force colony again. If they didn’t go dark then he’d know that the primary threat had been eliminated and he had until another enemy ship arrived to do what damage he could to this outpost.

Him and his men surviving this mission was not a possibility. They were going to die here, but he intended for them to hurt Star Force as much as possible before then, even if it meant a single enemy soldier or building of theirs being damaged. Li’vorkrachnika were expendable. Star Force troops were not. And any wound inflicted on them would be a victory.

And he still had one more cruiser to use if needed, though he was going to see how much he could accomplish with ground forces first.

2

October 12, 3597

Trienman System (V’kit’no’sat territory)

Ennsop (Lir’nen outpost)

The armored dilophosaurus knelt down next to a large chunk of rock and pushed with his strong legs, using his weight and the help of two Zen’zat to move the debris off the remains of the second Zen’zat that had been caught in the enemy ship’s suicide run. There was no mental signature to be found, but the Lir’nen was going to recover the body anyway. Part of the armor functions were still intact, allowing them to locate it amongst the crater where the ship fell, but the biometrics were signaling that he was dead.

Never the less, missing both arms and a leg wasn’t always fatal and the chest armor looked to be in pretty good shape. The neck, though, had a gash across it and a piece of wood, no less, sticking out from the wound.

“Pull him out,” the Lir’nen ordered, with the two Zen’zat accompanying him carefully extracting the body from the mess and laying it free on a more or less flat slab of dirt/rock beside them. Using his limited Lachka, the Lir’nen floated over a Kich’a’kat and placed it against the left arm socket. He arched a scaly eye ridge in mild surprise when it activated, melting into the wound and sinking its fibers out through what was left of the body.

Several minutes passed before a heartbeat returned, and along with it a mental signature. That was good, for the other Zen’zat had been beyond help, and according to the limited logs he was pulling from the damaged armor the lesser internal Kich’a’kat components had revived and sustained him long enough before failing entirely to enable the rescue team to get here in time…but not by much. He would live, but he would be of no use in the upcoming fighting.

The piece of wood detached from his neck on its own as the tissue there partially regenerated, but without supplemental materials to regrow it fully, the Zen’zat body was still a mangled mess. They would have to get him back to the outpost to regenerate everything, but one of the living Zen’zat took a knee beside him and peeled back the armor on his fingers so he could make a direct connection to the stricken mind and settle it as the Kich’a’kat withdrew, it’s work done.

“What shall we do?” the other Zen’zat asked the Lir’nen, which stood slightly shorter but massed far more with its horizontal back and tail stretching out some 8 meters in length.

“They will be avenged, and soon.”

“We have no more combat Zen’zat.”

“We won’t need them. These vermin are no match for us, so we’re going to take care of this here and now. We will not wait for backup. But we must keep some of them intact long enough to ascertain their source. The reckoning will not end here, I promise you that. Bring him,” he said as a small gunship being flown by another Zen’zat drifted over to them upon mental request and the partial, but living body was laid down next to the remains of the dead one as the Lir’nen and its two research assistants jumped up inside and rode back across the sky towards their small outpost.

They were on a frontier world at the very edge of the V’kit’no’sat empire, and one not shared between races. This planet and system belonged to the Lir’nen, but their interest here was purely scientific. They were studying the internal makeup of the odd planet and making adjustments to mining equipment for use in other systems that faced similar difficulties. It was a research outpost only, not a proper colony, and there were only 6 Lir’nen here along with 9 Zen’zat, two of which were combat trained for security reasons. The rest were research staff.

When the surviving Zen’zat was returned to the medical facility his limbs were regrown, but his status remained grim. His mind was non-responsive for 7 hours before suddenly waking up in a surge of pain and horror. A nearby Zen’zat tried to restrain him, but she was thrown across the room with a single arm thrust of the warrior as he punched and kicked and tore up the bed he was laying on and anything else nearby in a rage, but left the shell-shocked research assistant laying against the wall until one of the Lir’nen came rushing in.

Unable to subvert the Zen’zat’s mind, the Lir’nen had to take to physical restraints. Had he been a warrior he might have been able to do it with Lachka, but his was trained for delicate manipulations of microscopic equipment, not brute force, so he was going to have to use his natural abilities to subdue the crazed survivor…which was easy enough.

The Lir’nen took three steps toward him in a slow charge, lowering its head with its two cranial spines sparking to life and creating a convex bioshield that it used to ram the Zen’zat off its feet, then hit it two more times before pinning it between the shield, the floor, and a wall as it shouted telepathically.

Be still! You have been rescued and are in no danger!

But it was no use, and the Zen’zat even struck back against the bioshield. It didn’t use any of its psionics, only its limbs, and that suggested this wasn’t a thoughtful assault, merely the reaction of a mind that wasn’t fully functioning.

The Lir’nen gave him a little room, just enough for the Zen’zat to get to his feet, then he rammed him again, harder this time, and pinned his soft flesh against the wall as the Lir’nen’s four eyes stared up into the face of the crazed warrior. He had to dig his feet in hard to keep the pressure up enough, otherwise even the weakened Zen’zat would have been able to free himself, but after another 20 seconds of struggling the resistance stopped and he fell unconscious to the floor as another Lir’nen arrived.

“What did you do to him?” he asked as the Zen’zat slumped to the ground naked save for a pair of shorts.

“I did nothing,” he explained, telekinetically lifting the Zen’zat onto his feet and dipping his short neck underneath to help lift him up onto another bed that hadn’t been destroyed in his rage. “He suffered an overload. The repairs were not complete.”

“How so?”

The Lir’nen waited to answer as the scanning equipment updated the statistics as the research Zen’zat slowly got to her feet and walked over to assist if needed.

“He struck you?”

“Yes,” she said, shaking it off. “Sloppily so. I believe he is striking anything in range due to a displacement.”

“Explain.”

“Something is not right internally, so much so that he can’t access it in order to attack it, so his warrior nature seeks out something else to attack. With limited brain functions an attack is warranted and needed, but he isn’t able to ascertain what to attack.”

“You have seen this before in Zen’zat?”

“No, but I remember an instance of it happening to a Hjar’at. I believe his injuries were also concussion based.”

“Why is the Kich’a’kat not solving the problem?”

“I don’t know.”

“Nor do I,” the other Lir’nen echoed. “We need a medical specialist.”

“Very well, but I want this threat dealt with before they arrive. This is our score to settle.”

“We will need time to fabricate battle armor,” the Zen’zat said neutrally.

“Do so…for all of us.”

She nodded and walked out, leaving her kin to the Lir’nen.

“You mean for us to fight?”

“This situation is insulting enough. I do not want to have to call for combat aid as well.”

“They have another ship remaining. The tactic could be repeated once more.”

“It is currently buried and functioning as the center of their base. If we go there first and eliminate it, we eliminate the threat. We can clean up the rest of them later.”

“Do we know the exact location?”

“Close enough. We will leave one Zen’zat here with the injured warrior. The rest of us will go and destroy the vessel, then move on to the rest with all haste.”

“I have not fought in more than 9,000 years.”

“Longer for me, but this is necessary. We must mitigate this disgrace as much as possible before the others are informed.”

“There are no Lir’nen assets nearby,” he said in understanding.

“We will have to ask for medical aid from the Ari’tat or Voro’nam. I do not want to ask for their troops. Being defeated by primitives is humiliating enough. We must end this ourself.”

“So be it. I will be ready.”

“See that the others are. I will make sure this one remains sedated.”

When the Lir’nen dropped from the gunship and into the jungle they were quickly met with enemy ground troops, but their weapons couldn’t penetrate their armor’s shields, let alone the plates, and the hip mounted Dre’mo’dons were killing the short, green-tailed invaders with single shots. They were quick on their feet, but otherwise totally unimpressive. The noncombat V’kit’no’sat had no trouble tracking down and killing them in the jungle, though at times a Lachka hold was necessary to maneuver one into shooting range.

When they came to the underground caverns that crisscrossed the area and connected to the ship the Zen’zat went down, for the Lir’nen were a bit too big to fit comfortably. Instead they headed topside and ran up on the mound of dirt covering the ship while scanning below with their minds and taking control of those within range to ensure that the ship would not lift off.

They held them in check as needed en mass to prevent a liftoff, but when the Zen’zat worked their way inside and the Lir’nen had fewer minds to handle they started overriding the biological impulses in the last few, preventing their bodies from breathing and shutting down their heartbeats, killing them from afar. Doing so was not easy, for they had to fight autonomic redundancies, but the rage they felt for these vermin encouraged the superior effort in the last few that the Zen’zat hadn’t gotten to yet.

“The ship is clear,” one of them reported over the comm in their armor.

“Begin downloads and route everything back to the central computer. Two Zen’zat stay, one to work and one to guard. The rest come with us. We have the remainder of this infestation to purge.”

2 weeks later…

An Ari’tat ship entered orbit over the planet, sending down a delegation of medical and security personnel to meet with the Lir’nen at the landing zone within the outpost. Two of the smaller Ari’tat led the ‘tall’ Zen’zat warriors out, behind which came two more Zen’zat carrying medical equipment as the tiny V’kit’no’sat hopped over to the waiting Lir’nen, looking up at them from their half meter height. It was galling that such a small race had territorial holdings greater than they did.

“The injured Zen’zat is inside.”

A mental command from the Ari’tat sent their Zen’zat off to find the damaged one, but the four warriors remained.

“What have you learned of these attackers?”

“They are expeditionary scouts tasked with gathering information and plucking what vulnerable worlds they can in advance of a larger invasion force. Their empire is primitive, but quite large.”

“How large?” the Ari’tat asked.

“It extends through two galactic arms. These vermin reproduce quickly, and such growth is their primary strength.”

“Have you located a capitol?”

“No. Their records are remarkably incomplete.”

“Advanced scouts should not have such information,” the Ari’tat noted what it seemed to think should have been obvious. “How many remain on this world?”

“None. We have exterminated all visible and I have Zen’zat looking for hidden survivors.”

Another mental command and two of the Zen’zat warriors broke off from the group.

“While we are here we will also search.”

“If you feel the need. They are no threat to us here.”

“A dead Zen’zat says otherwise.”

“They crashed their ship deliberately in order to eliminate them.”

“Admittedly that is odd, but they succeeded nonetheless.”

“That they did.”

“Do not consider your pride wounded, Lir’nen. This is an assault to all V’kit’no’sat, and we must respond accordingly.”

“We claim priority.”

“And you shall have it, I assume. But you will not pursue this alone unless you have far more resources than we are aware.”

“You needn’t bother with it. Their technology is primitive.”

“Is this an attack of ignorance?”

“We do not know. Their commander was not recovered and their subordinates know nothing.”

“A bit too hasty in your counterattack?”

“They are clones without differing markings.”

“Curious. Have you recovered any of their technology?”

“We have one of their ships intact.”

“May we see it?”

“It is not here. It remains buried where they were building their infrastructure.”

“Building? Not gathering?”

“It is not a temporary camp. They were putting down permanent roots from which to spread from.”

“Rather than assault directly?”

“They never struck at the outpost. They came here with few numbers and intended to increase them on planet. Gestation time to full adult is something inside of two months.”

“Do you feel this primitive enemy is greater than their limited technology?”

“I am waiting for our warriors to make that determination.”

“What did your Zen’zat warriors say prior to being defeated?”

The Lir’nen huffed once at the word ‘defeated.’ “Irrelevant.”

“It’s a pertinent question.”

“That was their assessment of the vermin, not mine of your question.”

“Do these vermin have a name?”

“Li’vorkrachnika.”

“It needs to be erased from the galaxy.”

“It will be,” the Lir’nen promised.

With a mixed contingent of Zen’zat in the medical facility there were no factional disagreements here. Though they may have served different masters, they served the V’kit’no’sat overall and the camaraderie between Zen’zat across the empire was never in doubt. One of their own was damaged and another was dead…and they all wanted vengeance.

They were here now to attend to the Zen’zat before them. The medics to scan and correct if possible, the warriors to restrain if needed, but primarily here to stand by their brother. All Zen’zat were selected individually out of the Ter’nat population, isolated until they were upgraded and joined the V’kit’no’sat as elite servants, and in that union they entered into a brotherhood that was not feeble. Zen’zat were not a faction within the V’kit’no’sat, for they held no territory of their own, but the bonds between them were as strong as any of the races, and perhaps more so because of the factional divisions they had to straddle while maintaining their neutrality and unity.

What the medics finally had to report was not good. The Zen’zat’s mind had been damaged from the prolonged lack of blood flow. Portions of it, while physically repaired, had gaps that left his mind incomplete. He was fighting phantoms and unable to be reasoned with, which meant he was no longer fit to be a Zen’zat.

That meant he was effectively dead. In that situation most Zen’zat would prefer to be eliminated, but the medics indicated that there was a possibility of longer term recovery and the Zen’zat agreed that he deserved the chance to one day recover his position amongst them. It was unlikely that he could succeed, but if he could achieve the position the first time in his life then he had what it took to do so again.

The Zen’zat negated his service to the Lir’nen on their own authority and took him into their own custody, arranging for a transfer via the Ari’tat to take him back to a Ter’nat world where Zen’zat too damaged to continue their service were sent to recover with the help of those that took orders from their elite kin. Zen’zat had assignments to carry out and could not waste time trying to elevate another, but they would make sure this Zen’zat had everything he needed in order to have a chance to relearn the skills, knowledge, and balance missing from his mind.

And until he arrived there, he would have a Zen’zat honor guard the entire way until he was ‘retired,’ after which he would officially be on his own, though other Zen’zat would monitor and give orders from afar as to how his recovery team should aid him…and if his recovery should not manifest, a Zen’zat would return in time to give their brother a proper death. They would not leave him to wither away as a Ter’nat. He would die a Zen’zat, one way or another.

3

December 15, 3597

Tham’ron System (V’kit’no’sat Sector Capitol)

Weech

“The reports we’ve received indicate a significantly large, yet primitive empire that is rapidly expanding towards our border,” a Lir’nen said, standing on the floor of the Hall of Imperium as councilors from the various races in the V’kit’no’sat listened. “Their attack proved fortuitous in the death of a Zen’zat and the crippling of another, however subsequent analysis of thought patterns suggest such tactics are not a fluke and that these Li’vorkrachnika exhibit a cleverness that allows them to exceed their technological limitations. Coupled with an aggressive reproduction rate and the casual regard for preservation of their own lives, they are essentially a single, unified weapon bent on conquest of the galaxy.”

“Are you suggesting we should be concerned with them?” the Brat’mar said with a measure of contempt.

“No. Only that they mistakenly believe that they can attack us with impunity and others who believe the same need to be taught a lesson. Wiping them all out will take a large amount of effort, not in the difficulty of combat but in the sheer number of systems required to be assaulted. We are recommending that…”

“There is no point in half measures,” the huge Oso’lon said, bypassing the lesser races and jumping into the conversation immediately. “Either they are too primitive to be concerned about or they need to be annihilated. Which is it?”

“They have killed a Zen’zat,” the Hjar’at stated coolly, “and exploited a weakness in the Lir’nen outpost. They have made a successful attack against us. That should be all the explanation you require.”

“Agreed,” the Oso’lon said, twisting its long neck to the side and tipping down towards where the Lir’nen counselor sat on its elevated pedestal while the other member of their race issued the report. “This assault was against you, therefore you take priority. Garras, what are the Zen’zat feelings on this?”

One of the 4 attendants in the room in a small control center looked up at the giant head in the distance. He was not assigned a faction, but rather to the sector capitol that had every race with a colony present represented here, and he served them all while technically remaining independent.

“The attack was on a Lir’nen world, but only Zen’zat were involved in the combat. We will confront this defiler in whatever way you direct, but we would prefer to have an independent stake in this.”

“Is there a map for us to see the scope of this threat?” the I’rar’et asked, with the Pterodactyl sitting on a perch rather than a cushioned pedestal.

“A partial only,” the witness said apologetically, summoning up a starmap in front of each counselor. “These invaders only have limited data of nearby worlds without full knowledge of the scope of their empire. Corroboration with intelligence previously gathered from beyond the rim indicates a large empire that is currently in conflict with the Skarrons.”

“The Skarrons are respectful of our borders,” the Sess’nat said from its pool of water imbedded into the floor where its turtle-like mass floated, “but unworthy of our attention. What they and others do beyond the frontier is their own concern, but tolerate interferement within our domain we cannot. The attack on us has sealed these Li’vorkrachnika’s fate, but even had they not, their expansion into this sector could not be allowed. We have been monitoring reports of migrations from beyond the frontier fleeing conquest, and though small that they are, they are numerous. If it is these attackers that they are running from then we must not underestimate the potential threat for mild disruption of the sector, even if they are not a significant threat to us.”

“Our intelligence suggests a devouring ideology. They spread until there is nowhere left to spread. They are a plague that is testing our border with this attack in order to ascertain strength. We know a ship with a message was sent back prior to the death of the Zen’zat, and that getting that message out was their primary concern.”

“Why attack if they recognized the threat we posed to them?” the Oso’lon asked.

“Our sources could not identify the cause, but standard practice is to treat such expeditionary teams as being expendable. Perhaps they felt they had nothing to lose if we were going to purge them from the planet anyway.”

“You underestimated them,” the Brat’mar said in a displeased tone, though not so much as to start a cascade of energy across its two massive horns as was typical for the race when they got truly angry, “and have given them a victory against us. No amount of bloodshed will undo that fact.”

“Are you suggesting that we do not act?” the Hjar’at asked.

“I am suggesting that the Lir’nen not have sole priority in this. It was the Zen’zat who suffered a loss of personnel, so let them lead the eradication force. The Lir’nen can have plenty of targets on which to practice their badly neglected skills, but their judgement has already cost us a defeat. We will not suffer a second one.”

“Rajamal?” the Hjar’at asked, referencing a specific Zen’zat that was currently in the sector, but well known across this quarter of the empire.

“I conquer with that,” the I’rar’et noted before the displeased Lir’nen counselor could speak.

“You make a valid point,” the Oso’lon conceded. “The Lir’nen shall still have priority in volume, but we will have the Zen’zat be the architect of our vengeance. The question remains as to the number of slots in the invasion force.”

“We stand ready to assist,” the Hjar’at offered, “if needed. Though we would recommend this level of a threat be dealt with by those that could benefit more from the combat experience.”

“Your recommendation?”

“5 slots in addition to the Lir’nen. If the suggested size of this empire is accurate, using any less will create unnecessary delay.”

“We request a slot,” the tiny Ari’tat said from its oversized pedestal that was still far smaller than those of the larger races. “We have the largest Zen’zat force in the sector and are willing to make a significant portion of it available to Rajamal if he is selected. If not, we will still assist under our own guidance.”

“Is that a rebuke?” the Oso’lon asked.

“A Zen’zat not affiliated with a race in this region is preferable. If one is to come from the Lir’nen, as I’m sure they will soon suggest, I question the wisdom inherent in that choice.”

“They struck at an outpost,” the Lir’nen counselor stated with controlled, but obvious contempt for the tiny wisp of a V’kit’no’sat that he could break with a single step if he wished, “not a colony. We are not incompetent in our defense. And they never touched a single one of our buildings in the outpost. It was an unexpected counterattack in the field with naval bombardment that the Zen’zat could have avoided had it been conventional. Instead they chose to destroy their own troops in the process to insure that the Zen’zat where present in the collision corridor.”

“A sound piece of strategy,” the Hjar’at said, torn between loyalty to his empire and the military skill of the enemy, “for such an inferior race.”

“Before you come to blows, let me make one thing painfully clear,” the Qua’cho said, with its vertical fin rising well above the quadruped’s head. “We can establish outposts with little defense because of the threat of retaliation against anyone who dare strikes us. Whether by ignorance or arrogance, the Li’vorkrachnika did not heed this threat. They attacked, and successfully so. Even if no one outside the V’kit’no’sat learns of this, the precedent it implies is disturbing. I was not aware that we have weakened, so can anyone speculate as to the cause of this audacity?”

“It may well be ignorance if they are expanding from a rimward powerbase,” the Oso’lon said with a nod of respect. “But our reaction to it must be one that others also in ignorance can learn from. Our borders have not been tested in quite some time, and perhaps the short lived races that surround us need another lesson as to our power. If this Li’vorkrachnika empire is as large as estimated, then they shall make for a sizeable example. 7 slots will be permitted, one to the Lir’nen and one to the Zen’zat to fill as they wish…though the Lir’nen will receive at minimum twice the number of systems to conquer as any other race.”

“How fast can they spread?” the Sess’nat asked the witness.

“Remarkably so.”

“Is there a danger of them relocating before we can exterminate them all?”

“I believe so. As one world falls, another will be established. This is their mindset. They are both fighters and builders, with one often the counterbalance to the other.”

“Then this could be a very long endeavor,” the Hjar’at warned. “Only those fully committed to it should be selected.”

“What will be done with the purged worlds?” the Brat’mar asked. “No territorial expansion has been sanctioned, and if these vermin spread quickly it is possible that they could return to previous worlds if some measure is not in place to prevent them from doing so.”

“Do you honestly believe they will try to colonize behind our lines?” the Lir’nen asked with disgust.

“They colonized a world you had a presence on,” he reminded him. “They clearly have no respect for dominion, and if they value their lives so little they could keep our forces spread out on constant patrols. Someone must take the worlds we are cleansing.”

“That is something for the regional capitol to discuss,” the Oso’lon deferred, “but we have many tenants that could fill that void for us. Do not concern yourselves with it.”

“A petition should be sent requesting some territorial additions be allowed, even if only a single world for each slot,” the Ari’tat suggested.

“Feel free to submit one then,” the Sess’nat countered.

“It will be turned down,” the Lir’nen scoffed. “As usual.”

“Is it not time to return to our former borders?” the tiny one pressed. “Why we have not done so already is a mystery to me.”

“To me as well,” the Oso’lon stated neutrally, “but there are always reasons we are not privy to. When it is to our advantage to do so, we will. You should have no doubt of that.”

“I doubt the extent to which our threat list denotes, for I do not see the cause for such restriction now that the Igren have been removed.”

“He makes a valid point,” the Hjar’at conceded. “Even if it is fueled by greed.”

“Our domain lies within this sector alone,” the Oso’lon reminded them. “We may operate outside it, but we cannot colonize beyond our borders. Until protocol changes that is the parameter we have to function within. If we need denizens to fill the purged worlds they will have to be procured from outside the V’kit’no’sat. Not from within.”

“Will these Skarrons fill the void?”

“Too unreliable,” the Sess’nat decreed with finality. “We require those that we have experience with, and to that point, we should procure them early to assist with scouting if adequate maps cannot be confiscated from the worlds we know to exist…and even then if the Li’vorkrachnika can spread to new worlds with such mentioned ease.”

“Those we can procure locally,” the I’rar’et said, “but volume wise for colonization will require civilizations larger than within our boundaries, and they will not move quickly. Recruiting locals for the first wave would be preferred, then let Nooron set up the rest.”

“I will make that recommendation to them,” the Oso’lon said, referencing the regional capitol. “But we should secure candidates in expectation of their approval.”

“We will see to that,” the Brat’mar volunteered.

“Where will the additional Zen’zat be procured from,” the Voro’nam asked.

The Oso’lon looked to the tiny biped in the control station.

“Give the attack details time to spread and I can promise you an unlimited number of volunteers from across the empire. We will not be lacking in numbers.”

“And you wish more combat,” the Hjar’at added.

“We always wish more combat,” Garras said, making no apology for it.

“And you shall have it with our blessing, but what of ships? There are not many Zen’zat-designated vessels.”

“Races not slotted will offer them. After all, an attack against any V’kit’no’sat is an attack against us all.”

“So it is,” the Oso’lon agreed. “The Zen’zat slot will be filled by volunteers, but their leadership will not be in question.”

“So long as one with sufficient skill is acquired,” the I’rar’et amended.

“Rajamal will come unless ordered otherwise,” Garras promised. “And there will be no shortage of peer volunteers should he not. I take this personally, as will they once they learn of it.”

“What is the speed of their ships?” the Oso’lon asked the witness.

“Slow. They utilize jumpships to carry their traditional vessels, but the one with the message left before a jumpship arrived. This was seen as an act of desperation, so it is probable that the Li’vorkrachnika will not know what has transpired on Ennsop for some time.”

“Aerial power?” the I’rar’et asked.

“They did not build any, but within their technological acumen was the designs for small, agile, poorly defended craft that they could build in great numbers. They do not seek individual combat, but work in large groups to wear down superior opponents through attrition.”

“How large?”

“As many as they can produce. Memories retrieved from two indicated that they could blot out the sun from the sky.”

“Their primary mode of attack?”

“They have none. They adapt to their opponents, and even have special biological variants for specific tasks. Their expeditionary forces don’t use more than the basic template until their colonies grow large enough to require them or until a special situation arises. The Li’vorkrachnika operate off genetic memory as much as they do technological organization, which is why there are massive intelligence gaps that we have to overcome.”

“You killed them too quickly,” the Hjar’at accused the Lir’nen.

“No. Those that we temporarily spared did not have much information that was relevant.”

“You do not know if it is relevant until you search through it,” the Ari’tat reprimanded.

“When I speak of genetic knowledge I do not refer to a normal amount. The Li’vorkrachnika are birthed with full capability. There is no learning apparatus. Everything needed to function comes from it, then additional knowledge is added as their varying stations require. As we are destroying them we can detail it if you wish, but pertinent information was scanned for and little was to be found. They compartmentalize to avoid detection.”

“Is that speculation or also a genetic memory?” the Hjar’at asked.

“Speculation, but the structure they have established lends to nothing else. Their personnel and equipment are expendable, and their information and communication systems are deliberately limited, I believe, to accommodate this methodology.”

“Then a world of sufficient size should be targeted first in order to obtain more data,” the Ari’tat suggested. “If the Lir’nen don’t believe themselves up to the task, we volunteer.”

“You have not been assigned a slot in the eradication force,” the Lir’nen countered.

“Who shall we send then?” he asked all those assembled, most of whom had not deigned to speak. Not all races within the V’kit’no’sat held worlds within this sector, but many did.

“Am I to assume the I’rar’et wish to be included?” the Hjar’at guessed.

“I doubt we will find a worthy opponent, but there is some challenge when facing significant numbers of primitives. Yes, we will take one of the slots, for practice sake.”

“The Brat’mar?”

“There is no need for us to go, unless others fail.”

The Hjar’at scanned the representatives present with his mind, getting a feeling for those that wanted to fight. All would if needed, for there were no holdouts, but it seemed that the lesser races were more eager here and with the I’rar’et already being involved then there was no need for another major faction…and that was the sense he got from the others.

“I recommend the Ari’tat and Sli’nar.”

“And the Voro’nam,” the Oso’lon added in agreement.

“Also the Nic’bar,” the Brat’mar chimed in, naming the final member of the eradication force.

“Is there any argument against those chosen?” the Oso’lon asked, but there was none. Others wanted to be included, but they couldn’t make a case as to why they should take precedence.

“Then we are concluded. The Li’vorkrachnika will be destroyed, but make no mistake that there can be no errors made. They may be primitive, but they have already succeeded in bleeding us. They will die for that, but do not allow another loss to occur no matter what we find waiting for us. There is rightful shame on the part of the Lir’nen, but not more than this having occurred in their territory. They were not at fault, as was stated earlier, for the threat of reprisal has been our defense on many lightly defended worlds. This has been the spoil of past victories, and now must be earned again through the example you are about to enact. Anything less than flawless victories is unacceptable and will incur a loss of territory in this sector.”

“Time is also a concern,” the Brat’mar added. “If we cannot quickly defeat this opponent, we will also appear weak. A stalled campaign is a loss for us.”

“You will have a limited amount of time,” the Hjar’at continued. “Fail to accomplish the benchmarks to be set down and we will get involved. Do not make us do so. I fear this enemy may lure you into a false sense of security. Do not underestimate them, nor the effect that any resistance they pose to us will have on those watching. This must not be a war. It must be methodical deletion. If you cannot do that without assistance there will be additional repercussions from beyond this sector.”

“Contact Rajamal,” the Oso’lon ordered, “and make the request.”

4

March 30, 3598

Tham’ron System (V’kit’no’sat Sector Capitol)

Weech

A Sico’don-class interstellar transport landed its 1400 meter long mass on the side of one of the many planetary defense stations on Weech, setting down on the third tier of the pyramid and opening a portal on the side whose material flowed down beneath and reformed into geometric stairs. A single, tiny individual dropped down those stairs gracefully, with Garras standing well away near the vertical wall that held the gate through the thick green/black armor covering the facility. The Zen’zat held position as the Sico’don lifted off again and Rajamal walked towards him.

“Thank you for agreeing to take on this mission,” the local host said when the legend came within a few meters, heading not for his fellow Zen’zat but for the entry gate, intent on getting to work rather than deigning to social protocols that some of the V’kit’no’sat races dawdled in and Zen’zat abhorred. Garras fell into step slightly ahead of him so to lead the way, but maintained a respectful shoulder to shoulder stance so they could see one another with their eyes and not have to rely on their Pefbar. “Your presence is most welcome.”

“I assume some level of bickering is occurring?”

“As usual, but the communal ire is high enough to have negated it somewhat. There are many worlds to be destroyed and the I’rar’et’s participation has quelled most demands, though the Lir’nen are still claiming priority and have been granted double the assaults of any other race.”

“But they were not granted choice of targets?”

“No. That is being left to the Zen’zat, and to you.”

“Has there been any new data recovered?”

“One of our ships managed to capture and interrogate the crew of a Li’vorkrachnika jumpship. Oddly, they killed themselves rather than submit to imprisonment.”

“They were revived?”

“As needed. From them and the ship’s computer we have determined a larger portion of their local geography, but all indications still point to them having a very large expanse of territory that is continuously in flux. Both with expeditionary acquisitions and losses to the Skarrons.”

“Tell me of these Skarrons,” Rajamal said as they hit an interior ramp and headed downward.

“Moderate size, quadruped, four arms, no head, sturdy and aggressive. They’ve incorporated two smaller races into their empire as servants, one for technical duties and the other for light infantry. They make use of large mechanical walkers, some that can surpass the mass of starships. The Li’vorkrachnika were winning a slow war against them until they decided to counterstrike en mass. Now they are obliterating them in every system they come across.”

“Sheer numbers or a change in strategy?”

“I’m told the losses are egregious, but the end result is what they want.”

“Their ultimate goal?”

“Eradication.”

“Then we will not have to destroy all their systems.”

“We still don’t know how many for certain there are, nor where their primaries lie. Information control seems to be in effect within the Li’vorkrachnika ranks. Even their base computer programming is deliberately sparse.”

“How do they function then on such a wide scale? Factions? Bloodlines?”

“There does appear to be a ruling bloodline that stays anonymously behind a wall of safety, but for operational duties they supplement technology with an extensive amount of genetic memory. It also allows them to reproduce full adults within a matter of weeks.”

“Combat capable?”

“Yes, though their fighting abilities are minimal.”

“I do not expect the galaxy to ever be on our level,” Rajamal lightly corrected him. “But if they have grown their empire to such a large size then they must be more than competent.”

“Their methods appear inadequate, but as you say, their results speak for themselves.”

“What of the second Zen’zat?”

“His fate is in his own hands now. He must train his way out of the damage and has been removed from the ranks until such a time that he succeeds in doing so.”

Rajamal stopped walking down the ramp, causing a passing Voro’nam to almost trip on him, but the bigger V’kit’no’sat jumped to the side at the last moment to avoid hurting the little Zen’zat, though Rajamal didn’t even bother to look at him.

“That can be a fate worse than death. How did his injuries occur?”

“He was in the impact zone when their ship was deliberately crashed into the infantry battle.”

“Underneath or beside it?”

“Beside, but close enough to be hit by the blast and debris.”

“Did it penetrate his helmet?”

“No, but he bled out and wasn’t recovered until staggering amounts of mental decay occurred. He was fortunate to have survived at all.”

“I doubt he feels so now. Can he speak?”

“Not much, but he understands his current situation and what must be done.”

Rajamal closed his eyes for a moment before walking on, wishing his fellow Zen’zat as much luck as the galaxy could bestow upon him…but if he could recover then the grinding ordeal he must now pass through would be worth it when he returned to the Zen’zat ranks. If he did not, then events would take their course. The Zen’zat would not let one of their own suffer without cause.

“Are these Li’vorkrachnika aware of their impending doom?”

“We suspect not, though a messenger was sent. It was intercepted mid jump and destroyed.”

“But not captured?”

“It was traveling too slow to match. It was not one of their jumpships.”

“Then we need to make them aware of why they are about to die, and through them others will learn as well and take heed not to encroach on our worlds again.”

“The council does not wish to advertise the death of a Zen’zat for fear of it emboldening others.”

“No. We will not hide from this. They struck a blow at us and succeeded. Let the galaxy know, and let them see what that small victory will cost the Li’vorkrachnika. I need pertinent data packaged for release within the day.”

“I will have to clear that with the council.”

“I am in command now, and until this campaign is complete you work for me. As do all the Zen’zat and races contributing troops. Get the information assembled personally, then I will amend what is needed. Do not leave anything out.”

“There may be some backlash from that, but I will do as you request.”

“See to it now. I know my way.”

“As you wish,” Garras said, reversing direction on the long ramp and heading up it at a run to get to the Zen’zat level near the top of the pyramid while Rajamal continued down to the lower levels. He eventually branched off on number 16 and crossed to the long bar of a chamber that ran the entire width of the defense station at ground level with openings on either end to admit the I’rar’et and allow them to fly through the narrow confines at speed.

He accessed the Wind Hall via smaller support infrastructure that lined both sides of it for their Zen’zat to use and climbed up to one of the top perches where half a dozen of the flyers were working in simulation nooks with a variety of holograms thrown up around them. One of them walked over to him on its short, stubby hind legs with its wings tucked in along its sides, which still left it taller than him.

“I am Rajamal,” he stated simply as a few other Zen’zat assistants were visible moving in and out of tiny doorways in the walls. “Where is Ha’chet?”

“You are smaller than I expected,” another I’rar’et said, turning away from a short perch and walking over next to the other of its kin and looking down on the Zen’zat, “for one with your reputation.”

“Speed has its advantages. You are the I’rar’et commander?”

“For the duration of this campaign, yes. I estimate 19 days before our forces will be assembled, though I have not been able to determine an estimate on supplies. They are being procured outside of military channels.”

“19 is sufficient. What I want to know is why you’ve volunteered.”

“I was assigned.”

“The I’rar’et,” Rajamal clarified.

“I have been studying our foe, and this is not so small a mission as others might have suggested. There will be a challenge here.”

“How do you figure?”

“Speed of conquest.”

“Ah,” the Zen’zat said, understanding their angle now.

“While the others may be effective enough, we anticipate they will be inefficient. Assuming they cannot take worlds quickly enough, we will provide you with alternatives to alleviate that problem.”

“Making the Lir’nen earn their priority slot?”

“Failure should not be rewarded.”

“No, it shouldn’t. But they should be allowed an opportunity to right themselves. If they do not, then I will not hold back the campaign while they take their time.”

“We thought not.”

“And?”

“The speed of the Li’vorkrachnika’s growth is concerning. If we do not move quickly enough they could replace every world we take and put this eradication in perpetual limbo without us suffering a single loss. I do not think the others understand this, and we are here to make sure the job gets done properly.”

“What do you have for me?”

“Six full Klaedons and a partial seventh made up of naval assets only.”

“You’re expecting significant ground combat?”

“We will seek it out if it doesn’t present itself. How we destroy a world is irrelevant so long as it occurs in a timely manner.”

“Orbital bombardment is usually the quickest way.”

“The Li’vorkrachnika need to be eliminated, but we wish to offer our younger troops combat that does not involve the Hadarak.”

“So this is a training mission for you?”

“In part. The Klaedons are young save for the 7th. It is made up of veteran crews.”

“And what of occupational forces?”

“We were told they would be arranged from races outside the V’kit’no’sat, but no timetable has been established.”

“We will need temporaries, for I am not going to wait until arrangements can be made.”

“Survey teams are going to be dispatched independently to study their remains. Those will have escorts sufficient to hold the first few worlds taken. If the Brat’mar have not made accommodations by that time, then you will have to deal with them.”

“Violently?”

“That would be preferred, but how you deal with them is your prerogative. We will do our part in this campaign, and accept your leadership of it, but there are private motivations in play.”

“Acceptable so long as they do not hamper my purpose here.”

“They will not. May I ask a question of another matter?”

“Yes.”

“How did it feel?”

“To what do you refer?”

“The Rit’ko’sor. How did it feel killing so many on their homeworld?”

Rajamal stiffened, and his dislike for the question was plain on his face for both I’rar’et standing before him to see.

“It was an abomination…but one that was necessary. They forced it upon us, but I was not proud to do it. They were meant to be one of us, and killing your brothers is abhorrent no matter what the situation.”

“When they rebelled they were no longer V’kit’no’sat.”

“Yes they were,” he said, and the reactions of all the I’rar’et in the chamber and those secretly watching elsewhere was one of treason. “Do not let yourselves be deluded otherwise. They chose to rebel, but that did not end our blood ties. We were forced to do something that should never have occurred, and I will not let you or anyone else rewrite the history concerning that. Our own struck at us, and in response we destroyed them en mass. A reconciliation should have been attempted, but it was not my decision to make. I carried out the task given to me, but I will tell you unabashedly that the decision to fight a total war against the Rit’ko’sor was due to the fact that they successfully destroyed so much of the empire in their first wave of attacks. It was shame that spurred the call for their annihilation, not wisdom. They wronged us, but then we also wronged them. I am not proud of that.”

“Yet it is what has gained you great renown.”

“I am a warrior. When told to fight, I fight. But I hold nothing beside contempt for those that forced me to fight those I had sworn to die protecting previously. It is a stain on the empire still.”

“And do you seek less than total warfare with our current foe?”

“They are not blood. They are not V’kit’no’sat. And they have decided their own fate. Do not equate them to the Rit’ko’sor.”

“You served them previously?”

“I did.”

“And that was why you were so effective in killing them?”

“So some say.”

“And what do you say?”

“I am skilled, and that skill has afforded me command of this campaign. There will be no further questions concerning the Rit’ko’sor or anything other than the matter at hand until our work is completed. Understood?”

“Your commitment to duty is noted, Zen’zat. We stand ready for our invasion corridor when you are capable of providing it.”

“Show me the most current map we have.”

A few mental commands to the equipment brought up a huge starmap that spanned half the room/nook and was easily visible from the Wind Hall. Rajamal walked into it as he studied the various points with information tags attached, then pointed at one in particular.

“This is the largest identified?”

“Thus far, yes.”

“Then your first task is to take it…intact. I want data retrieval as the highest priority. You may launched immediately.”

Ha’chet twitched his long neck, shaking his angled beak in a noticeable gesture of surprise.

“The Lir’nen were given priority. Should they not make the first strike?”

“I need information. This is reconnaissance. I trust you will not destroy that which I require in the process?”

“What you require is a bigger map to plan from before you divvy up corridors?”

“If you want to think of it that way, yes.”

“And how do you think of it?”

“I am in command and the divvying up of targets appropriately is my concern, not yours. See to your own assignments and I will give priority in the form I design.”

“While handling the backlash if others’ expectations are not met?”

“The only backlashes will be my own if anyone under my command does not acquit their duty. I am not answerable to your Sector Council, nor do I care about your trivial internal contests. My task is to eradicate the Li’vorkrachnika and anyone who hinders that will have to deal with me personally no matter what their station is.”

“I have heard that you’ve achieved Jumat. Is that correct?”

Rajamal raised a hand that subsequently blurred with invisible energy coursing around it.

“It befits your station, Zen’zat. So long as you hold no bias and acquit your duties, you will receive no interference from us.”

“Then take your young troops and get them some experience in capture. There will be plenty of time for slaughter later. I need information, because in its ignorance the Sector Council has decreed the destruction of a civilization that we know very little about, and that means we do not have force expectations or a timetable to work off of. I need that problem eliminated and you are the most reliable of the six to see to it happening without my direct oversight.”

“Why not assign your Zen’zat?”

“They will not be assembled so quickly. Some are coming from the other side of the galaxy and it will take time for them and their supply lines to form. Part of which is supposed to be originating from you.”

“I personally have no control over that. You will have to deal with the Council if they do not deliver.”

“I need to know how many supplies to demand, and in order to do that I need to know how many planets we have to take and how well defended they are.”

“Logical. Though in the process you also snub the Lir’nen. Is that intentional?”

“They are not your equal and are attempting to use this situation to supersede you. If they wish to do so they will have an opportunity to accomplish it in the field. They will not accomplish it through negotiations.”

“Will we be deployed to the same systems?”

“Unlikely. But people will be keeping score and I will be supplying the numbers for that so there is no matter of opinion required.”

“You seek to control their greed by streamlining it into a proper contest.”

“An unofficial one, but those who meet my mission requirements properly and quickly will be so noted.”

“And your Zen’zat?”

“They will school you in how warfare is meant to be conducted.”

The I’rar’et in the nook all hissed in a way that was a laugh for them, but Rajamal had not been joking.

“At the moment the Li’vorkrachnika have no heavy assets. So where do you believe your advantage will come from?” he asked Ha’chet.

The I’rar’et’s head tilted to the side quizzically, but also in a nod of respect.

“You have a point there, Zen’zat. If speed of conquest is the measuring stick for this campaign, then our obvious strengths may not be required. I think we shall find the coming years most interesting. Are there any other notable Zen’zat joining you?”

“Most who do not currently have other assignments.”

“Most? Such as who?”

“Daemon, Proarch, and Teor have already contacted me, and I assume other responses will arrive shortly,” he said, referencing Zen’zat that were equal to or higher ranked than him.

“But you are the one who has been given command.”

“They are not here to supplant me. They are here to fight.”

“Why?”

“Because we take the death of any Zen’zat seriously. And these vermin are not small in number.”

“Is that not a waste of your collective skills?”

“Do you believe you are the only ones who desire combat for training purposes?” Rajamal said with a mild tone of disappointment. “The Zen’zat are coming and filling the slot we have been given, and if you wish to outperform us in the invasion you will be given fair opportunity to do so…and I am giving you the first strike. So make it happen without further discussion.”

“You are the eradication commander, Rajamal. We will carry out your assignment with all due haste.”

“Feel free to impress me,” he said, turning around and heading for the Zen’zat passages that would take him back to the main access ways, and then from there to the military commanders for those of the other 5 races involved that had already arrived here. Rajamal was not going to waste time while troops assembled. He had tasks that needed done now, and anyone that thought this was going to be a lazily executed campaign was going to learn otherwise today.

And he was going to keep score, both as a means of suppressing the latitude the races under his command might try to exercise on their own volition, and because it was not often that Zen’zat were equitted a campaign slot of their own. They were mad about the fate of the two Zen’zat and wanted vengeance, but they also wanted the opportunity to expose some of the inadequacies within the empire and the best way to do that was to shame the ‘superior’ races by outperforming them.

And that’s why he was going to make sure the ‘score’ was precisely measured and made public across the galaxy. There would be no hiding here, and anyone who did not perform up to their reputation was going to be outed.

And with many of the elite Zen’zat within the galaxy coming here, they were going to set an extremely hard benchmark to match.

5

June 4, 3598

Ittick System (Li’vorkrachnika territory)

Stellar Orbit

The I’rar’et First Column of Klaedon 187 came out of its jump into orbit around a giant white star in a closely packed formation, pinpoint dropping where they wanted with only a few kilometers between the small Ti’mat escorts that surrounded four Na’shor battleships. All the V’kit’no’sat races utilized the same military structure, but customized each of their vessel designs as they wished. The I’rar’et shaped theirs in long ‘T’s to give them some internal stretches where they could fly and not be forced to walk everywhere inside their ships, which to the avians was borderline tormentation.

The Ti’mat were the smallest vessels that the I’rar’et used for warships, though there were more diminutive vessels suited to the Zen’zat and Ari’tat. The I’rar’et did not believe in constructing anything that they themselves could not crew, thus nothing smaller than the 4 mile long/wide Ti’mat was constructed. In contrast, the Na’shor battleships were considerably larger at 26 miles long/wide and carried their version of starfighters that were only used in special circumstances…for they were basically an oversized armored suit that the I’rar’et would wear so they could fly through space.

To them it was uncomfortable, given the lack of aerodynamics to utilize that created a lingering inability to maneuver as sharply as they liked, but being confined inside a warship was far worse and the K’lak’tal combat suits were their choice of preference when hunting inferior ships. That was why all four Na’shor released waves of K’lak’tal as soon as they saw a guardian fleet of Li’vorkrachnika ships stationed in orbit around the star and headed for them.

It wasn’t a large number, barely 1200 strong, but there were far more registering in position over the main planet and scattered groups of others spread out across the four worlds showing enemy inhabitation. Being patient, the I’rar’et held their fleet in formation as the 44 vessels waited and secured the jumppoint while the K’lak’tal rushed off to make the first official kills in this campaign.

With their high powered gravity drives, low mass, and a special auxiliary magnetic drive that allowed them a touch more acrobatics in the presence of a planetary or stellar magnetic field, the winged combat suits flew in a series of elongated lines towards the approaching ships, then fanned out into individual braking runs to match the system defenders’ speed. They too slowed down, but it was the K’lak’tal that had the choice of engagement points for they were by far the most superior when it came to navigation. They came out of their decel jumps right on top of individual ships and began peppering them with green Dre’mo’don strikes that hammered their shields hard, but did not penetrate.

The Li’vorkrachnika returned fire, but the specialized deflecting shields configured specifically to counter the enemy technology bounced off most of the energy weapons hitting them as they stuck close to their target ships and continued firing their Dre’mo’dons until they finally popped the shields and hit the hull…at which point the K’lak’tal landed on the ships and began firing away at pointblank range.

They doubled and tripled up against most ships to expedite the process, with them fleeing whenever too many other vessels began to fire on them and their targets, causing almost as much damage as they were as the I’rar’et hopped from one target to another and got the Li’vorkrachnika to keep shooting each other in a vain attempt to knock them down. Given how small the K’lak’tal were it was possible for them to succeed, but the they had maneuverability options that allowed them to run off out of firing range when their shields dropped too low.

It was risky for them to engage this many Li’vorkrachnika vessels on their own, but it was also a testament to their skill and audacity. Should even one be destroyed they would bear great shame in it, but if they did not their dominance would be even further secured with this display of superiority. I’rar’et had a reputation for being shrewd risk takers, and no one other than Zen’zat piloted single occupant warships within the V’kit’no’sat. That was something they took great pride in, and it was fitting that they were tearing apart the enemy in their first engagement without even having to involve a single Ti’mat.

After the stellar patrol was annihilated, the K’lak’tal returned to their roosts in the Na’shor while the fleet continued to wait and hold the jumppoint as Li’vorkrachnika vessels began to assemble en mass around the primary planet, either as a staging point to redirect to the star or to wait for the attackers to come to them.

Before that could happen additional ships began to arrive carrying the ground assault troops that would be needed to take this world and search its contents in order to learn about this race that was slated for eradication. When those massive Dol’vaw cargo/habitat/industrial ships arrived with a final count of 18 they formed up behind a wedge of protective warships and the I’rar’et fleet jumped to the main planet…right in front of the assembling ships.

The K’lak’tal did not emerge from the Na’shor, but Var’ko beams did. Six from each, with the needle-like red streaks punching through shields on contact and boring very tiny holes all the way through the Li’vorkrachnika ships. Conscious of what was behind them when firing, the I’rar’et gunners continued to pour energy through those persistent lances as they adjusted their firing line ever so slightly…

It looked like a giant string had been moved, and what little damage a pinprick of hole all the way through did was turned into a killing blow as the Li’vorkrachnika ships were literally cut in half. There were no massive explosions accompanying it. A bit of depressurization here and there, perhaps an overload in an adjacent compartment that would puff outward, but for all the ‘bang’ one would expect from such a ship-killing blow the V’kit’no’sat weapon was not very flamboyant. It simply bisected a ship…then cut back across it several times to increase the number of pieces that were then left floating, often with some weaponry intact, but any shots from the dying fragments were ignored as the Na’shor moved on to other targets.

The Ti’mat however did strike at those remaining pieces, knocking out any that remained an active threat and allowing the others to wither away on their own merits. The smaller vessels did not carry Var’ko, but rather relied heavily on short range Uit carlo streamers. An invisible conduit was extended from the ships, out through which a cloying carlo energy matrix was shunted directly into the ship fragments. When that happened the fireworks erupted, literally, as the matter of the targets was vaporized into quickly expanding nebulas that dirtied up the battlefield in subsequent flowers of debris, but not so much that the I’rar’et sensors couldn’t see through the mess…and it did nothing to dull the accuracy or power of the Var’ko as they reached out and sliced up ship after ship while the Na’shor shields casually lapped up the pathetic energy weapons the Li’vorkrachnika employed. Though to their credit, at least they’d made it past plasma cannons that many in the galaxy still relied on.

Oddly the Li’vorkrachnika didn’t run, which frustrated the K’lak’tal pilots that wanted to engage again. Instead the defenders held their ground and made it easy for the I’rar’et to destroy them. Suicide attempts at ramming a Ti’mat were easily blocked by cushioning shields, catching the incoming ships and holding them in place briefly as they were met with a Uit that ate through their shields in less than a second, then reduced the attacker into the tiny fragments they had intended on becoming…only without taking the recently identified V’kit’no’sat ship along with them.

The battle was fierce, but completely one sided. It ended with the remaining Li’vorkrachnika ships fighting to their quick deaths then the I’rar’et fleet moving into bombardment range of the planet’s surface. The Ti’mat held silent as escorts while the four Na’shor moved within the edge of their firing range, finding that the planetary defense systems could not target them at that distance. Rather than venturing in closer to find out that range, they opened fire with the pinprick beams that created huge distortion cascades on the thick atmospheric defense shields as they absorbed the massive amounts of energy that the constant beams poured forth.

Or almost constant. They couldn’t keep them firing continuously and after their maximum 37 second duration they had to suffer through a 19 second recharge, but with 6 per ship and four ships in total they maintained constant fire on one particular section of shields that were breached within 3 minutes.

It wasn’t a total collapse, but rather a spot overload that allowed the beam through momentarily until surrounding energy refilled the gap, but the bit that did get through hit a shield generator and was able to tear an 18 meter gash through it laterally before the moving beam was caught again.

That generator went down, weakening the umbrella overhead as more gaps were opened up and the other nearby generators were disabled. Soon what remained from more distant generators was so weak that the entire regional shield failed, at which point the Dol’vaw began dispersing landing craft that followed the second release of the K’lak’tal who dove towards the open sections of surface at such a rate that they were hard to target by the planetary defense guns that were quickly going extinct directly below them. The orbital bombardment didn’t cease as they descended, with the warships cleaning up the perimeter of the landing zone to reduce the amount of incoming weaponsfire against the landing craft.

When the bombardment eventually fell silent the rest of the Li’vorkrachnika guns had not, for those sitting beneath intact adjacent shields were tipping over and firing almost laterally as much as they were able, but the few shots that hit the descending transports were absorbed. The shorter range defenses below that were far more numerous were drawn out by the K’lak’tal who began swooping down to building level and flying through the Li’vorkrachnika buildings and targeting them at close range, aggressively plucking the defenses enough to allow the first transports to land uncontested.

Out of those came more I’rar’et in much less bulky armor, but they were also protected by energy shields and carried smaller weapons more befitting their agile accoutrements. They surfed the air with glee, targeting Li’vorkrachnika ground troops, civilians, and pretty much anything that moved or shot at them as they secured an expanding circle around the LZ as armies of Zen’zat ran out onto the ground and began to sweep the streets and nearby buildings.

They secured the area then sent teams off to specific coordinates on the planet based on orbital scans. Some were to take down the other shield generators and planetary defense guns, but others were headed for what were suspected to be communications and data hubs. They didn’t want the Li’vorkrachnika deleting data before they could get to it, for this invasion was first and foremost about information gathering. The extermination of the system’s population would come easy enough after the fact, but the challenge here and now was to secure that which could be destroyed before they got to it.

Included in that last caveat was the different types of Li’vorkrachnika that they had learned about in their previous encounters. Stealth teams of Zen’zat were flown out on equally stealthed I’rar’et to be dropped in locations where different mental signatures were detected, then they would track them down with all haste so they could be captured and interrogated for both their experiential knowledge and their genetic memories.

But throughout this invasion they could not find the strategic leader model that they suspected of being here, given the size and importance of the world. Some had seen him previously, but he moved like a ghost among them and would never be found on the planet, dead or alive, nor on any of the others in the system. Either he wasn’t here at the time of the invasion or he was hiding out ahead of the extermination teams that gradually moved through city after city, deliberately leaving the structures intact as they eliminated their occupants. Normally all of it would have been obliterated from orbit, but if this was to be a proper intelligence retrieval operation then the entire planet should be preserved for continuous study…so that they didn’t have to go to such delicate measures anywhere else.

To that end, some of the Li’vorkrachnika population was captured and contained, but it quickly became apparent that they would not hold to captivity and reviving those that killed themselves became such a chore that the I’rar’et instead decided to spare a small section of the planet that they placed a blockade around to insure that none got out, but did not attack or interfere in any obvious way to those inside save for killing them when they assaulted the perimeter.

But unlike the Li’vorkrachnika defense fleet, they did not all run to their quick deaths. They held onto the city and used it, rebuilding, expanding, and probing against the impossible opponent that surrounded them…sparing the I’rar’et from going to the frustrating lengths of preserving a limited number of individuals in closely monitored cells.

While it initially appeared as an unfinished assault to Rajamal when he later arrived, the Zen’zat quickly realized what an inspiration the tactic had been. He no longer had to rely on reports of the enemy to learn of them, which had been quite detailed and thorough, for now he could slip past the blockade along with other research teams and monitor their active minds, raiding whatever information they desired while other teams scoured the planet gathering and cataloging the technological assets the Li’vorkrachnika had and learning how they’d made use of them.

Such study did not happen quickly, so Rajamal focused on the pertinent areas to the upcoming assaults that he would be authorizing, tantamount among them being starmaps and fleet numbers, the latter of which was not present in any form. This world only possessed knowledge of this region and nothing beyond it, though there were enough general starmaps present to give him the basic sketch of their overall empire, though the exact borders were impossible to determine.

What he found mildly surprised him, for it was larger than anyone had speculated even taking into account the noted losses by the Skarron invasion. The Li’vorkrachnika had so many worlds to draw resources from that Rajamal could partially understand their arrogance. If the Skarrons were the greatest foe known to them, then they should have believed themselves to be superior enough to take on anyone, for he was fairly sure that the Li’vorkrachnika were going to defeat the larger empire due simply to the density of their conquests and the way they made use of their fleets.

Nothing was critical, everything could be sacrificed if the need existed and rebuilt later. On top of that, their aggressive expansion policy gave them new worlds to replace those being lost, meaning that the defeats they were taking were little more than inconveniences if they could stall for time. They could very well bleed the Skarrons dry and then outbuild them in the aftermath and secure an unsuspected victory, and Rajamal found he had a mote of respect for them and their methods. They were harsh and uncompromising, but they had mistakenly crossed a foe so superior to them they probably didn’t even comprehend what they were doing at the time.

Had they not succeeded in killing the Zen’zat they might have lived through the reprisal. It was strange that they should be punished for the failure of the V’kit’no’sat rather than rewarded. Something about that did not sit right with Rajamal, so long as he considered them to be so inferior that the V’kit’no’sat were spectators watching pets play…but if the Li’vorkrachnika were going to contend with them as equals, then there was no room for leniency.

They had attacked and scored a victory that should not have been possible, and whether or not they intended that, for a brief fleeting moment it put them on par with the V’kit’no’sat.

And it was that peerdom that had sealed their fate, for while a master could be dismissive of a pet, a rival could not be tolerated. If the Li’vorkrachnika had truly attacked them out of ignorance and scored their victory through sheer luck, well, then the universe had it in for them, because that would have been one of the largest miscarriages of merit he could imagine. He pitied them that possibility, but the board was set and this eradication was not going to be repealed.

They had struck a lethal blow, and now they must all die for that success.

If one was not able to contend with the V’kit’no’sat as equals, then they had best not try to poke the giant, for there was no gray area to maneuver within. You either stayed out of their way or fought them straight up…and if you started a fight, you had better be able to finish it.

It was clear now that the Li’vorkrachnika could not finish it. They could not even mount a defense, and if Rajamal did his job appropriately there would not be a single death of a Zen’zat nor any other V’kit’no’sat for the Li’vorkrachnika to lay claim to. Their one victory would be their sole one…and their last of all time, for soon they were going to be erased from the galaxy and relegated to the historical records that would largely be written based on the research done on this planet.

And so be it. They were not the first the V’kit’no’sat had been compelled to wipe out, nor would they be the last, but they were Rajamal’s to attend to and once he got a good feel for the geography of their empire and their military capabilities he would begin drawing up invasion corridors and handing each of the 7 factions their assignments…then dishing out more to those who proved themselves the most competent and efficient, regardless of the Sector Capitol’s wishes.

This was his campaign and he would lead it. That’s what they’d requested him for and that’s what they were going to get, whether they liked it or not.

6

January 24, 3599

Ittick System (Captured System)

Oppwu

“We have a much larger foe than expected, so I will expect more of you,” Rajamal said to the six military commanders gathered onboard his Zen’zat Na’shor in orbit of the captured Li’vorkrachnika world tasked for research and as an initial base of operations set well within enemy territory, but still on the outer edge of their overall empire. It had been suggested that they should base out of the Sector Capitol, but that made no logistical sense. It was too far away and any necessary supplies could be shipped from there to here easy enough. Making that call had been one of many decisions that he’d made that went against what the council wanted, and he hoped they’d eventually get it through their thick craniums that if he was in command, then he was in command.

“Those of you who show merit in your actions will be rewarded with more work,” he continued. “Those that do not will receive less. I know you want to make this a competition between yourselves, but your purpose here is to eliminate the Li’vorkrachnika. Do not forget that, nor your responsibility to your own troops. Lose any of them and you will be heavily penalized. I want clean assaults, and by clean I mean no casualties and no side projects. These worlds are not there for you to play with. You are to eradicate the infestation and nothing else. These worlds are beyond the sector boundaries, thus they will not become acquisitions. Attack, annihilate, and move on.”

“From what we have discovered, the Li’vorkrachnika grow their worlds along a predetermined escalation protocol. The manufacture of equipment and personnel alters with more advanced units produced on the higher level worlds, particularly a strategic specialist that is extremely rare. At the height of their hierarchy are a dynasty of leaders that rule over the others. They are live birthed, the rest are clones that serve them. The strategists are also clones, but they do not grow them to numbers that would be advantageous. Why this is we have not determined, but it is an untapped potential. Do not underestimate the cunning of the strategists or you may find yourself experiencing light losses.”

“Capture of a strategist is a secondary goal, but is not necessary for the success of the eradication. Their leaders are of no known tactical use, but their capture is also a secondary goal.”

“The Li’vorkrachnika typically use mass engagement tactics and as such have a basic ship design to match, but they also have larger specialized assault units. These should not be an issue for us with our range advantage, but do not try and close with the energy cascade field they utilize. Wait until adequate assets arrive to take it out safely. Also be prepared for multiple attempts at collision maneuvers. It is a common tactic they use when facing superior opponents and they will hurt you if you give them the opportunity.”

“As for ground ops, they will be necessary because the Li’vorkrachnika burrow underground as much as they build on top of it and we must make sure that every last one of them is destroyed. Orbital bombardment alone will destroy most, but we cannot leave any behind by accident or negligence. You will have to follow up assaults with subsurface infiltration teams. I suggest exclusive use of Zen’zat given the tighter confines, but how you proceed is up to you. Expect explosives and cave-ins. If they cannot defeat you, they will try to hurt you. In this they are genetically bred to be brave. You will find no cowardice in them.”

“The primary objective is their core worlds, of which we do not have all the locations. At present we know of six that have at least partial shipyards of massive proportion. The Li’vorkrachnika build full rings situated around a planet in which they create an impressive number of ships. What they lose in battle they expect to replace in short order, and eliminating even one of these shipyards will significantly hurt their production…but we are not targeting them initially.”

That drew odd looks from the commanders, but out of respect they remained silent and continued to listen.

“If the Li’vorkrachnika survive they win. Even if it should be one world or one ship fleeing beyond our reach, for they can regrow everything. There is not a single world that is critical to them, so we must take care to not destroy their strongholds only to push them into other areas. For this reason, we will begin boxing them in by assaulting their smallest worlds first. The ones where they are expanding in order to test borders and the strength of new enemies. To do that we will need scouts, and lots of them. At present some have been procured through allies, but we need more, lest I fear they will escape us. I am assigning the Ari’tat and Sli’nar to drop sensor buoys in all star systems for a width of 60 lightyears across the coreward border,” he said, highlighting the huge wall on the map that ran from upper galactic plane to the lower.

“If they move further in, I need to know where. Stealthed buoys only, for I do not want them to know they are being observed. I have already requisitioned them, so use what you currently have and more will replace them over the course of time. As for the location of the expansion colonies in this region, we have the system locations and procuring more in every region we take is of the highest priority. There will have to be more recon missions prior to planetary devastation, for we need these maps in order to get the most of them we can. I do not believe we can rely on scouts alone, so we must get the necessary information from the source.”

“Unfortunately the Li’vorkrachnika do not have tidy divisions, so I am sending you to specific areas that I have guestimated. The Lir’nen will go to the Bren System, retrieve the necessary data there, then destroy all between it and the sensor wall,” Rajamal said, outlining a roughly cubical area of space. “You will need to ascertain the location of the expansions in order to accomplish this, and I want to be informed the moment you. All intelligence gets shunted to me immediately, and that goes for all of you.”

“The Ari’tat will take Vocorik and push toward the Skarron border. We have no quarrel with them, and do not start one. They are not involved in this campaign, but they are helping to do the work of it nonetheless, so treat them with some respectful distance. They are keeping worlds, we are not. So if they want to pick up what you have cleansed allow them to, for they will be doing us a service in their ignorance.”

“The Nic’bar will take Hammseti and, based on the data collected there, will have a border defined by me somewhere here,” he said, mentally drawing a hazy zone across the map on the opposite side of the Li’vorkrachnika empire from the Skarrons.

“The Lir’nen will assault Volka,” he said, highlighting a system at the very top of the galaxy, “and push rimward towards Jartel, which is one of the noted core worlds. You will assault it after you have cleared to this line, but not before. How fast you get there will be determined by the density of worlds found and your skill. If you defy this order and skip ahead, you will not be assigned any further core worlds. I cannot be clearer in this. Jartel comes last.”

“May I ask why?” the Lir’nen asked.

“Hit them at the center and they will spread. Hit them on the flanks and they will concentrate. We want them together where it is more easy to kill them, not running for the farthest reaches of the galaxy in more ships than we can track. We will not show our full hand until they are closed in, and any violation of my orders will jeopardize this. Do so and you may very well forfeit your slot entirely.”

“That is not…”

“It is for me to decide,” the Zen’zat cut off the Ari’tat before he could make his full statement. “You will obey me or you will be sent home. If you are not capable or willing to do that, then pull out now to avoid the later shame, for I will not forgive any alteration from my plans. I am allowing for considerable leeway within your regions, but where I have firm boundaries you will abide by them. You may question the reasoning, but you may not question your compelled obedience.”

“I will take the Zen’zat to Arcor and push forward along the underside of the galaxy while the Voro’nam slip past the Lir’nen, laying sensor buoys behind them, and eventually attacking Kilox. Beyond that the map begins to diminish, but it is essential that the sensor wall be stretched beyond their borders and not cut through it. We cannot allow them to establish a foothold outside it.”

“Understood,” the Voro’nam said, seemingly content with their invasion corridor, “but that will require a huge amount of buoys. We will need more than one per system to insure all jumplines are monitored.”

“Three per system are required so as to cover all angles and provide redundancy if one should fail. I realize the amount that requires, but it is essential. The Li’vorkrachnika will fight us to the death rather than running…but they will do it to buy time for others to run and rebuild. Our task is not simple eradication when the enemy worlds keep shifting, and we have not fought an opponent like this for more than 400 millennia. Getting them all is our task, and it will take a great effort to do so. I am up for the challenge, but I will not have our efforts spoiled by head hunters. The mass of deaths will come when I say so, and not before we have them completely encircled.”

“Which is why the I’rar’et are going to be assaulting the worlds discovered here and conducting other information raids. Once we have a rimward boundary located they will reposition there and with the help of the Sli’nar establish a rear sensor wall, then being pushing in from either corner of the box once it is established. The Ari’tat will also stretch out around the Skarron front to deploy sensor buoys in their wake and around the periphery, linking with Sli’nar on the rim. The I’rar’et side will link to the Voro’nam, and the galactic voids will form the other sides of the box.”

“What if they bypass on the outliers?” the Voro’nam asked.

“That’s where I will be sending a great deal of our scouts. Those areas have not been properly mapped anyway, so there will be a handful of Tivet ships with them to ensure the records are accurately updated.”

“Why are the Tivet involved?” the Lir’nen asked. “They were not granted a slot.”

“Not a combat slot, no. But they will not be fighting unless the Li’vorkrachnika attempt to circumvent the sensor wall that they should not even know is in existence. I asked for their assistance and they agreed to supply it. I do not trust in the competence of hired scouts.”

“Understandable,” the Ari’tat agreed.

“You are delaying our involvement in combat,” the Sli’nar complained, tapping its long claws on the floor in frustration.

“You will be the last, yes.”

“Why?”

“Placement of the sensor wall is of the utmost priority and you have more ships to do it with than the others. But also remember, when the other sides of the box are intact and we are moving in, where do you think they will try and flee to?”

“Picking up scraps is hardly worth our time.”

“Yet you will do it if I order it, or you will be left behind.”

“We are not refusing, we are seeking the reasoning behind the choice.”

“Our data indicates that the Li’vorkrachnika originated rimward. If that is true, where do you think their most developed systems will be located?”

The long necked Therizinosaur huffed approvingly, then offered no further complaint.

“Entrapment is our first priority, and to do that we must make the path of least resistance be into their core. Initial assaults will be designed to do that, so you must hold to your assigned corridors and clear them thoroughly. Monitor systems not belonging to them, but do not take action in any without my prior approval. From what we can tell the Li’vorkrachnika do not share worlds, and if there is any evidence to the contrary I will decide what to do with it.”

“You don’t want us making auxiliary strikes?” the I’rar’et asked for the benefit of the others.

“No, I do not. We are operating beyond V’kit’no’sat borders, but if you think you have a free hand here to play you are mistaken. Stick to your duty and do not deviate from it. If another race needs hit, that is a decision for others to make or myself, should it involve this campaign. You will not attack others for additional ‘practice.’”

“Once we have the Li’vorkrachnika boxed in I will assign interior invasion corridors based off your battle records. As of now, the only one with a guaranteed primary world to hit is the Lir’nen, and they are guaranteed nothing beyond that. There are plenty of worlds that need conquering and I will make use of you all for that lest you give me a reason not to, but as for who will get the choice worlds and the bulk of the smaller ones will be decided later based on merit, and I alone will make those decisions.”

“You will judge your own Zen’zat equitably?” the Lir’nen asked.

“My loyalty is to the mission. I will not reward incompetence, no matter where it appears.”

“And if all perform equally?”

“Then there will be great shame on the I’rar’et,” he joked, referencing their superior status within the V’kit’no’sat.

“Rajamal was chosen for a reason,” Ha’chet said evenly. “He will not misuse any assets, so do not look for favoritism here.”

“Still,” the Ari’tat differed, “it is a concern.”

“We are not worried about Zen’zat preference.”

“Then neither will we,” the Voro’nam said with a note of finality. “There should be ample opportunity for combat even for those with the smallest assigned corridor.”

The Lir’nen agreed with a head flick. “When do we launch?”

“The sensor wall must come first, and if there is a delay in its implementation we will have to push back the timetable, but you have 120 days to assemble your forces and arrive at your initial targets. The Ari’tat and Sli’nar will begin dispersing sensor buoys immediately. The I’rar’et will wait until nearby segments are complete before they launch their first strikes. I estimate that will take longer than 120 days. We don’t want to prompt an evacuation before we have the ability to track it.”

“Acceptable.”

“You have your assignments. Rally your fleets and requisition any additional supplies as needed through my staff. Sector-wide production is at our disposal. If there are no other immediate concerns, make haste.”

There weren’t, and the six military commanders left the chamber to consult with their command staffs that would be remaining onboard Rajamal’s ship so to coordinate the overall campaign. The commanders themselves would be leaving, but having individuals that could represent them in person was highly preferred over weeks of signal lag, thus those left behind were of high station and personally trusted by their commanders.

When the room emptied, Rajamal telepathically summoned those waiting nearby and his Zen’zat peers entered with him altering the starmap to their assigned corridor.

“We have a large berth to cover,” Rajamal began as the 8 of them joined him in a loose circle around the map. “I trust I can give each of you a piece of it and not have any concerns?” he asked, addressing some that were of even higher station than himself.

“The I’rar’et will be difficult to surpass,” Daemon warned, looking at the mass of tiny star system dots that they were going to have to take possession of, “save for clearing subsurface areas. They will be of no use down there, but their own Zen’zat will be prepared. I think we will have an advantage, but I do not know if it will offset their other strengths. I cannot promise that we will outperform them, but we will get the job done.”

“That is all I require. If we simply match them, it will be to our credit.”

“Still difficult,” Yarro agreed, “but possible. You can be assured we will make progress with all available haste, and I suggest you do not assign yourself territory to take. You need to be free to troubleshoot.”

“And keep an eye on the Lir’nen,” Proarch added. “They have a score to settle that their skills may not match. Expect some form of duplicity from them.”

“I intend to preempt it if I can.”

“Are you assigning our own monitoring rovers?”

“Yes. I’m not rely on their own relays. There can be too many ‘accidental’ disruptions.”

“There may be an issue if the Li’vorkrachnika already have scouts beyond the sensor walls,” Daemon warned.

“Which is why I’m having the contracted scouts working outside the walls rather than in after this initial sweep. If they are savvy enough to send out splinter colonies immediately we will not be able to stop them unless they leave record of it. That is why data recovery is vital.”

“We’ll be thorough,” Proarch promised.

“I know. And I thank you for coming to assist despite your seniority.”

“It’s your campaign. I just want a piece of the action.”

“As do I,” Daemon added. “We have a score to settle with the Li’vorkrachnika and an example to set. I’m curious how we can match up against the I’rar’et, but we should be able to at least surpass the Ari’tat. Their combat capabilities are almost a hindrance rather than an asset.”

“On the ground I agree,” Rajamal echoed, “but their fleet is formidable and we have lesser numbers than any of them.”

“Are any more on the way?”

“Yes, and we may get continual reinforcements as more volunteers arrive, so I can only give you low end estimates of available assets.”

“We will make do, but the Hjar’at ships I brought outmatch anything the others have,” Daemon promised.

“I know,” Rajamal said with a smile. “Make sure to demonstrate that for the record keepers.”

“Watch our back,” Proarch told him, “and we’ll take care of the bulk of the work.”

“As I expected.”

“I was informed that Itaru will be watching closely,” Daemon said cautiously, referencing the V’kit’no’sat empire’s capitol deep in the galactic core. “There are issues involved that we are not privy to, and my sources believe it involves the I’rar’et.”

“Something to prove?”

“Perhaps, but whatever it is, it is intricate and kept from our knowledge deliberately.”

Rajamal looked at all of the Zen’zat legends around him slowly, judging from their expressions their mood given the mental blocks preventing him from assessing them directly.

“Whatever it may be, it is not our concern. We perform as best we can, and if it upsets someone’s plans then so be it. V’kit’no’sat are superior. We do not feign superiority, we earn it. If the factions with us cannot…”

“It is not our concern,” Daemon echoed, twisting the sentiment around.

7

July 1, 3600

Teqwa System (Li’vorkrachnika territory)

Scak

Rajamal stood on the command deck of his personal Na’shor monitoring operations on the planet below as had become typical. Zen’zat leaders did not get personally involved in the combat unless they were needed to achieve victory or they got so bored they needed the activity. His purpose here was to oversee and guide the killing rather than to partake in it himself, though it was becoming clear through subsequent intelligence reports that this foe was going to be battled not so much in combat as in strategy, leaving him with the primary responsibility.

More historical records had been recovered from the Li’vorkrachnika along with a host of operations data that led him to believe they were even more slippery than expected. Their leaders were in fact ghosts that did not interact with the vast majority of their civilization…both the hereditary leaders and the strategists, and this left the populace without knowledge of their actions or methods, but Rajamal’s people were beginning to ferret out clues in the captured databases and bits of genetic memory that were allowing him to put together a better picture of who and what these Li’vorkrachnika were.

And they were a weapon, pure and simple. There were no civilians, yet they weren’t a hive mind. They were individuals built to be fiercely loyal to the mission given to them, never accepting of surrender or capture, and instructed to do whatever damage they could to the enemy upon not being able to accomplish their primary mission.

And they were produced in vast numbers. Rajamal hadn’t grasped the full potential of their breeding factories because it wasn’t being employed on the worlds that he had surveillance on, but the reports coming in about their technology and what it was truly capable of massing impressed the Zen’zat.

Guile, deceit, and misdirection. Those were the cornerstones of the Li’vorkrachnika as much as straight up fights where one clawed to the death at any opponent within range. The weapons did the clawing, but it was the genetic memories and those that programmed them that did the planning. Still none of the strategists had been found on the 183 systems that the Zen’zat had taken thus far, nor in any of the other invasion corridors. For as primitive and inferior as the Li’vorkrachnika appeared to be, they were not so feeble that they couldn’t contend with the V’kit’no’sat in some respects.

He understood now why they’d been able to kill a Zen’zat. Their limited technology was a false omen. This race was far more than it appeared to be and the answers he needed lay with the strategists and their leaders…though he expected them to continue to elude his grasp. The only way he was going to get to them was by infiltration, and sending in teams deep to their territory was not advisable given how little they knew of them.

Rajamal would wait until they had gathered more data, then he would dispatch stealth teams to the densest Li’vorkrachnika worlds and hope that one of them could track down these key individuals prior to an invasion…but it would have to be well prior, for he did not think they stayed in one location and most likely moved ahead of any activity that might jeopardize them. To counter that he was going to have to hit worlds almost at random, but until he got his hands on a strategist or leader to interrogate he was going to have to battle them by proxy.

The key to their dominance was in their ability to regenerate, and they had done so numerous times over the course of their history when it appeared they were losing. Whether this was an adaptation after the fact or part of an elaborate ruse he could not be certain, but there had been occasions that losing had put them in a more favorable position after bleeding the enemy of ships and resources, only to rebuild faster than they could and end up achieving the final victory.

And when they hadn’t succeeded they had adapted. Their original homeworld and a great amount of territory had been lost to them out on the rim to an alliance of races opposed to them, which in fact was the assumed reason they had pushed coreward as far and hard as they could. Their current primary worlds were in fact new ones created after their originals had been captured or destroyed. The records weren’t clear on the specifics of that defeat, and even now the Skarrons were tearing apart significantly developed systems on their border and pushing into what would eventually be their primaries, of which many still had not been located.

Rajamal had a good picture of the coreward fringes and was wiping out their exploratory colonies with great success, but the middle gut of their territory was still a question mark to him with little more than dots and the jumplanes connecting them to work off of. That would change in time, but the information security of the Li’vorkrachnika surpassed most races in the galaxy. They kept their own people in the dark so efficiently that even the V’kit’no’sat and all their code breaking power couldn’t find secrets that weren’t in the captured systems to find.

How long would it be until he found a system that did have some answers? He didn’t know but he suspected it would not be soon, and while he didn’t doubt that this campaign could be concluded successfully, the more he learned of the Li’vorkrachnika the more he feared them doing something unexpected. Something that he wouldn’t see coming, or perhaps something he’d never see. If they evacuated their leaders early, expecting an overrunning of their territory, would he be able to detect them? Could they think so far ahead to be evacuating now?

Something about the Li’vorkrachnika didn’t feel right. They were behaving too intelligently while bumbling around the galaxy.

Whatever was going on, he was going to find out. He just hoped it wasn’t too late to achieve a clean sweep of their race.

Back on Oppwu, Zen’zat research teams were studying the emptied Li’vorkrachnika cities as well as sending stealth teams into the containment zone where the living survivors were ‘holding out’ against the V’kit’no’sat. There was still occasional combat on the border as they tried to break out or just do damage, bleeding off some of their population that they simply regrew within a few months, but otherwise there was no activity. They were kept inside and Zen’zat stealth teams were making daily penetrations unknown to the enemy.

They accomplished it via a combination of stealth armor that turned them into pure black shadows most effective at night, and with Ikrid deceptions. Hanniel was on one such mission with a group of six, each of them split up within a particular building and hiding on different levels while they monitored the minds of those inside, delving into their memories…specifically their genetic memories…and compiling a database of the tactics and tendencies that all the Li’vorkrachnika combat troops shared by default.

Such a task took time, so this wasn’t Hanniel’s first run into the confinement zone. She knew where to go and not go, staying away from the vision of most and the security cameras the city had, while using her Ikrid to hide from the others. Right now she was in a small storage chamber alone, peering through the wall into the mind of a Li’vorkrachnika on the other side whom she had frozen in place in order to prolong the analysis. She could do it without interfering, but these deep scans took time and she couldn’t waste the effort on one only to have him walk out on her.

Using special programs within her armor, Hanniel was taking detailed notes of each race that had been programmed into their memory and at the moment she was detailing the profile of one called the Hycre. There was no memories of ground combat with them, but they were known to have a formidable navy and good at running down isolated ships. This one’s memories told him that loose but close formations were the most effective in fighting them, allowing for massed firepower while giving the Hycre the chance to run through the middle of them as they favored. If properly aligned, they could deliver a killing blow during those few seconds and turn the tables on one of the Hycre’s favorite engagement tactics.

Hanniel didn’t care about the Hycre, but how the Li’vorkrachnika adapted to various combat strategies was relevant…even if in only a very small way, but that was what Hanniel was here for. Searching and cataloging anything and everything that might be of military value to this campaign or afterwards. And if there was something useful, better to find it now rather than after they were all exterminated. Otherwise they’d just become another database entry for individuals to rifle through later looking for examples from history to confirm or modify various tactics.

But today something happened that Hanniel didn’t expect. She came across a ground combat opponent in their genetic memory that had the highest danger profile that she’d encountered thus far. They were known as Archons and were bipedal, very strong, fast, and almost impossible to kill. They could even take control of the Li’vorkrachnika’s minds, so they had to keep their distance and…

Hanniel got a creeping sensation up her spine as she made the connection, then dug into those specific memories further. Telekinesis was also confirmed, as was an invisible energy discharge and a disabling mental state that didn’t take control of their bodies but made them twitch and lose control of them momentarily.

Lachka, Jumat, and Fornax.

Hanniel pushed for everything this one had, including visual confirmation of the Archons. They wore armor of various colors that indicated their strength levels and it was very hard for the Li’vorkrachnika to penetrate. Detonation packs were the best method of quickly taking them down, but they could usually sense them coming…

The Zen’zat skipped over that, looking for their natural form and eventually finding it buried deep with their genetic memory. Tan skin, hair, eyes, nose…they were Zen’zat. She would have guessed Ter’nat, but not with those powers.

But that made no sense. How could they have encountered Zen’zat before?

She dug into the location of this race and didn’t find much, but when she linked in remotely with their current database the approximate location of these Zen’zat aligned with a straight border that was well familiar to her and the others on the rimward side of Li’vorkrachnika territory. It was labeled ‘Star Force’ and was an alliance of numerous races that had kicked the Li’vorkrachnika out of their homeworld and a lot more territory…and if they had Zen’zat assistance that would only make sense.

But who had sent them there? This Star Force wasn’t listed in the current database as having any affiliation with the V’kit’no’sat, and prior to this reconnaissance mission it hadn’t even appeared on their maps. Was one of the factions aiding this Star Force in secret? Or was it a sanctioned activity whose knowledge was forbidden to those of her standing?

Whatever the case, she had to do more fact finding. They all did, so she raised the other Zen’zat in the building and across the city on their comms and they all started digging into what should have been identical memories. Then they painstakingly retrieved every bit of it related to Star Force and these Archons.

There wasn’t a lot there, but there was enough to connect the dots when combined with the Li’vorkrachnika database. As was true with much of it, the genetic memories functioned as the key to understanding the data stored, and with them the Zen’zat realized that Star Force was the Li’vorkrachnika’s bane. They’d done more damage to them than anyone else and nearly destroy them all…save they wouldn’t pass beyond the line that was now their coreward border and the Li’vorkrachnika’s rimward one.

That was where the I’rar’et and Sli’nar would be going eventually according to the basic invasion plans made available to all those involved. Did these Zen’zat assisting this Star Force belong to the I’rar’et and this was the reason why they were involved in such a primitive eradication campaign? And if so, why hadn’t she been informed? She served the I’rar’et faithfully, but not to the point of keeping secrets from the rest of the empire.

If this was something they’d arranged then they could explain it to Rajamal himself, and if it was meant to be kept a secret then Hanniel and the others in the research team, thinking in concert, agreed to keep it quiet until they’d finished their investigation of these Archons and Star Force, then they’d inform the I’rar’et and Rajamal privately and at the same time. Beyond that it would be their call how to handle this, but something told Hanniel this was trouble. There was supposed to be no one beyond the frontier. Not even simple scouting missions unless it was sanctioned by Itaru, and even then she’d not heard of anything happening out there for more than 60,000 years.

Everyone knew they were under strict orders to maintain a tight territorial boundary, but they didn’t know why. If these Zen’zat were assigned by the I’rar’et or another faction against the wishes of the others there would be hell to pay, so Hanniel and the other researchers knew to take great care in detail and accuracy of the reports as they compiled them…as well as to insure no one became aware of their findings prior to the reveal, so they kept all the files on their person armor and away from the I’rar’et and the other Zen’zat.

When the time came, Hanniel would deliver the results to Rajamal and the I’rar’et assigned to his Na’shor personally…then duck and cover when the accusations and denials began. She and the others would do their duty to the V’kit’no’sat overall first, even if that meant outing the I’rar’et, but they would take no joy in it. She was loyal to the I’rar’et and hoped that this wasn’t their doing, unless it had been sanctioned, but at this point there was no way of knowing any more than what the Li’vorkrachnika knew.

And the sooner she got this report compiled and to Rajamal the better.

8

October 31, 3600

Taklemah System (Li’vorkrachnika territory)

Unnamed Planet

Rajamal was studying reports coming in from his forces spread across the campaign when the courier ship arrived. It wasn’t scheduled and refused to say anything other than it had a personal message for him to be delivered by a Zen’zat emissary. The ship belonged to the I’rar’et, but was a Zen’zat support vessel more suited to their size, Kaeper-class. Decent engines, overly large fuel capacity, and made specifically for long range scouting/courier missions. Many of these ships were out dropping sensor buoys, and he had no idea why one of them had come here to find him.

When he accepted the transfer request he met the single Zen’zat deposited onto his Na’shor. She wasn’t a warrior, but rather a researcher previously stationed in the Ittick System. Beyond that he knew nothing about her as she walked up to him, her armor retracted down into the intricate forearm-mounted jewelry that showed her station. His own forearm gauntlets were considerably larger and less ornate, with the additional mass needed for the combat grade equipment.

“What is this about?” he asked, suspecting something important due to the unusual security.

“I need to inform you and the I’rar’et simultaneously,” Hanniel said firmly, but politely.

Rajamal frowned. “You serve the I’rar’et. Why would they not already have been informed?”

“I came here on my own volition. They did not send me.”

“Oh?”

“Our research has turned up a delicate matter. Informing one of you before the other seemed inappropriate.”

“Concerning what?”

“I need to tell you both in person.”

“Am I going to like it?”

“I am attempting to do my duty to the V’kit’no’sat as a whole…even if it may implicate the I’rar’et in misbehavior.”

Rajama’s face grew tight. “Follow me.”

Hanniel walked behind him as he led her further into his huge ship, eventually ending in a private chamber with an I’rar’et already waiting for them, apparently signaled telepathically by Rajamal, for he knew of the situation before she could say a word.

“Why did you violate protocol?” he demanded, mildly miffed and looking down at her over the long, pointed beak that made up the front of his angular head.

“What we discovered will affect the current campaign, thus Rajamal needed to know first.”

“Know what?” the Zen’zat asked, leaning back on a deactivated holo pedestal and crossing his arms over his chest with a slight click from his overlapping gauntlets.

“I discovered, and others helped to fully document, genetic memories within the Li’vorkrachnika detailing the best ways to fight various races they have previously encountered. There is an alliance of races on the northern border of the Li’vorkrachnika known as Star Force. Are you familiar with it?”

“Yes,” Rajamal answered.

“They are where our sensor wall will backline,” the I’rar’et added.

“Which is why I wanted you to hear this simultaneously. Do the I’rar’et have any current assets there?”

“You question us?”

“It is pertinent.”

“We are not released to that corridor until operations here are complete to Rajamal’s satisfaction.”

“So you have nothing there already, perhaps from a previous operation?”

“What are you inferring, Zen’zat?”

Hanniel looked directly at Rajamal.

“There is a race within Star Force known as Humans. Some Humans are different and labeled as Archons. These Archons are the worst opponent that the Li’vorkrachnika have ever faced. I discovered the genetic memory for them and how to fight them, and there is little they can do to overcome their strength and power, for absent our size the profile matches our own.”

It took Rajamal a moment to comprehend what she was saying, then his eyes widened.

“These Archons are Zen’zat?”

“And the Humans are Ter’nat, but the Archons are not of greater size and some of the Ter’nat are. We did not get an answer for why, but amongst the powers listed in the genetic memories are Jumat, though they know it by a different name,” she said, looking at the I’rar’et accusingly.

Rajamal did as well, knowing how rare Jumat was within the V’kit’no’sat. That meant only elite Zen’zat had been assigned to whatever this fake empire beyond the border was.

“I know nothing of this,” the I’rar’et said in all honestly, dropping his mental resistance so they could be certain he was speaking the truth, for he didn’t have the mental blocks that the Zen’zat did, relying instead on his own mental strength to keep others out.

“These Archons led this alliance of races in defeating the Li’vorkrachnika, taking their homeworld and driving them from their former territory,” Hanniel went on, “but they stopped pursuing them at their current rimward border. The one you are about to travel to. Did you notice how perfectly straight it was?”

“So not to get close enough that we might notice,” Rajamal said, his own tone accusing, but not directed at the I’rar’et specifically, for they had not requested the assignment on that end of Li’vorkrachnika territory. He’d given it to them for other reasons, but they had wanted to take part in this eradication for some hidden purpose.

“Unless I have been deliberately not informed, we know nothing of this,” the I’rar’et said firmly. “And if it was sanctioned activity Ha’chet would know and he would have informed me of it. Something is not right here, and if some faction has been operating beyond the frontier…”

That thought was left hanging in the air, for all three of them knew how much internal trouble that would cause if it was true. There would be a territorial forfeiture at minimum, but the penalties could get far more drastic. Knowing that, one would only try something like this if they were stupid or had some larger plan in place…and that worry had them all fearful.

“You were right to conceal this until it was brought to my attention,” Rajamal said slowly. “How strong is this Star Force?”

“They have been conquering a massive amount of territory and reworking it as they see fit. We’ve been able to corroborate database entries with the genetic memories to get a better picture, but we’re still sorely lacking in data. It seems that this Star Force is very new and growing rapidly. Not just in size, but in technology. They practically sprouted up out of nowhere, but these ‘Humans’ make up only a tiny fraction of Star Force’s population. The rest are acquired races that they have outfitted with their own technology that, at a minimum, includes Bra’hem.”

The I’rar’et reared back slightly, puffing out its wings until they hit the walls, which only frustrated it more.

“What treachery is this? Whoever is responsible will be culled.”

“That is why we must handle this carefully,” Rajamal warned. “This has implications far beyond this campaign, but knowing my battle plan someone must be very vexed right now…unless it is the I’rar’et.”

“It is not. I can promise you that. Can we not account for all Zen’zat with Jumat?”

“Yes we can,” Rajamal said, activating the main hologram and digging into his ship’s database. It wasn’t accurate to the present date given communications lag, but if someone had been gone for a very long time they should be able to track them or their absence. “Was this a single individual with Jumat they were concerned about, or many?”

“Many. These Archons have different colors of armor that denote their abilities, and Jumat seems to be present in several of them.”

“Our armor?”

“No. It is made of hard shells. A clever design to afford them movement, but not the equal of ours in agility. They are more hardy to damage taken, based off estimates.”

“A clever disguise without sacrificing effectiveness,” the I’rar’et noted. “Trading out one strength for another. Were there any other races in this alliance that we are familiar with?”

“Possibly an aquatic that was listed as having been eradicated.”

“How long ago?”

“834,000 years.”

“And how recent is this Star Force?”

“Less than 2,000.”

Rajamal shook his head. “This doesn’t make sense unless there is a long lasting conspiracy taking place.”

“I agree,” the I’rar’et said. “We should go to this Star Force and find out what they truly are.”

“No,” Rajamal said firmly. “We do not tip our hand so blindly. How many others know of this?”

“Only the Zen’zat in my research team, and they have pledged to remain silent until they hear from you.”

“Are you certain the memories are Zen’zat?”

Hanniel responded by transmitting some snippets of them from her mind to his.

“What is wrong?” she asked after he was silent for more than a minute.

“You will remain silent on this. Both of you,” he added more forcefully to the I’rar’et, “while I consult with another. If this is what I fear, then we will be going straight to Itaru with it.”

The I’rar’et hissed in displeasure.

“If there is treason here, it is for the Sector or Regional Council to ferret out.”

“Wrong. If there is treason here, it jeopardizes the very core of the V’kit’no’sat. And I will deal with it accordingly. We are leaving this system immediately and you will be assigned to me until further notice,” he told Hanniel. “I assume you brought all necessary data with you?”

“On my armor. There is no other source on the ship that brought me.”

“Well played, and thank you for your wisdom in this matter. I will deal with it from here, but first I need you to lay out everything you know about these rogue Zen’zat and Ter’nat.”

“I do not see why Ter’nat would be involved,” the I’rar’et said. “They are not useful for anything other than breeding stock…”

“Exactly,” Rajamal said, sensing the fear and horror in that simple statement. “And when there are no Jumat bearers listed as dead or assigned to dubious missions, it leads me to one of many concerns…but those are Zen’zat matters and I trust you not to discuss this with others. You will also not be able to send messages off this ship until I say otherwise.”

“Can I then discuss it with the others onboard ship?”

“Would they know more than you?”

“Unlikely.”

“Then no. And do not inform the other races here either. They need to be kept unaware in case one of them are involved.”

“Do you not wish to interrogate them if they show their hand?”

“I want to keep the advantage of surprise that we have as long as possible. If only the 3 of us on this ship and those Zen’zat back in Ittick know, then knowledge of it will not spread. Whoever has done this must be watching us closely for fear that we discover the truth, and if the treason runs as deep as I fear they will not hesitate to destroy this ship to conceal it.”

The I’rar’et leaned his head forward, coming within half a meter of the Zen’zat.

“What is it you fear so?”

“That is what I need to seek counsel on, and I can only do that with other Zen’zat.”

“Whatever you decide, make haste. The I’rar’et are not responsible for this, but we want to discover who is as soon as possible.”

Rajamal nodded and sent word to the bridge to get them underway, then he turned back to Hanniel.

“Continue with your research findings.”

“They are too strong,” he told Daemon, having arrived in his sector of the Zen’zat invasion corridor and brought the commander onboard his ship for a private meeting.

“Meaning?”

“Jumat is prevalent, and individuals have far too many psionics. Too many for natural progression. Please tell me I’m wrong.”

His fellow Zen’zat was silent while he continued to dig through the files before him and the memories that Rajamal transferred from his own mind. When he thought he was about to speak he did not, moving back to another section of the data. It took several minutes before Daemon answered his question with a very displeased look on his face.

“You’re not wrong. Someone is artificially advancing Zen’zat.”

“What could they hope to gain from this? The punishment will be so severe I cannot see any worthwhile risk to it.”

“What if it’s someone’s doing who isn’t bound by our rules?”

Rajamal’s face screwed up in confusion and disgust, but he thought on that for a moment.

“They would have had to acquire Zen’zat genetics from somewhere, and I am not aware of any missing individuals dating back to the Rit’ko’sor rebellion. All corpses have been recovered since then, and the possibility of someone engineering a Zen’zat with a tissue sample is so unlikely I can’t even quote you the odds. Capturing a Ter’nat and trying to upgrade them would be more likely, but their systems are monitored to keep them in, but they function just as well to keep others out. I do not know how an exterior power could have orchestrated this, and if they did I do not believe they would use them in this fashion, blatantly and extensively close to our border.”

“Yet they seem to have knowledge of it, hence the reluctance to fully eradicate the Li’vorkrachnika. Ironic, that had they done so we probably never would have discovered them, and that their reluctance allowed the Li’vorkrachnika to extend so far as to attack us. Though I do not fault them for the stupidity inherent in that idea, for had it not happened I would not have foreseen them doing it either. There is, though, another possibility that you are overlooking."

“Enlighten me.”

“Did you note the location of their capitol?”

“I did not see any significance to it.”

“But there is,” Daemon said, pulling up an old starmap from before the Rit’ko’sor rebellion. “Look.”

Rajamal compared the two and saw that one of the sparsely placed frontier colonies from back in that age lay in exactly the same place.

“The Rit’ko’sor attacked and destroyed everything they could find,” Daemon continued, “but this was a waterworld and the aquatics could not be touched, nor did they have the firepower to destroy the planetary defense station, so they flooded it instead to remove it from the surface of the planet along with everything else V’kit’no’sat. The J’gar and other aquatics evacuated the colony, citing it wasn’t worth rebuilding, and scratched it off the map. With all the damage the Rit’ko’sor inflicted, it and others fell beyond the new frontier.”

“And maybe someone went back to it?”

“Possibly. Or maybe the J’gar lied and left something behind that’s been developing ever since. After all, why pull back if your underwater structures are intact? There are reasons to, for sure, but if they’d already been attacked and the aquatics were safe what cause would there be to pull out?”

“How many were there?”

Daemon pulled up those statistics for them both to see.

“Not many,” Rajamal answered himself.

“And all are accounted for,” Daemon added. “As far as the swimmers go. But the Zen’zat on the surface were destroyed…as far as they reported, and that report is a blind spot that could have been used as cover.”

“To what end?”

“I don’t pretend to know what is happening here. I’m only throwing out theoreticals.”

“Keep doing so.”

“If you wanted to experiment with Zen’zat you’d do it beyond the border where no one would look, and the J’gar are patient enough to have taken an opportunity like this when it arose.”

“And then have them build an empire and start knocking off everything in sight?”

“That perplexes me unless it was a field test. The coreward boundary is obviously meant to keep them away from us, and has done so up until now. Which perplexes me as to why we don’t have scouting expeditions regularly sent to the rim to keep us aware of what is happening out there.”

“If we’re not allowed to go then there’s no point in knowing,” Rajamal said sarcastically. “After all, no one can be superior to the V’kit’no’sat, so there’s no bother in looking. Anyone important enough will come to us.”

“Typical Oso’lon propaganda,” Daemon agreed. “Just because the Hadarak occupy our time doesn’t mean we should be oblivious to the rest of the galaxy. I do agree, though, that we shouldn’t keep expanding into territory that we can’t dominate. Spreading ourselves too thin would be a mistake, but intentional blindness is a folly.”

“That someone has taken advantage of.”

“There is another possibility. A slim one, but I feel I have to point it out. Perhaps some Zen’zat were left behind accidentally…”

“And did what? Violate their oaths, reproduce, and build their own empire? One in which they have the genetic knowledge to activate psionics at will?”

“Far-fetched, but given that their capitol is a former colony the possibility has to be considered. Their armor is also curious. If you don’t expect to be discovered why alter it? Ours is better, though I’ll admit theirs is a bit tougher, assuming comparable materials that may not be the case.”

“Different and better are not always the same things, but I take your point.”

“I don’t take yours.”

“Fixed structures can hold more components.”

“But the weight would be cumbersome.”

“A tradeoff that might be better in select circumstances.”

“Curious, I hadn’t thought of that. Why don’t we have tougher versions?”

“Because we never need it,” Rajamal said honestly, then his memories brought obvious anxiety to his face, “unless we’re fighting each other.”

“You fear this may be the tip of a plot that will lead to another rebellion?”

“Yes I do.”

“Then I will go with you to Itaru and we will present them with the situation…then weather the fallout together. I too do not want another bloody war against our brothers, but if it has to happen, so be it. The V’kit’no’sat must be made of pure bonds, else we will break in other ways.”

“Your words are wise, but I still cannot conceive how someone would see this as an advantage.”

“Creating an independent army of superior Zen’zat outside our borders,” Daemon said evenly as he drew a horrific look from Rajamal. “Your problem is you trust too much, and after the Rit’ko’sor there was one lesson learned by all the factions…if you’re going to rebel, you have better make damn sure you’re going to win. And fighting without an advantage is the equivalent of suicide.”

“So someone breeds enhanced Zen’zat and gives them experience fighting in the rim as they grow their own empire.”

“Which probably has them seeing more combat than most Zen’zat.”

“I had hoped when I came here you would alleviate my fears. Now they are far worse.”

“Itaru,” Daemon reminded him. “We can discuss further on the way, but our duty in this is clear.”

“So it is,” Rajamal said sadly. “And if we are to fight them, Itaru will never sanction our own advancement to match.”

“Meaning we’ll be fighting superior opponents? Possibly, but I for one am ready for a real challenge.”

“Against other Zen’zat?”

“I would prefer not, but we take on what fate supplies us. Rogue Zen’zat or not.”

Rajamal sighed. “We have lost so much already.”

“Most of which has been rebuilt.”

“You can’t rebuild dead warriors.”

“No, you can only replace them with inexperienced ones. Which is why the Rit’ko’sor hurt us so badly. It would have been worse if not for us. The Hjar’at are too stubborn to recognize threats that defy their understanding of warfare. The Rit’ko’sor would have destroyed them if we hadn’t intervened. You should be proud of your part in that.”

“We never should have been on opposing sides. We should have been pooling our resources and fighting the Hadarak together.”

“They trust us because we are the most loyal. Unfortunately that statement can be construed in two accurate ways. Do not dwell on it. We made no mistakes, and those who did are mostly dead by now.”

“So now we face more mistakes by new faces?”

“Our best bet in avoiding them is by pointing out the obvious, and doing so directly at Itaru is better than sending the information through intermediaries. They will listen to us enough to get a direct audience, and if we make a few stops first I can arrange some other names they will listen to.”

“You should have been leading this invasion, not me.”

“You are more than qualified, so there is no issue.”

“Still…” Rajamal said, letting that hang in the air as he scrolled through a few maps with Daemon pointing out systems they needed to visit in order to procure additional Zen’zat of renown that would insure that their envoy would not get pushed aside once they arrived at the capitol…and that the Elder Conclave would take this matter as seriously and they should.

9

April 27, 3601

Itaru System (V’kit’no’sat capitol)

Wendigama

Rajamal, Daemon, and three other high ranking Zen’zat were permitted entry into the Elder Conclave by other Zen’zat through the smaller doorways built for them. More Conclave guardians were stationed at the larger entrances, and those were not Zen’zat due to the physical size needed to keep unwanted individuals out. If an Oso’lon wanted in, there was little Zen’zat could do to stop them, hence they had numerous Era’tran and Hjar’at guardians there supported by more Zen’zat where appropriate.

When the five visitors were granted entrance to the huge chamber they were placed upon a small floating platform that had a single control pedestal. Innas, a Zen’zat that had ties to the Oso’lon, took the lead position and drove the platform out from the wall of the dome-shaped chamber through the sea of pedestals that held the Elder members and their delegations from all of the 193 current member races in the V’kit’no’sat, though that did not include the Ter’nat nor Zen’zat, but there were plenty of the latter here to assist the larger races in small command stations built into or on top of the pedestals that were sometimes a half mile wide.

That was a necessity given the size of most of the V’kit’no’sat races, making the Zen’zat seem extremely small in the Conclave, even more so than in other chambers of similar purpose, for this one was so tall that there were literally clouds that formed at the top that shielded view of the flyers’ entry points, and the underside of those clouds reflected the light from the sea of holograms on and in between the pedestals as the various races conducted business individually or with one another, but in a few moments their entire attention would be focused on the visiting Zen’zat that were heading for the central platform that rose slightly higher than all others and remained empty.

Innas drove them to it without passing over any of the pedestals, meaning they had to weave in and out of the artificial islands to get there, then they parked at the foot of the hillside surrounding the central mount and climbed up the multitude of geometric stairs under their own power until they reached the summit…which put them just below head level of the longnecks, but the Zen’zat were so small that a second platform in the center raised up to an adequate height so that all could see them directly without having to rely on visual repeaters, though many did in order to view the tiny specs at distance without the benefit of armor scoping that none of them wore.

The Zen’zat wore their armor undeployed and clustered on their forearms, as did the others in the Conclave, but the larger races wore a mixture of clothing and jewelry, some of which would transform into additional items or produce shield generators, but the typical battle exoskeletons of their undeployed armor were not present here, for the idea of any threat making it inside the very core of their empire was absurd…and if they somehow did they had an army of guardians ringing the Conclave to contend with.

“What matter brings you before us?” the Oso’lon Elder asked once the Zen’zat had reached the required height, though he was more than a mile away and his voice was carried technologically so all in the Conclave could hear.

“Treason,” Rajamal said evenly with the other four Zen’zat standing beside him in silent, but obvious support.

“Explain carefully, Zen’zat. That is not an accusation to be made here without peril.”

“We do our duty, Oso’lon, and for the preservation of the V’kit’no’sat we bring information of rogue Zen’zat operating beyond the frontier.”

“Affiliated with whom?” the Era’tran Elder asked from the other side of the Conclave.

“Unknown,” Rajamal said as Daemon began creating holograms in the air above the conclave displaying the maps and other data they had collected, along with shunting the files directly to every delegation’s pedestal where the Zen’zat there could view and search through them to verify what Rajamal was saying. “Knowledge of them has been uncovered by proxy in the course of my campaign against the Li’vorkrachnika. They have battled and been defeated by these Zen’zat who operate under the name of ‘Archons’ in a multi-race alliance known as ‘Star Force’ in which there appears to also be a significant Ter’nat population.”

“Where?” the Oso’lon demanded.

“Their capitol appears to be their spawning point, but we do not know for certain became we came straight to you before scouting the area ourselves. Whoever is responsible for this must be rooted out, and giving them time to cover their tracks by revealing our presence with reconnaissance missions would have been unwise. However, their capitol lies in the Terraxis System, which was a former colony of ours prior to the Rit’ko’sor rebellion. It was listed by the J’gar as having been fully evacuated.”

Where there would have been a pedestal behind Rajamal there was an equally circular pond, one of many in the chamber but the largest of all, and out of it rose a slender head on an even thinner neck. It rose up as high as the Oso’lon and the top of a ridged body broke the surface with the mass of it remaining below water, but the purple bioluminescent patches along its spine attested to a very long length as well as several others present down there but not coming up into the air.

“You accuse us, Zen’zat?”

“The rogue Zen’zat are there, and the last report filed was by you. I do not know what is occurring, but someone is guilty of treason and must be exposed.”

“Quite right, but there are matters in play that you are unaware of.”

Rajamal didn’t respond, instead waiting for the J’gar or another to speak. Eventually it was the Hjar’at that did.

“We would also like to know of the last days of this lost colony.”

The longneck twisted to the side, throwing a look across the Conclave, but a telepathic message from another below water caused him to recoil a bit.

“We would also like to know,” the Les’i’kron Elder added.

“Terraxis was one of a number of systems that was abandoned during the Rit’ko’sor conflict. According to our own records it was fully evacuated of all surviving aquatics after the surface inhabitants had been annihilated.”

“Why was it evacuated if the Rit’ko’sor could not harm you within the oceans?” Daemon interjected, pressing the question that he knew the Hjar’at and others were also thinking, and not worried about a backlash against him. Sometimes it was better for an irreverent Zen’zat to make an unpleasant point because of their neutrality, and Daemon had learned to use that to his advantage long ago.

“We decided to shrink the empire for security reasons.”

“The evacuation,” the Oso’lon quickly corrected as their Zen’zat supplied them with a flurry of facts and relevant dates, “occurred long before that edict was enacted.”

“You seek to falsely accuse us for these rogue Zen’zat…but you needn’t bother. We left one fact out of our report because it was a matter that did not involve you. For the sake of clarity we will reveal it now. The Rit’ko’sor did attack and kill most of our population in Terraxis, but they did not do it face to face. They poisoned the waters before we knew what was occurring. Those that we evacuated were the survivors. This occurred in many systems, not just Terraxis.”

“Why were we not informed of this weapon?” the Hjar’at demanded.

“It was of no threat to you, and frankly, we did not want any other race following in the Rit’ko’sor’s footsteps. Since the war we have developed a countermeasure and are therefore no longer in jeopardy, thus I can reveal it to you now without peril.”

“Did the Sess’nat know of this as well?” the Oso’lon asked, his gaze directed towards another pond.

“All aquatics did,” the shell-less turtle answered. “The poison affected us all, and before you criticize us for our silence, remember that it was one of our own that attacked us. It is not unreasonable to assume, at that time, that there could be others plotting the same.”

“It is alarming,” the Era’tran said before the Oso’lon could speak his next rebuke, “that we trust each other so little. It strains the bonds of our civilization. However, the concealment of this weapon did not hinder the V’kit’no’sat. And while it may not speak well of trust, they are right in saying that the Rit’ko’sor betrayed that trust. And if one could do it, so could others. Now we face a similar situation. Someone has violated our trust and raised not only an army of Zen’zat for their own unsanctioned purposes, but according to this data they have also artificially enhanced them with psionics they have most assuredly not earned.”

“What!” the Brat’mar roared load enough to be heard without augmentation.

“It is in the files, and I assume the Zen’zat were about to elaborate on that point.”

“I was,” Rajamal continued. “The Li’vorkrachnika use genetic memory to prepare their troops to face any known opponent, and these Archons are the most effective against them. They cannot kill them except through extraordinary means, much like they used to kill one and damage another Zen’zat by crashing a warship on top of them and their own troops in battle. I believe such a tactic was developed by their previous contact with Zen’zat, and based on their expectations of their abilities, they possess too many psionics to be naturally developed. In point, all of the more advanced Archons possess Jumat.”

“You have no confirmed this?” the Les’i’kron asked.

“No. We have not set foot inside their territory nor come close to it as of yet, but my current invasion plans for the Li’vorkrachnika involve setting up a sensor wall around their territory, and that will put it directly in Star Force systems. Thus I need to know what you wish done before I complicate a much more important matter.”

“Your caution is most welcome, Zen’zat,” the Era’tran praised him. “As is your wisdom. This matter is one of treason, and we must conclude who is responsible. We face another rebellion, but you have stumbled upon it before it could be enacted.”

“To what end?” the Pas’cha asked, its long neck rising a bit higher than the Oso’lon. “Enhanced Zen’zat are a serious concern, but they alone cannot win a war. The Rit’ko’sor concealed their strength from us, and unless another has done likewise, this Zen’zat production makes no sense. There must be something more in play that we are not seeing.”

“Do not underestimate the power of the Zen’zat,” the Era’tran cautioned.

“Perhaps they have done this on their own? That would be far more likely than one of us concealing our numbers like the Rit’ko’sor did. We have taken exhaustive measures to counter that.”

“We have to go there and find out,” the Hjar’at said, aggression tinging his words. “There is no other option.”

“Agreed,” the Era’tran echoed.

“A joint force,” the Oso’lon amended. “So that if one of us is complicit we will not potentially be walking into a trap. Meanwhile we take measures to safeguard all other communal systems by realigning our fleets so that they are split between many locations and no one holds a majority.”

“Your paranoid is alarming,” the J’gar dismissed casually. “We take no action here other than to keep watch while we go to the heart of this matter and root out the source. We must destroy these Zen’zat, but not before we get the answers we need. We cannot obliterate them under the guise of ‘accidental’ over-aggression and potentially destroy the data we require. For this reason the Hjar’at will not lead this campaign.”

“You accuse us now?”

“I accuse you over fighting in almost every situation you encounter. We need to investigate as we destroy…and I do not believe you have the temperament for that.”

“Given this is a Zen’zat matter,” the Les’i’kron stated quickly before a war of words, and perhaps telepathy, could break out, “let the Era’tran command, but without many ships of their own. They will lead, and we will provide the bulk of a fleet necessary to retake our former colony and subdue this facsimile of an empire.”

“A sensible recommendation,” the Oso’lon agreed as it turned its long neck back towards the Zen’zat at the center of the Conclave. “You will return to your current invasion, which we have been monitoring. By the time you are ready to deploy your rimward sensor wall, this matter will already have been settled.”

“Before they are dismissed,” the Hjar’at interrupted, “I would like their assessment of the military capability of this rogue empire.”

“I would advise,” Rajamal said slowly, “that no fleet be assembled for such a direct strike that did not include a Mach’nel.”

The Oso’lon snorted so loud that it almost drowned out similar audible expressions of disgust from half a dozen other races, though most of the silent ones shared their reaction.

“How can Zen’zat warrant that?”

“We believe they have at minimum Bra’hems. If a Tar’vem’jic is not in play, it is possible that our fleet could be outmatched. With one included, even if outnumbered, the range advantage will allow for domination. If you do not wish a proper scouting assessment first, then I would take no less than a Mach’nel directly to their capitol.”

“You believe their advancement in psionics may have a complement in technology as well?” the Era’tran asked.

“I would not be surprised if it did, and as far as the Li’vorkrachnika know the tech level of Star Force has been rising artificially fast. They began with primitive technology and were almost destroyed by a paltry exploratory force, then they advanced so fast they were able to outmatch and devastate the Li’vorkrachnika. They would have annihilated them all if not for a coreward boundary they will not pass. This geographically perfect line suggests they are well aware of our surveillance capabilities and are deliberately staying out of reach. If not for the Li’vorkrachnika foolishly attacking us and inviting our wrath, we would most likely not have discovered these rogue Zen’zat at all until the time came for whomever is behind their creation to utilize them.”

“Given the lack of information and the dangers inherent,” the J’gar said with a calming tone, “I concur with the Zen’zat’s recommendation. We will supply one of ours, and that will be our sole contribution.”

“So be it,” the Era’tran agreed. “Is Mak’to’ran acceptable?”

No objections rose at the name of the legendary Era’tran, so the matter was settled by the silence.

“Zen’zat, your duty in this matter is done. Return to your current assignments and reveal nothing of this until after our strike is made.”

“As you will,” Rajamal said, then he and the other Zen’zat descended on the inner platform and hopped down the stairs to return to their speeder that they rode out across the Conclave as discussions, accusations, and speculation continued. When they passed beyond the gates and the privacy fields Daemon exchanged glances with the others.

“I have a bad feeling about this.”

“As do I,” Innas concurred, “but our task is completed until called upon. You have an invasion to continue.”

“For how long?” Rajamal asked, inferring the consequences that this treachery could unleash if it was as bad as feared.

“Hold to your oaths and let fate take us where it may.”

“As always,” Rajamal agreed before splitting up and heading back to the frontier with Daemon.

10

October 18, 3601

Yareni System (Era’tran Regional Capitol)

Navbu

Mak’to’ran walked up the ramp into the Era’tran transport being the last to board. Ahead of him were members of his race’s elite Hakja troops, members he’d served with in numerous high level operations over the centuries, but nothing like this had occurred to his knowledge. Even when the Zak’de’ron were brought to heel he knew who the enemy was, but this mission had him going into battle to investigate and kill rogue Zen’zat without knowing their sponsor. The very traitors they were going to attempt to expose were going to have troops under his command that could revolt at any time.

Never had there been this level of distrust amongst the V’kit’no’sat and it left him shaken. Whoever had done this had crossed many lines, so much so that their race was going to suffer heavy penalties even if they came forward and admitted to it now. But the more likely outcome was a war of some kind, and the thought that there might be more than one race involved in this scared the Era’tran from head to tail. Their bonds of brotherhood could be failing soon, and who knew how much damage they could do before he and others discovered who the traitors truly were.

While the Era’tran had been gathering their portion of the assault fleet and stacking their troops and Zen’zat into it, investigations had been taking place across the empire without so much as an iota of evidence linked to this abomination. No records of Terraxis or any link to it existed past the date of its evacuation. An idea had been floating around that the Rit’ko’sor might have been responsible for these events, spawned before they had been wiped out for their treachery, but Mak’to’ran did not think that likely.

Forcibly bypassing the genetic locks on the Zen’zat psionics was not something all the races could do. In fact there were elements of the coding that had been put in place by the Zak’de’ron that even the reborn Les’i’kron could not fathom, for much had been lost in the transition. Only 6 races were thought to possess the genetic knowledge to unlock Jumat, and each of them knew that doing so would bring weight of the empire down on top of them.

That was what Mak’to’ran could not fathom. There had to be something much more devious at work here, and he feared that something could potentially destroy the V’kit’no’sat.

Once onboard, the transport took him and the Hakja up to orbit where they took their place onboard the Kafcha-class dreadnaught that made up the bulk of the Era’tran fleet. Other than Zen’zat designated vessels, the size of the Era’tran required larger hulls to accommodate their crews, and while the Kafcha were not the largest vessels in the Era’tran fleet, they were all that were being assigned to his command. 58 of them in total, along with 300 Zen’zat Domjo medium level cruisers that were going to be the only pure Zen’zat vessels in the combine fleet that was rendezvousing in the Tham’ron System.

The other races were not coming without Zen’zat, but they were all integrated into their standard fleets as support. The Era’tran had been originally responsible for the creation of the Zen’zat and had the most interaction with them within the empire. Mak’to’ran knew they were more trustworthy than most of the other races, but given that they were going to destroy rogue Zen’zat, the others had decided not to commit any standalone units whereas he had, and a large number of them given the segmented fleet.

Final ship count was estimated to be between 9,000 and 11,000 ships, which was abnormally large heading into a single system, especially with a Mach’nel included, but it wasn’t unprecedented if you went back through battle history far enough. But to take on rogue Zen’zat it was clearly overkill, underscoring how no one else thought they’d find only Zen’zat beyond the frontier. They were expecting a much larger fight…with who was the question on everyone’s mind.

With everyone else already assembled prior to his arrival, Mak’to’ran made his way to the command deck where some 18 other Era’tran were assembled with another 40 or so Zen’zat support that would operate the ship in combat, then beyond a wall that had been removed was another chamber with a scattering of personnel. It would fill up when heavy oversite of the entire fleet was needed, and right now he didn’t even know for sure which ships and personnel he would be getting from the other races.

He gave the order to get underway and the mixed Era’tran/Zen’zat fleet jumped out of the system while Mak’to’ran worked on developing the proper relationships within his new fleet, running combat drills and testing for weaknesses in the team tactics that were required for effective naval combat. Whenever new ships were brought together under a different commander such things were required to optimize efficiency by learning each other’s tendencies. It was something that Mak’to’ran was adamant about drilling his fleet through, but he got no resistance from the Era’tran. When he got the other races’ ships added is when there would be internal wrangling to flush out prior to taking everyone into combat.

He didn’t know what they would face, and while normally the V’kit’no’sat could win with no losses no matter how bad their coordination was, the Era’tran commander wasn’t counting on such superiority here. These Zen’zat had advanced weapons, at least compared to the rest of the galaxy, and they had the advantage of home territory where, if they were smart, they’d been laying down numerous defenses and traps for when or if the V’kit’no’sat ever found them.

The idea that this was all set up as a trap to draw them in prior to a rebellion concerned him, and the J’gar so willingly offering one of their rare Mach’nel had him wondering if they weren’t going to use it against him when an opportune moment came…and that was exactly the kind of trust issues that were so abhorrent to consider.

But the situation was what it was, and there was no postponing it hoping for some revelation prior to arriving at Terraxis.

When Mak’to’ran arrived at the rendezvous system he found about two thirds of the races’ fleets having arrived, including the J’gar’s Mach’nel. It wasn’t the largest ship the V’kit’no’sat had, but it was the largest pure warship and designed to operate in all combat capacities. It measured on average 120 miles in diameter, and the J’gar version was shaped like an egg to maximize internal water volume. Key amongst the many weapon systems onboard was the presence of a small Tar’vem’jic, the most powerful ranged beam weapon the V’kit’no’sat possessed, and surrounding it was Yeg’gor armor.

That was why the Mach’nel were so rare, for manufacturing that armor was a painstaking process that required a lot of valuable materials that could otherwise produce far more technology. They had to be packed into a very dense matrix that, once formed, was virtually indestructible. It made the Mach’nel very hard to destroy, and during the Zak’de’ron culling none of the ships had been lost on either side…rather they had been boarded with the fighting inside determining the victor.

Add in the most dense shield matrix the V’kit’no’sat used in combat models and the Mach’nel was the focal point for his assembling fleet, and had it been reliable he would have been greatly comforted by the sight of it. Now the thought of it turning its weapons on his other ships made his presence near it unsettling, and he knew others must have been feeling the same way.

A communication came through for him on a private channel, so Mak’to’ran stepped onto a silver circle on the floor of the command deck and activated the privacy screen around him before a hologram of a Hjar’at appeared where his fellow Era’tran had been a moment ago, now situated in a sea of simulated darkness.

“Welcome,” the twin-spined quadruped greeted.

“Garrtak. I am pleased it was you they sent.”

“As am I you, old friend. We have a nasty situation before us.”

“Who can we be sure of?”

“Rann’iel is here, so even if the I’rar’et are included in this we know he will not betray us. It is the J’gar that worry me.”

“I too worry about that Mach’nel.”

“It cannot defeat the assembled fleet. Not by a long shot.”

“But it could do considerable damage on its own, though I do not think it would.”

“You fear multiple traitors?”

“I don’t know what to fear. This scenario makes no sense.”

“Someone has been very bold,” the Hjar’at said, with a single tiny arc of blue lightning traveling across a pair of spines denoting the anger boiling over within. “And they either didn’t expect to get caught or we are walking into their trap.”

“How dangerous do you think these rogue Zen’zat are?”

“Not very where orbital bombardment is concerned. If they have Sav, however…”

“A concern, but they will be able to match us at best strategically, not in technology.”

“I would not be so sure of that. Treachery is before us, and it knows no bounds. I would caution you to not engage in any even fights, for that would be the opportune time for a traitor to change their fleet’s allegiance. Investigate and annihilate with an abundance of caution and temerity. They expect us to come charging in and engage headfirst, so don’t do what they expect.”

“That’s almost treason coming from a Hjar’at,” Mak’to’ran said sarcastically.

“We are not on the ground yet, and I have no wish to walk into a trap with a questionable Mach’nel watching our backs.”

“I am going to have the fleet engage in extensive simulations before we leave.”

The Hjar’at looked displeased, but not with the Era’tran.

“Others will object to the timeline, citing Conclave orders.”

“I will not rush into this until we are properly coordinated.”

“You will have our support, but it will be said that you are covering for the traitors in order to give them more time to evacuate.”

“They have already had an abundance of time, and if this Star Force empire is as large as suggested they will not be able to remove all traces from it. But if we should face a much more powerful opponent, either from within or without, those loyal must not be tripping over each other during battle. Simulations will begin within the hour.”

“I will prepare my people.”

With that the Hjar’at disappeared and the privacy field lifted, revealing that the Ranto’non fleet had begun repositioning and coming towards them, signaling through the proper channels that they were ready to drop into whatever configuration the campaign commander wished.

Mak’to’ran huffed his approval. The Ranto’non were not one of the primary races within the V’kit’no’sat, but they were as loyal to the Era’tran as their hides were thick. The quadrupeds had served in many combat arenas alongside the larger Era’tran and the subtle show of solidarity told him that there was already discord within the combined fleet.

Hopefully the simulations would settle that a bit, but there was no denying the creeping sensation of betrayal lurking in their midst.

Two weeks later…

The remainder of the fleet had finally arrived, after which Mak’to’ran kept them sitting in the Sector Capitol for an additional 10 days before being satisfied with their cohesion rating. Taking his position as campaign commander, he integrated all units into his command and control system and sent orders out through his deck crew to the various ships directly rather than passing through their command vessels.

With decent response times all the ships moved through the complicated orbital extraction that was both a test and a display of superior navigational ability with them hitting 5 points around the primary jumpline to the star and all making their jumps askew of it, requiring additional navigational tugs but making for a very chilling display to anyone that might be watching the mass of ships leave within minutes of one another.

From the star they jumped out, heading across Li’vorkrachnika territory and not bothering to even shoot their ships when they came into contact with them. They merely sped past at speeds the Li’vorkrachnika could not match and made jumps between far flung stars that the primitive race could not follow through. One stellar link after another they bounced between, heading in the general direction of the Star Force border.

When they finally arrived there Mak’to’ran got his first look at their technology, for there was a small fleet in stellar orbit and a scattering of facilities elsewhere in the system, including two sparsely inhabited planets. Several requests came in for detachment orders so they could hunt the vessels down, but he did not release them. Now that they had been seen word would undoubtedly be sent out through whatever communications system they possessed, so any delay here or in the systems forthcoming would give their enemies more time to prepare.

No one disobeyed the order and went chasing them, for as much division as there was between the races they were not undisciplined, and put loyalty to the V’kit’no’sat over individual disputes…it was when there was no harm to the V’kit’no’sat that they pressed their issues with one another, and given the importance of the situation here there was no disobedience.

As they made their short transition around the star Mak’to’ran watched the Star Force ships. They didn’t engage them or try to chase, but they did pull back into what he saw was strategic positions so they could cover for what was probably civilian traffic within the system that was rapidly withdrawing to the planets and several large orbital stations.

Vermin fleeing the penance that was about to come, but these would have a bit more time than the rest to live, for this fleet was going straight to the heart of the infestation to reclaim their former colony and base out of it while they dealt with the eradication to come…assuming some further treachery didn’t unfold. Mak’to’ran was sure it would at some point, or perhaps whoever was responsible was going to play their part and help destroy the Zen’zat and hope their treachery was erased in the forthcoming destruction.

For that reason he was going to take extra care in issuing combat orders. The planets must be preserved in order to investigate, and given the size of the Star Force empire there were going to be many to choose from. Then again, the most vital secrets were probably in Terraxis, and unless tampered with, the surviving planetary defense station there would have record of all ships coming and going.

If he were them that was the first database that would be wiped out, but there were redundancies that were hard to get at. Still, this campaign had been long enough in planning that if a leak occurred and these Zen’zat had been warned, he doubted there would be any obvious evidence left remaining. That said, there was no way they could cover everything up across an entire empire in such little time. Add in to that if they took prisoners and deprived them of their protective armor they could make flesh contact and rip the answers from their minds.

Which was why as many of them had to be preserved as was possible in the capitol. Once they had the answers they sought he could unleash the loyal to complete the grim task ahead of them. For whether they be illegitimate or not, killing Zen’zat is not something that any Era’tran liked to do, though occasionally it was necessary on an individual basis.

And if these Zen’zat were merely following orders of the race sponsoring them…

Mak’to’ran would explore that possibility if an opportunity arose, but if they were Zen’zat then they would follow their orders and fight, and he’d be forced to kill them at some point or another. And even if some surrendered under those circumstances they’d have to be physically altered to remove their tier 2 and above psionics, for they could not be allowed to keep them under any circumstances.

That was wishful thinking on Mak’to’ran’s part, and he knew the others would not be so kind. Fortunately he was in command and could make the decision if it came to it, but he didn’t realistically see how this campaign would end aside from some form of massive bloodshed.

And he hoped that bloodshed would not result in the ships under his command turning on each other…but as any responsible commander would, he’d been simming his own Era’tran and Zen’zat crews for that situation should it arise.

www.aerkijyr.com

1

April 17, 3602

Solar System

Earth

Sweat dripped from Rio’s hair, pooling on the floor in front of where he stood, arms spread wide as two wall segments on either side of him in the middle of a large training area tried to press in on him. If he let them get within touching range then he would fail the challenge, as he’d done many times before, but he didn’t intend to today. He’d upped the pressure on the walls 3 months ago, higher than any other Archon had ever achieved, and he’d completed the 1 minute mark 7 times already over the past 3 days, but this time he was going to go to the breaking point at half pressure and see just how strong he really was.

Right now he was at 21:28 and his head was awash with ambrosia depletion, but he kept the Jumat energy flowing off of each arm, feeling like his body was a sponge he was trying to squeeze the last bits of water out of, but so far the walls were still being held back. A side effect of the prolonged Jumat use was an insanely high body temperature, making him wonder if the designers of the psionic ever intended for it to be used in such a way. He could easily have added his Lachka to help push back the walls but that would be cheating…and the Lachka wouldn’t help much, for as far as physical pressure went Jumat was far superior, even if more uncontrollable.

It felt like Rio had two giant firehoses that he was aiming at either wall, and while there wasn’t much kickback to him launching the energy it had enough kinetic impact that there was a vortex of moving air all around him as the energy waves dragged it towards the walls, but it was calm enough directly in front of him to allow his sweat droplets to fall more or less in the same place. He watched them travel as his mind focused on maintaining the effort, and the larger the puddle grew the more successful he was, but he knew he didn’t have much left. Now that the ambrosia had been sucked out of his bloodstream there wasn’t enough resources in his body to recharge the Jumat tissue enough to maintain the continuous effort…but he was going to hold on for at least a few more seconds and see what total ambrosia depletion really felt like.

Rio never got that far, for inside the sanctum an alarm sounded throughout every chamber. In fact it sounded throughout Atlantis and every other city on Earth, and Rio knew it was also warbling across every planet and facility in the star system, as well as traveling out through the relay grid to every bit of Star Force territory. It was the Red Alert sound from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and that particular sound had been reserved by the Archons for one and only one use within their empire.

It meant the V’kit’no’sat had returned.

Rio jumped forward, abandoning his challenge and letting the walls smack together behind him as he sprinted for the door, his fatigue being partially overridden by an adrenaline surge the likes of which he’d never experienced before.

This was it. It had finally happened. And for all the advancements they’d made over the past 16 centuries they still hadn’t fully caught up to the V’kit’no’sat’s level of technology, meaning that the fight that was about to, or already broken out could very well be their last…but this is what he and the other trailblazers had been preparing for their entire lives. This was the reason why Davis had commissioned them in the first place. This was the reason Star Force existed, and now it was time to see how much of a fight they could put up.

When Rio got outside that particular training chamber he didn’t slow down, running through the sanctum’s corridors along with other Archons popping out of rooms everywhere, for they all knew what that alert meant and they needed to get to their armor and any other stations needed for battle. Rio raced past them, with the Archons sensing he was coming and stepping aside to let him through. When he got to the sanctum doors and out into Atlantis he saw other people scrambling about while some looked around wondering what was happening, for not even in their capitol city did everyone know of the secret of the V’kit’no’sat.

And everywhere across Earth the same was happening, with those in the know dropping whatever they were doing or rousing out of bed and running hard for wherever they could do some good while the rest of the population heard the klaxon without knowing what it meant, for it was coming over every comm and vid channel simultaneously for a full 10 minutes before the civilian channels reverted to normal and others followed at intervals, but Rio made it to Atlantis’s control room before the red alert in the corridors had ended.

“Where are they?” he all but yelled as he sprinted into the center of the room, looking at the main holo.

“Mastodon System, Ninja Monkey territory,” Chad-913 said, having been on station when the alert came in. “They’ve been live streaming their battlemap data, and the V’kit’no’sat fleet is still massing at the jumppoint.”

“Put it on the main,” Rio said, with the Solar System map suddenly being replaced by a far less populated one…but one with V’kit’no’sat ship markers and the first updates on their nemesis since the Rit’ko’sor rebellion.

“No new ship variants,” Chad added, “but this isn’t a factional fleet. We’ve already noted 17 different races and…oh shit.”

Rio didn’t bother to ask him what he was referring to, for at that same moment a much larger V’kit’no’sat ship emerged from its jump.

“Mach’nel,” Rio said grimly. “At least they’re not underestimating us. Who’s commanding that system?”

“Baron Rylain and the highest ranking Archon is presently Pila-388423,” an analyst answered.

“They can’t stand up against a few of those ships,” Chad all but spitted. “I hope she cuts and runs.”

“Bring all naval fleets within the system to full readiness,” Rio ordered. “I need full crews inside of 12 hours and a manifest rundown.”

“13th, 27th, 28th, and 67th fleets are already on standby and fully stocked.”

“I need more than that,” Rio said, pointing out the obvious. The biggest difference between Star Force and V’kit’no’sat warships was the size. Zen’zat were small compared to most of their races, and because of that they tended to build really big warships. Their standard battleships massed three times what a standard Star Force jumpship did, easily making them the equivalent of more than 1000 drones. Even the smallest ships arriving so far, which was their Wur’ki-class skirmishers, were on average 2.7 miles wide/long despite the various designs. In contrast, Star Force’s largest fleet drone was a battlecruiser that massed half as much.

The only way to beat them, even if tech level wasn’t an issue, was to mass numbers and go lizard on them. Taking less than 50 times their number was an invitation to suicide, and Rio was very glad that Star Force used drones rather than manned warships for the most part. This was looking to be bloody enough as is, but sending crews to their deaths against heavily armed and shielded V’kit’no’sat warships was not something he ever wanted to do. Throwing drones against them and losing the number that they had in simulations was bad enough.

And there was no way of knowing how much more powerful they’d gotten over the past millennia until they opened fire on the system defenders in Mastodon and they got some data to analyze.

But that wasn’t to happen, for as Rio was organizing a good portion of the Mainline fleets guarding Sol for deployment and sending out coordination orders to the surrounding systems, the attack in Mastodon never happened. The V’kit’no’sat ships held position at the jumppoint until the last of their 10,488 number arrived…a fricking huge fleet compared to their normal deployments even without the Mach’nel…then they began to transition around the star, passing the jumppoint for the nearest planet as Rio got a call.

“Archon, you’re requested to link in,” one of the control room staffer’s said, walking up to Rio and addressing him in person, for saying ‘Archon’ in a room full of them was not very efficient, “by Ethan-014.”

“I know his number,” Rio said with a hint of sarcasm that his face didn’t show. He’d been laser focused since the red alert had sounded and it didn’t look like that mojo was going to crack any time soon. He walked a few steps to the left and found a small crystalline orb rising up from the ground on a very thin rod, making it look like a waist-high lamppost. With his eyes still on the tactical situation in Mastodon, though time lagged by about 3 days, he put his hand on the orb and suddenly his mind was connected to the entire Sol comm network, but the most prominent mind within it was also on the planet, though in a different city, meaning there would be no appreciable lag…save for those with Sav that could detect even the tiniest of fluctuations.

So it’s finally happened, Ethan said through the computerized mental link.

Looks that way, but I’m starting to think they’re not hitting Mastodon.

My thoughts too. I’d bet they’re heading somewhere else and don’t even bother to attack. Typical superiority complex. Did you see the decel statistics?

No.

Extremely high speed. Either their gravity drives have improved far beyond expectations or they’re in a big hurry.

Going where though? Rio asked as he simultaneously accessed archived data, specifically V’kit’no’sat records from the pyramid detailing trade routes.

Maybe they don’t know we’re in Mastodon, Ethan suggested. That could explain why they’re not attacking.

That is a possibility, but Mastodon was on one of their original trade routes.

That connects to where…

Give you one guess.

Ethan quickly checked for himself, but Rio could sense his confusion through the brief silence that followed.

There are no colonization ships, he finally said. If they’re coming to reclaim Earth and don’t know we’re here, their fleet composition makes no sense.

And if they do know we’re here, why are they bypassing our colony in Mastodon?

Exactly.

The Nexus?

Doubtful. More likely they just ignored the small colony while going straight to our heart.

Depends on what intel they’ve got and where it came from. There’s a lot of other systems between Mastodon and here for them to hit.

Reesi?

Maybe. Something about this still feels off. We’ll have some idea if they take an outgoing jumpline. They might just be doing a lap around the star to take a look at everything.

Easier to just split your fleet.

I hope for Mastodon that they are just passing through. At least the others up the line will have some warning. And I don’t want to take a fleet towards them only to pass them in transit.

How much do you want to strip from here?

Enough. We can’t lowball this or we’ll get torn apart for sure.

Word. You note the new paint scheme on the Era’tran ships? Ethan asked.

Kill markers?

Those aren’t standard.

It took Rio a moment of study before he made out the symbology, then it became obvious.

Raptor kills.

And from the looks of it, these are very accomplished troops…for the Era’tran anyway.

Where are you bastards going? Rio asked, with him and Ethan carrying on a sporadic mental conversation even as Rio continued to send out direct orders to Sol and received back status intel, some of which Ethan helped to work on. They were the only two trailblazers in Sol, but there were a few others in the Star Force Core Region that could meet up with them if they could ascertain a destination point for the V’kit’no’sat fleet…assuming this was the only one coming. They couldn’t ignore the possibility that they were about to get hit in multiple locations.

Then the fleet in Mastodon began jumping out, with both Rio and Ethan releasing a big sigh of relief, for Morgan’s troops in that system wouldn’t have stood a chance.

They’re jumping for Taail,  Ethan noted, which was the next stop on the old trade route that linked out to only one point on the old V’kit’no’sat frontier…and that was Sol. I think it’s safe to assume they’re headed straight here.

Yeah, but that doesn’t meant they can’t stop off and do some shooting on the way. Clear the road for me, will ya?

Sure. What are you up to?

We know which jumpline they’ll be entering on.

Yes we do.

So get Schwartz to block all traffic outgoing on that jumpline so I can set up the Slip’n’slide.

Ethan thought about that for a moment. I guess there’s no chance of them stopping by just for a chat, is there? What’s your minimum ETA?

Just working on that. Something between 12 and 16 days.

Let’s assume 8. Our ships coming in from Schwartz are all the new models thanks to the distance, the slowest of which will take 6 days to get here. That’s cutting it pretty close.

Have Schwartz send a confirmation message when they shut it down. I’ll get the pieces in position while you handle everything civilian. Clear the skies buddy.

Will do. I hope Roger isn’t too far away.

Same here, Rio said, breaking his link and deciding to talk to his control room staff rather than working through the interface, for not all of them were linked into it.

“Listen up,” he said loudly enough to get all 300+ people’s attention. “Best guess is the V’kit’no’sat are headed straight here. Mastodon to Taail is the old trade route they took to get here, and it seems they’re using the same star charts. Hopefully they keep ignoring everyone they pass on the way, but regardless I’m betting this is their final destination, so amend the orders to the local fleets and get them ready for system defense. If the V’kit’no’sat want to come here, let them. This is where we can hurt them the most. Put out a call for all available reinforcements from roaming fleets, but do not strip assigned defenses from the surrounding systems. This may not be the only assault or that fleet could split up to go against multiple targets. We have to consider that, but my gut says they’re coming straight here.”

“So I want all stellar Sentinels moving towards the Schwartz jumpline. We should have at least 8 days, so don’t waste a minute. Those fat bastards are going to be hard to get in position, so get them moving ASAP. Gauntlet formation along the lower end of the line. Open up warehouses 53 through 78 and get the Slip’n’slide pylons out. Work out the best position on the line beyond the Sentinels. The idea is to cluster them where they will end up, and I want best to worst simulations assuming 50% increase in gravity drive power. Don’t wait on the Sentinels, get them moving and as many free jumpships pushing them along as possible. Leave planetary Sentinels in place, but move any outer ones that mathematically can make it inside of 8 days.”

“Ethan is handling civilian relocation, but we need to evacuate all stations in stellar orbit or they’ll be target practice. I don’t want anything manned down there.”

“What about the Star Forges?” Chad asked.

“They’re not going to be in stellar orbit. When the V’kit’no’sat arrive they’re to descend and hide.”

“They won’t know how long to stay down there if they go deep enough to avoid scans.”

“Then they stay down there until they have to resurface. I don’t want to lose them, and if we evacuate…check that. Get everyone off but a minimal crew, then they’ll take them down the moment the first ship is detected.”

“What about the Earth orbitals?” another Archon asked.

“Ethan will take care of evacuating those, but start making arrangements for the people on the surface. Get me Arch Duke Vectir.”

“He’s been waiting at your convenience,” a staffer said.

Rio placed his hand back on the sphere and linked in, taking control of the comm system and activating a portion of the hologram in front of him to display the Monarch’s image.

“What’s the situation?” the man asked stoically.

“You’ve been watching the live feed?”

“I have.”

“I think they’re going to bypass everything and head straight here, coming in through Schwartz like they used to.”

“That thought crossed my mind. What do you need me to do?”

“We’re going to have to evacuate the orbital population to the surface of all planets, and the more civilian help we get the better.”

“I’ll make sure people make room and conscript as many vessels as needed. Would you like me to tell them or would you prefer keeping them in the dark?”

“No need for a history lesson, just let them know a new enemy from coreward is coming here to knock on our door and they need to get beneath the planetary shields.”

“That should do. Is there anything else?”

“Nothing that we’re not already handling.”

“I’ll stay out of your way then. How much of a chance do we have?”

“With everything we have here, we can beat them with their old fleets. How much they’ve improved and how much collateral damage they want to make are the pertinent questions…not to mention how close their reinforcements are when they realize we’re not pushovers.”

“Collateral damage?”

“Meaning do they want to fight our troops directly or bypass them and start messing up planets. If we have to spread out to defend real estate then we can’t group up as much as we need to and things will get even more messy.”

“Let’s hope they’re as arrogant as their reputation states. And if not, I’m sure you can arrange a few pertinent insults.”

“If only it were that easy. Get everyone nice and cozy beneath the nearest planetary shield and we’ll try to keep this fight in space.”

“How long do we have?”

“At minimum 8 days. Probably considerably more.”

“That’s a lot of people to get down to the surface in 8 days, but it’s doable. I assume you don’t want the Galactica project activated for this?”

“Not unless we can’t evacuate the orbitals without it.”

“I’ll see that we don’t need to,” Vectir said, cutting the link after the last word so he could get to work immediately and not waste any of the precious seconds they had left, for while there were no vulnerable stations in Earth orbit anymore, even the strongest seda couldn’t hold out against the incoming fleet, so anything above the shields of any of the planets in the system had a big fat target on it, though the Arch Duke knew that Rio and Ethan would keep the V’kit’no’sat’s focus elsewhere, and as afraid of their impending arrival as he was, a part of him was also eager to see how the trailblazers and the empire they’d all been working to build these past centuries could fare against their unbeatable progenitors.

2

April 28, 3602

Solar System

Inner Zone

Rio had been spending most of his time on the bridge of the command ship he’d claimed from the 19th fleet and parked off the jumpline close enough to avoid lag penalties, but when the alert finally sounded it caught him in the bathroom. Cursing, he rushed out half a minute later then ran through the short distance back to the bridge and across to the command nexus before the first V’kit’no’sat ship arrived thanks to the preemptive scanning pulses they’d been sending out. They didn’t provide much in the way of a reflective bounce, but it was enough to give you a heads up that a ship was incoming.

When Rio linked in he was able to confirm that the Slip’n’slide pylons were powering up as planned, extending their IDF fields across where the V’kit’no’sat were expected to be making the end of their deceleration run based on information from the Mastodon System and others along the way, including the data from Schwartz that had arrived not so long ago. It was a guess, but the area covered by the Slip’n’slide stretched thousands of kilometers and he had put it outside their expected jumppoint, so the odds of them stopping prior to it were slim given the speeds they had been traveling when leaving Schwartz. Its star was larger than Sol, so he guessed they’d be braking like hell when they got here.

In mind’s eye and on the holographic display stretched before him, Rio saw the cylinder-shaped zone along a chunk of the jumpline light up, indicating the IDF field there was gaining strength. If enough power wasn’t applied to it the incoming speeds and masses of the ships would overload the field, for the gravity from the star still pulled on mass inside of it. The field simply redistributed that pull evenly across the entire field…which was why one couldn’t sit above a star and ‘float’ with an IDF. You’d be pulled down inside like normal, except you wouldn’t feel the gravity effect.

And neither would the V’kit’no’sat’s gravity drives once they hit the aptly named Slip’n’slide. A piece of very expensive technology with almost no use at all that the trailblazers had built and warehoused for a rainy day. Rio had gotten the confirmation message back from Schwartz indicating that they had shut down all traffic coming out of their system through that jumpline so no one else would come through and get caught in the trap, and now that there were ships detected to be incoming everyone knew who it had to be.

But they were a good 3 hours earlier than expected based off guestimates of jump speed from Schwartz, with the inaccuracies due to the fact that once the outgoing ships passed beyond the speed of the sensor pings following them no further data could be ascertained as to their acceleration duration or intensity. Had Rio known it would have been now he would have been here waiting, but his inopportune bathroom break didn’t catch him out of position, for the first V’kit’no’sat ship blur didn’t appear on the battlemap for a good 20 seconds after he arrived.

It was decelerating so hard that the stellar radiation being thrown off it was glowing with frequency compression, making the tiny specks of light far more dangerous than gamma radiation. In fact that level of radiation had to be classified on an entirely different scale, but the general term was ‘Sonazized Radiation.’ The V’kit’no’sat name for it was ‘Gamjonet’ and the amount coming off the first ship in was constantly changing in frequency as the impacts with the stellar radiation slowed down, but when it hit the Slip’n’slide they pegged out, indicating that the IDF was accomplishing its task and insulating the gravity drives from the resistance they needed to operate.

It what felt like a blink of an eye the ship was through and back into normal gravity effect but it couldn’t slow in time to hit whatever its desired jumppoint had been, blowing by it and heading in towards the star. The ships coming in right behind it suffered the same fate, but none of them were aligned side by side. Rather they were in a single file line very closely spaced but with a little sideways variation to avoid possible collisions…standard V’kit’no’sat interstellar jump formation…and that was putting less stress on the IDF than clusters of ships would have.

Rio watched with considerable surprise as the first ship slid into the outer layer of the star, disappearing momentarily on sensors before pulling back out rapidly with its shields taking heavy damage. Those behind it suffered similar fates, though not all fell all the way into the photosphere. Rio hadn’t expected them to go that far in, figuring the V’kit’no’sat navigational systems would have recovered better, but if they had been pressing their drives hard to get here with all available speed then they wouldn’t have much wiggle room to work with.

More streaks came in, resolving into ships just before braking hard to avoid hitting the star. On sensors they were quickly marked as Brat’mar, and with an eerie creepiness Rio knew why they hadn’t taken as much of a dive. The pyramid database was as accurate as a fortune teller, for while all V’kit’no’sat ship types were based on the same basic components and strengths there were some variations beyond the shape, and the Brat’mar were of a nature to build redundancy into their ships…which in this case meant slightly bigger gravity drives, typically only 3% over the rest of the V’kit’no’sat ships, but that same slight superiority was present in armor, shields, sensors, and any other system that contributed to their survivability. Weaponry was slightly scaled down to compensate, with the Brat’mar ships massing the same as the other Dak’bri battlecruisers, but typically lasting longer in battle due to their internal reinforcements.

The 18 mile wide discs looked like something out of the Independence Day movie, but Rio knew these could do far more damage…then suddenly another contact slammed into one of the Brat’mar ships, knocking both into the star and scattering debris with them that glowed as it burned up like fireworks heading into the giant wall of plasma.

More and more V’kit’no’sat ships came in quickly, sliding in close to or entering the star, but once they got themselves straightened out they began gaining altitude just as they were seeing the gauntlet of 853 Sentinel-class defense stations positioned around the bottom end of the jumpline.

With Ethan holding position further back, Rio kept his fleet of deployed drones with him and out of the fireworks as he mentally tagged targets for the Sentinels and his army of remote pilots worked through a touch of lag as they manned the various weapon systems and began shooting the first V’kit’no’sat ships to emerge from the star with huge Ardent beam weapons that made the more compact Bra’hem weapons shy away in shame. Star Force used the latter on their warships, but with the Sentinels ranging in size from 60 to 120 miles long, they had a lot more internal space to hold the machinery for the big guns…and to date, the Ardent beams were the most destructive ranged weapon Star Force had created out of the pyramid database.

And from the first few impacts against weakened shields from their brush with the star, Rio saw that the V’kit’no’sat ships hadn’t advanced to an untouchable level…for when six Ardent beams hit an Era’tran Domjo they punched through and hit the 12 mile long tuning fork on the central stud, putting a nasty gash into its hull armor that was quickly expanded upon by another hit before the ship accelerated too fast for the big beams to track.

Rio followed it and every other ship in his mind as the V’kit’no’sat regrouped so fast he had to grudgingly admit they deserved their reputation, but some of the ships going into the star weren’t coming back out and those that did were showing weakened or even sometimes fully deplenished shields…with Rio tagging those ships as primary targets, hoping to damage or eliminate them before the mass of ships arriving could stack up.

But the V’kit’no’sat didn’t wait. Whether it was strategy or rage, the first few ships coming out headed for the nearest Sentinel and engaged it at medium range, lighting up its massive shields with all manner of weaponsfire as the Sentinel’s own medium ranged weaponry came into play…and it wasn’t using Dre’modon’s anymore, save for point defense. Star Force, so long as it had ample hull space, had upgraded its primary brawling weapons to Tamec’o cannons.

It was ironic, that some of the ships now engaging it were also sporting the same weaponry, though based off of the initial stats his army of analysts were providing as quickly as possible, theirs were some 1200% more effective pound for pound, though the Sentinels had bigger guns that reduced that deficit considerably…plus they had more of them without having to worry about carrying crews. Every bit of the Sentinel was a remote weapons platform and hardened as much as Star Force could get them, with this one being 83 years old and upgraded as recently as 12 years ago.

And it was getting hammered. Its shields held up admirably, but they were draining fast. It’s only saving grace was the overlapping fields of fire from the other Sentinels that were within Ardent range, and there were so many red beams hitting the V’kit’no’sat ships they looked like pin cushions. The first Sentinel won its showdown by a slim margin, knocking out the 4 attacking V’kit’no’sat ships with just a sliver of shield energy remaining, but not 10 seconds later as red Ardent were streaking everywhere to target ships coming back up from the star, numerous Var’ko energy strings struck and penetrated the Sentinel’s shields, digging deep into its thick armor and coming from several Na’shor heading towards it with flanking Ti’mat.

The armor kept the beams from slicing it in half, but the pokes inside were not helpful as they targeted individual weapons rather than going for the guts of the station, plucking one offensive option after another until the Ti’mat swooped in and unloaded at almost pointblank range, duking it out with the Star Force Tamec’o, Dre’mo’dons, and even the anti-missile Ichods as they returned fire with their Uit streamers into the tiny cuts in the armor, burning through the thick plates while sending a stream of fire down between them that expanded like a grenade inside, wrecking everything beneath and spreading out laterally.

Rio saw system after system go down, but Star Force had built the Sentinels with multiple redundancies themselves and they wouldn’t stop fighting even if half the station suddenly disappeared. Each section was individually powered and kept hammering the V’kit’no’sat ships, defiantly refusing to die as fast as they wanted and allowing the other Sentinels to continue hitting them with their Ardent until the first Star Force defense platform finally died.

By that time the number of V’kit’no’sat ships in system had surpassed 1000 and Rio knew his turkey shoot was going to end quickly. Keeping an eye on the estimated abilities of the V’kit’no’sat weapons his analysts were shooting him while targeting ships, a huge blur shot through the Slip’n’side and punched into the star so hard there was a recoiling splash the size of a small solar flare…and he knew their Mach’nel had just arrived.

But when it finally came back out Rio’s adrenaline surged up another notch, for the massive egg-shaped craft typical of the J’gar had no shields and the hull was glowing white/green with radiative damage from the star. It must have punched in farther than the others, for those shields were amongst the most difficult to penetrate within the entire V’kit’no’sat fleet, not just the tiny fragment of ships coming here.

Suddenly every Sentinel within range redirected their Ardent beams and hit the Mach’nel as it came back up, targeting that glowing hull armor as it quickly cooled, returning to its normal green/black stone-like appearance but with obvious melted segments and small craters from the Ardent beams. The armor could soak up a lot of energy, but the Ardent were simply too intense and too large for it to shrug off and Rio could see they were doing decent damage to the hull, but not yet penetrating anywhere…and he hated being too far away to target individual systems, for sooner or later…

Then it happened. A thin orange beam leapt out from the Mach’nel and hit a fully intact Sentinel that hadn’t come under attack yet. The shields held up for the first shot, but the second punched right through and burnt through half the armor plates. Subsequent beams firing with an alarmingly short cooldown tore huge chunks out of the Sentinel as its seemingly pathetic Ardent fired back and barely scratched the Mach’nel’s hull as more of its weaponry came into the fight and targeted closer Sentinels that were already under assault, leaving the Tar’vem’jic free to take on targets of its own choosing.

Rio was watching the beam intensity numbers, seeing that across the board the V’kit’no’sat weapons were showing more power than during the Rit’ko’sor rebellion, but not with any huge advances and no new weaponry was being displayed. Their improvements ranged from 3% up to 42% on the Var’ko, and the big gun was running some 8% hotter than normal…but that meant these V’kit’non’sat were only slightly stronger than they’d been 102,000 years ago.

And that meant it was time to go in.

“Sic ‘em,” Rio told his remote gunners for the fleet of 63,000 drones stationed alongside his command ship, plus another 108,000 placed in four other locations nearby but out of weapons range. Using his Sav-enhanced mind he sent out approach lines and organized the attack in a matter of seconds while letting ship captains tend to the minor details.

Like a swarm of mosquitos, the Star Force drones accelerated hard heading in towards the star then braked soon after, pouring down in amongst the Sentinels but staying out of the jumpline itself as more V’kit’no’sat ships were flying through it off the Slip’n’slide. Rio’s command ship didn’t go in, nor did any other manned craft, but the controlling jumpships eased in closer as they remained in the back as spectators while the Sentinels continued to slug it out in a quickly escalating losing conflict…but they were doing damage and that was the point.

Now the V’kit’no’sat were going to have so many targets to pick from that someone was going to be able to get free shots at them…and he knew they’d go for the Sentinels, because they had the most firepower. That meant his fleet was mostly free to attack with impunity, but as he saw the Mach’nel’s shields go back up in a momentary blip he knew that attacking it was pointless. The more Sentinels it took out the less incoming fire it’d take, for it wasn’t moving in close enough to engage its medium-range weapons on additional targets…which was fortunate, but a choice obviously made so it could recharge its shields. Right now it couldn’t, but take out some more of the incoming beams and its recharge rate would exceed them.

At which point any firepower thrown at it would essentially be wasted.

That was why Rio suddenly ordered all his ships to ignore it, but kept enough Sentinels poking its shields to delay its entering the battle at closer range. The others he redirected to sniping targets of opportunity as the drone swarm began to get within firing range. Their Dre’mo’don and other weapons were inferior to what the V’kit’no’sat wielded, and the ships themselves were so much smaller they seemed horribly outmatched, but Rio and the other trailblazers had been taught how to use swarm tactics by the lizards over multiple centuries, and combined with Star Force rotational tactics…for what little they were worth with this much weaponsfire to contend with…meant that this wasn’t a desperate rush to defend their defense platforms as the V’kit’no’sat probably thought. It was a coordinated and well planned offensive designed to pick off ships before their full fleet could get here.

The carnage going down made the war against the Li’vorkrachnika look like a 7th grade basketball game compared to the varsity contest Rio and Sol found themselves engaged in…and winning.

He lost more Sentinels and drones than the V’kit’no’sat lost ships, but they had no choice but to stay and fight until the rest of their fleet arrived. By the time it did there was debris everywhere, and just when Rio thought they might be arrogant enough to reform and fight it out here and now, the Mach’nel made a microjump out followed by the rest of their fleet in such a display of navigational coordination that they easily disengaged from the Star Force ships even as Rio pressed his advantage and damaged a few more as they fled.

The V’kit’no’sat had just run from Star Force, and while that brought a smile to Rio’s face he knew this was only round 1, for they had pulled out to another position in stellar orbit and were holding there, reforming into a defensive formation that Rio recognized from the pyramid files. They wanted Star Force to chase them and fight it out away from the Sentinels…but Rio wasn’t going to fall for that and held his ships in place, hunting down what surviving V’kit’no’sat vessels there were and taking them out. In other situations he would have tried to recover survivors, but not today. He didn’t have the advantage and anyone he sent in to board those wrecks of ships could be killed by their crews, so he wasn’t going to bother with it…but he also wasn’t going to allow them to be recovered by their fleet or freeze to death, so he methodically destroyed all the remaining fragments of ships as his analysts took stock of the casualties.

The V’kit’no’sat had entered the system with the foretold 10,488 ships, 371 of which had never left the star after entering it, and the remainder had been trimmed down to 7,922, including the big prize that was the Mach’nel, but it had taken moderate armor damage, which would save a lot of firepower down the road, but its shields would be regenerating to full strength soon enough, save for the report that it had lost a couple of generators. That would weaken its protective shell, but wouldn’t cause any gaps in the shields…and it was just a matter of time before the V’kit’no’sat made the necessary repairs, for the Mach’nel had enough internal facilities to build all new equipment if necessary, making the huge ships almost impossible to whittle down via attrition, let alone a direct assault.

“Well done, boyos,” he said to all the Star Force personnel linked into the massive battlemap system that had operated flawlessly. “We just won round one, but they’ve still got their big chess piece and until they lose it they have the upper hand. So don’t get cocky on me. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

3

When Mak’to’ran’s ship came out of its jump he immediately knew something was not right, for he stood in his command circle mentally linked with the Kafcha’s sensors receiving location pings from the other ships already on station and finding they were not where they were supposed to be, nor were they in formation. They were scattered on the very edge of the star and Mak’to’ran’s ship also braked to a position within the hazy stellar halo where he could feel the shields dropping slowly. To his horror he saw an I’rar’et ship pass by razor close and impact the star, quickly disappearing beneath the outer layer until the dreadnaught’s crew added enhanced sensors to Mak’to’ran’s mental vision, allowing him to see several vessels inside and climbing back towards space…

But they were not alone, for back up the jumpline slightly and out of the dangerous radiation from the star were hundreds of large contacts firing on the ships that had already arrived with Ardents. The rumors of these Zen’zat having Bra’hems had been woefully understated and he knew instantly that his ships were in trouble. Some were already attacking one of the Zen’zat ships, but from the overlapping firepower of the enemy his command had already been bloodied…and not from the contact he saw disappearing within the star, for at least one ship had not made it back out in time before its shields failed and its armor melted through to the interior.

Mak’to’ran’s Sav-enhanced mind worked quickly, and he was immensely thankful that his race had been gifted the psionic. Not even the Hjar’at had it, with it being something the long necks had held exclusively to themselves until the Era’tran had risen in prominence and they decided to bequeath it to them. Right now it was allowing him to issue orders to his crew, the other ships nearby, and to analyze the additional contacts further out along the jumpline that were responsible for their navigational woes.

He knew the significance of them as soon as the analysis came through, but it was still hard to imagine. The Zen’zat had created an IDF corridor at the end of where his fleet was attempting to brake against the star’s gravity when it was at its strongest, and denying them that had made them overshoot. Fortunately the gravity where they were now was even stronger and had allowed his ship to avoid hitting the denser stellar material, but not all his ships were so lucky and those that were coming back out from collisions with the stellar furnace were showing reduced shields at minimum, with a lot of them also carrying armor damage.

And the Zen’zat vessels were targeting the damaged ones, taking advantage of both the navigational mishap and the fact that the full V’kit’no’sat fleet wasn’t here yet. With a thought Mak’to’ran ordered the damaged ships to link up with others, drawing a pair of partially melted Hjar’at Na’shor to his command ship and extending their own shields out into a wider frontal barrier while relying on the other two ships for lateral protection. The Ardents began hitting his shields, but the dreadnaught held firm and the two Hjar’at warships began to regenerate their shields as he drew more ships to him, forming a cluster that reinforced one another and began to give the most badly damaged ships time to catch their breath all the while hundreds of Ardents were retargeting to hit the isolated ships…some of which were just dropping out of their jumps without a clue as to what was going on or why they were out of position.

Then to his continual horror he saw a Pas’cha Dak’bri battlecruiser run into another Era’tran Kafcha, with both shields popping like bubbles and the hulls denting against one another at the ‘slow’ impact speed. The Era’tran ship was pushed into the star along with the Pas’cha, and with their shields already down their hull armor began to eat away immediately.

Mak’to’ran knew it wasn’t their entry formation at fault for this, but the fact that the varying ships were decelerating at different rates due to slight differences in design and class. The Pas’cha had slightly weaker gravity drives, though almost identical to every other ship in the fleet, but that little deviation during emergency deceleration protocols when they couldn’t get sensor locks on the ships ahead of them meant they were all probably going to hit the star…and this one had dragged an Era’tran ship in with it, to both their deaths.

Mak’to’ran couldn’t lament on that, for he had to get the ships here organized and clear as much of the jumpline as he could not knowing where all of the ships were going to come out, but within a few seconds he began to get approximations based on ship class and design of those already observed. It looked like the Brat’mar were faring the best, but that also put them closest to the Zen’zat ships…which were now being updated as defense stations situated along the jumpline. The Zen’zat ships were stationed further off, out of the combat and watching the chaos ensue.

A masterful ambush, a piece of his mind thought as the rest of it was frantically at work trying to bring his fleet into some semblance of a fighting stance. Now there is no question that they must die, having bled their brothers, but at least they have acquitted themselves skillfully. We taught them well.

Mak’to’ran checked his fleet to see who was impacting the star and who wasn’t, trying to discern who the traitors in his midst were, but it appeared that all the ships arriving were doing so without proper deceleration. Either that was a deliberate ploy to conceal their part in this or the ships assigned to this mission didn’t know about the ambush they were walking into.

Just then the Mach’nel arrived, and with a streak of horror filling him he saw it hit the star at greater speed than any other, forgoing any thoughts of the J’gar having arranged this. They would never sacrifice such a ship as a ploy, and it had just punched deep into the star, so deep that Mak’to’ran feared the impact velocities alone.

As more ships arrived he tried to cover for them, focusing on taking out the nearest of the Zen’zat stations so that the Ardent beams would be less in number so close, but in order to attack the stations with their full weaponry he had to move his ships in closer…and that brought more of the stations into range, hammering his ships and triggering many losses, but he had no choice. If he did not hold his ground here and merely fled with the surviving ships then those still to arrive would be picked apart one at a time. Only as a group could they keep some of them alive, and the less stations the Zen’zat had the less damage they could do, so fighting was their only alternative and he hated/admired the Zen’zat for forcing him into this scenario. Those who believed them to be inferior members of the V’kit’no’sat would long rue this day, just as those who had said similar things about the Rit’ko’sor up until their skillful rebellion. Arrogance had its price, and the Era’tran commander was trying to diminish it here as much as possible.

When he saw the Mach’nel punch its way back into space he was both relieved and horrified, for it had no shields and was glowing from the extensive armor damage, but he knew that the Zen’zat could not take it out even in its current condition, so he ordered it to hold position and recharge its shields while weathering the Ardent coming its way to expand upon the damage. He specifically told the J’gar not to get any closer, citing the range limitations of the other stations, though it did send some medium ranged fire at the closest ones, helping to add to the current barrage from the reassembling fleet that was carving themselves out a foothold.

Mak’to’ran didn’t have to explain further, for the single weapon on the Mach’nel that could outdistance them immediately fired on one of the Zen’zat constructs and he knew he now was in a much better position, though still losing ships constantly. He continued to hammer the closest stations to the point where his arriving ships were mostly making it through, though the Zen’zat were still focusing most of their firepower on the damaged ships…and when the Mach’nel finally regained shields they wisely stopped assaulting it, thought their redirect began to kill more of the other vessels.

Mak’to’ran held his position long enough for the rest of his fleet to arrive, pushing up through more than a hundred of the Zen’zat stations at great cost as their warships finally decided to join the fight. They were small, but numerous and it wasn’t until nearly the end of his fleet’s arrival did he realize from battle damage being incurred that they were unmanned vessels.

Zen’zat did not fight in such a manner, and a quick check discovered heavy use of control signals emanating from larger ships stationed a fair distance off that had not entered the fight. They were the size of traditional V’kit’no’sat ships but of an entirely different design, somewhere between Dak’bri and Na’shor, but with huge empty chunks in their hull that apparently fit the simple block design of the attacking ships.

Mak’to’ran knew better than to stick around and fight them in the shadow of their defense stations, for there were too many targets to hit and a good portion of his ships had begun this fight weakened by their brush with the star, so once the last Lir’nen ship arrived he organized a fighting withdrawal out of the mess of attacking ships and had his fleet make a microjump around the perimeter of the star into a region that showed no enemy contacts.

It wasn’t until halfway there and the Zen’zat stopped their pursuit did he begin to recognize the reality of the situation. There were no more defense stations on the other jumplines. Only on the one that they had entered on, suggesting that the others had been moved there deliberately, but they were not the only ones in the system.

Further out around some of the planets were more, and with them numerous other stations and fleets. The blocky ships that had attacked them had many more of their kind spread out in clumps waiting for combat…and he saw many orbital constructs that would make for easy target practice, which was probably why those ships were stationed nearby them.

But as the sensor readings from across the star system continued to flow in he was aghast at how much the Zen’zat had built here. The proposed 2 millennia was a joke. This system had to have been constructed long ago to reach this level of development, for they had even heavily inhabited the unwanted worlds.

Very heavily. If these were all Zen’zat and Ter’nat, then this was a much larger affront to the V’kit’no’sat than expected, and who knew how many more of them were in other systems in this so called ‘Star Force.’ Mak’to’ran had stumbled onto something of far greater magnitude than he’d been led to believe…now he had to make sure they survived the immediate future long enough to recover his fleet’s strength so they could start working this problem from the inside out.

Fortunately the Zen’zat let them go. Had they pursued them additional losses would have ensued, but it looked like they were going to hold position near the stations and dare them to come back…and like clockwork he got a comm from the Hjar’at command ship.

“Garrtak, I am glad you survived.”

“Many others did not,” the stegosaurus said, his twin rows of spins glowing blue and spiking little tendrils of lighting in utter rage. “What is our target?”

“Information,” Mak’to’ran said, knowing that wouldn’t please the Hjar’at. “The Zen’zat set a clever ambush for us, but now that we’re here and recovering they cannot easily dispatch this fleet despite our losses. We will hold position and see if they are stupid enough to come to us while we analyze their full assets here. Our vengeance will be delayed momentarily, my friend.”

“Those defense stations need eliminated.”

“And they will be, but have you noticed how many ships they have around the system?”

Garrtak took a moment to respond as he referenced the data available to his mind through his own command circle.

“They are small, but their number is alarming. Especially if they have called for reinforcements. This ambush signals they knew we were coming.”

“It does, but none of our ships seemed to be aware of their clever navigational disruption. Not all hit the star, but we’ve all been bled here.”

“If one can betray us, they can betray their own race as well.”

“The Rit’ko’sor never did, but your point is taken. The Zen’zat may have arranged this on their own without their sponsor knowing.”

“Are we expecting to receive any ships along that jumpline?”

“No, we are not, but I do want those devices preserved for study.”

“Why?” the Hjar’at asked, clearly wanting to smash something…and probably a lot of somethings.

“Because we’ve never built anything like that. The principle is simple enough, but we’ve never made use of it.”

“Because it’s absurd. With a single scout you can determine the veracity of a jumpline before you enter.”

“We did not,” Mak’to’ran said firmly, with the deaths of his fellow V’kit’no’sat, and especially the Era’tran, foremost in his mind, “and they took advantage of our arrogance. It is clear these Zen’zat do not fight in traditional ways, so be vigilant to look for more treachery in both their strategy and equipment.”

“I will, I promise you that. But do not delay their destruction for a fact finding mission.”

“A delay is necessary. Do not think I am not angered by this, but we must move with caution else we will lose more ships.”

The Hjar’at’s mouth worked itself around as if it didn’t know whether to chew or speak, but eventually more controlled words came out.

“Your counsel is wise and we are with you, but we are eager to hit them back.”

“And we will, but first let us find out who it is that we are fighting. Are these just Zen’zat, or do you want to hit their sponsors?”

“Both.”

“And to find both we need answers.”

“How do you plan to get them? Their ships are unmanned and there is nothing near here to raid. All their constructs are guarded.”

“Not all,” Mak’to’ran said, sending Garrtak some coordinates. “There are a scattering of facilities that have been left alone.”

“If they were of value they would not be. Either they are expendable or they are another trap.”

“Indeed, they may well be. But let us take a closer look, and in the process get some data on their ships’ engines,” he said, contacting the other commanders and bringing them all into the same comm channel, seeing their now smaller holograms surrounding him.

“Continue analyzing all sensors and comm signal intercepts while we hold defensive position here, but I need scout teams sent to these locations,” he said, sending the coordinates to 13 widely spaced stations in higher orbits around the star and well away from any planet. “Expect a trap and explore carefully, but we need access to their technology and preferably their people. This is information gathering, not destruction, and if their structures are designed for Zen’zat then we will need to send Zen’zat and those who can fit in their spaces. The Ari’tar and Nak’ren will be sent with what ships you deem necessary, so long as you can contain your rage and acquit the mission per my instructions.”

“Separate targets or shared?” the Nak’ren asked, with its backward swept horns bracketing the quadruped’s wide head.

“Separate. All of us were bled today, and until I see evidence to the contrary I am assuming all in this fleet are loyal to the V’kit’no’sat even if your kin are not, so there will be no more questioning of loyalties here until we have firm evidence to the contrary. Is that understood?”

“Someone is to blame, Mak’to’ran,” the J’gar said, looking ill.

“Yes there is, and we need information to determine who it is, but do you believe they would send troops here to die in an ambush with such knowledge, or would they betray them as well to disguise their part in this?”

“Their race is still complicit regardless.”

“And what if it is your race? Should I hold you responsible?”

The J’gar’s eyes flared angrily. “After the damage we sustained you should not doubt us. Half my crew are dead and some will be unrecoverable.”

“And what if your leaders sacrificed you to cover their deceit?” Mak’to’ran pressed. “I will not hold you and your crew responsible for them seeing as how you have also been betrayed, and I will do likewise for anyone else in this fleet. We are brothers here despite what has been transpiring elsewhere, and unless there is treachery enacted by those in this fleet, all ships here are immune to retribution when we discover the sponsor of these Zen’zat on my order and it will not be rescinded. We are bled now, all of us, and that will speak for the loyalties here and cleanse any that had foreknowledge of betrayal. We are pure in this fleet until one chooses to sully that clarity with present actions.”

“You are far too generous for an Era’tran,” the Hjar’at said, but approvingly, “though I concur. Those sent here were betrayed by the betrayers, and when we discover what race is behind this they will be absolved of prior complicity so long as their current actions do not negate it.”

“Then we, as V’kit’no’sat, will uncover the treason here,” Mak’to’ran said with finality. “Ari’tat, Nak’ren, secure those facilities immediately in a manner of your choosing. The rest of us will remain here and watch how the Zen’zat fleet responds. If we can bait them in to fighting us away from their defense stations then it is to our advantage, but I do not think them to be that stupid. If I am right we have time to look, listen, and discover, so make use of it and probe the depths of the treachery found here.”

4

April 30, 3602

Solar System

Inner Zone

The Ari’tat gunships flew across from their Domjo to the Zen’zat station without resistance. The weaponry onboard it had already been destroyed along with the shield generators. The fight had been quick, for the station was barely 3 miles wide and had a paltry spread of weapons, but sensor scans were showing no one onboard. The Ari’tat didn’t know if this was a trick or meant that the weaponry had been controlled remotely the same way their unmanned ships had been, but all cautionary scans had been taken ad nauseum and there was nothing left to do aside from either destroying the station or boarding it…and they weren’t going to get many answers from analyzing debris.

When the gunships came close to the hull, intent on cutting through to the interior, the hangar doors suddenly opened up. Nothing came out, but it seemed that they were being invited inside. The Ari’tat leading their own Zen’zat onboard the gunships held off, doing even more scans, but when they failed to detect any traps they sent one of their 7 gunships ahead to probe for threats up close.

When it landed safely and subsequent scans from inside revealed nothing amiss, the others followed it in and set down on the deck. If the rogue Zen’zat thought they could vent the atmosphere and kill the boarders they were going to be disappointed, for all the Ari’tat and their Zen’zat came off the gunships fully armored and with adhesion traction enabled on their feet so a sudden gust of wind wouldn’t pull them out into space.

But when Damni walked out onto the deck with his tiny steps taking forever, as he refused to hop in order to maintain constant traction, nothing happened. No emergency venting, no hidden weapons popping into view, no deck plates exploding…the hangar was just empty, without so much as a ship or crate in it aside from those the V’kit’no’sat had brought. Apparently this station had been abandoned before they arrived in system due to its lack of adequate defenses, but someone was obviously still in control of it else the hangar wouldn’t have opened on its own unless instructed to do so in some form.

“Go,” he ordered to the four Zen’zat accompanying him, mentally pointing them to one of four exiting doors while the other two Ari’tat from his gunship did likewise with their towering Zen’zat. If there was going to be a fight the knee-high Ari’tat would not be at the center of it, rather staying back and shooting from their compressed Dre’mo’don that required charges to be gathered in order to deliver a powerful enough hit from their tiny armored suits. It was equivalent to what the Dre’mo’don mounted on the arms of the Zen’zat had, though theirs could fire rapidly. The Ari’tat could not given their small size, but they were not here for the combat, rather for the investigation of the station.

It was a joke amongst many V’kit’no’sat races that the Ari’tat were weaker than the Zen’zat, but for this mission it was a blessing for the larger races would have had trouble moving about in the corridors that Damni now entered. They were clearly designed for Zen’zat to move around freely, but with a head height that no Era’tran could have endured without discomfort. For once the Ari’tat had an advantage as the others could only have sent their Zen’zat in, but Mak’to’ran had been wise in giving this station to the Ari’tat to plunder…to which end Damni had his team searching for any type of control center or computer system core.

They had generic blueprints from the sensor scans, but now that they were inside the station it was clear that it was not V’kit’no’sat construction. Everything was different, though with a similar feel here and there. The technology used was V’kit’no’sat, but refashioned in an odd way that bespoke of blasphemy. These rogue Zen’zat were not just operating beyond their mandated borders, they were eschewing everything that was of their empire while still reaping the benefits of it…and that disgusted the Ari’tat to no end.

Upon further exploration, the results of which all teams shared with each other and those watching from afar, the purpose of the station was quickly determined…it was a rescue/repair facility to deal with stellar traffic and there were many blueprints for vessels of both this Zen’zat make and others within their empire, as well as those of passing travelers, but none for the warships. Also, there were more blank spots in the files where the Ari’tat determined essential data had been removed. Somehow these Zen’zat had expected them to board the station, for the deletions had occurred days ago.

“Looking for something?” a voice said in V’kit’no’sat, prompting Damni to spin around seeing an unarmored Zen’zat standing behind him with the Ari’tat’s guards aiming their weaponry at him, both their forearm gauntlets and a couple of heavier rifles they’d brought, but a quick look with Pef’bar determined the individual to be nothing more than a hologram.

“Identify yourself,” Damni said, trying to keep his tone neutral despite the anger surging through him, both at the previous ambush and the twinkling gray eyes of the hologram.

“I am Ethan-014. And you are?”

“Your death if you do not give me the answers I seek.”

The rogue Zen’zat spread his arms wide in an impish gesture. “You’re free to try, Ari’tat, but you’ll find we’re harder to kill than you expect. Nonetheless I’m interested in talking. Let’s start with the part where you’re here to wipe us from existence and how no matter what we do or don’t do the result will be the same, thus making your threat quite hilarious.”

“Do not mock your superiors, Zen’zat.”

“Pointing out the truth of the moment isn’t mocking, and you’re an Ari’tat. ‘Superior’ doesn’t really suit you, now does it? They let you board the station because some of them wouldn’t fit, didn’t they? What exactly are you looking for before blowing everything up?”

“I will ask the questions, Zen’zat, not you.”

“I am not a Zen’zat. I am an Archon.”

“Your pathetic delusions do not shield your identity. Who is your sponsor?”

The Zen’zat’s eyes narrowed into a frown. “Sponsor?”

“Who gave you this colony and technology?”

“Gave us? No one gave us anything. We built it all ourselves. Did you think we were V’kit’no’sat?”

“All Zen’zat are V’kit’no’sat. Where did you originate from?”

“Here, and I believe we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot. You’re here to kill us for some other reason, aren’t you?”

“We are here because your presence was revealed by your enemies.”

“Who?” the ‘Archon’ asked, obviously displeased.

“Those called the Li’vorkrachnika attacked one of our worlds and are currently being annihilated for their audacity. We plucked the knowledge of your existence from them, though I will give you credit for successfully hiding out here so long. Did you really think you’d be allowed to operate with impunity forever just because you were beyond the border? That is stupid thinking even for Zen’zat.”

The Archon’s shoulders slumped heavily and his face took on a look of disbelief.

“They attacked you? First?”

“Unwisely so.”

“Those dumb bastards,” he said, pressing the palms of his bare hands against his forehead as he bared his teeth in obvious anger. “Of all the…son of a bitch!”

“Who is your sponsor?” Damni repeated.

“Oh my gosh, this is like the biggest facepalm in history! They actually attacked you? What, like a little world or did they just go straight to a big one and get wiped out?”

“Answer me, Zen’zat.”

“Why, if you’re just going to kill us all…and by the way, for the record I just did. You just don’t want to accept the answer.”

May I? one of the Zen’zat asked Damni telepathically.

The Ari’tat looked up, quite perturbed at her arrogance, but perhaps a different tactic would be advisable. With a thought he gave her permission, then the Zen’zat took a step closer to the hologram as her helmet retracted, showing a tattooed chin and stark red hair that extended out a few inches from her extraordinarily pale scalp.

“You claim to be born of this world?” she asked him.

“I was,” Ethan answered, sizing her up. She was tall like all Zen’zat were, 7 feet 9 inches based off the hologram’s measuring system, but the markings on her face were unknown to him. Perhaps something added after the Rit’ko’sor rebellion…or she just liked the design.

“What Zen’zat bore you?” she asked, with the treason of that very sentence rolling off her tongue awkwardly.

“My mom wasn’t a Zen’zat. In fact, I can’t answer that question for you. The history of our world has been lost for some time. We only rediscovered the past fairly recently, but it’s a pretty safe bet to say that when you guys evacuated this world during the Rit’ko’sor rebellion you left a few Zen’zat behind. I’m guessing they didn’t like that very much, decided to break the rules and start creating younglings, for here we are now. If you have another theory feel free to present it, but we’re pretty sure that’s how it went down.”

The red-haired Zen’zat exchanged a glance with the Ari’tat, then looked back at Ethan’s hologram.

“How have you advanced so far? You must have had help.”

“You mean these?” Ethan said, pointing to his eyes.

“Among other things, yes. How old are you?”

“1581.”

The Zen’zat’s face scrunched up in confusion. “How have you achieved Mvor in such a short length of time?”

“A combination of heavy training and sharing psionics.”

“Sharing?”

“We learned how on accident, but so long as one of us can gain it naturally we can do some telepathic tinkering to symmetrically trigger the same ascension in another. And don’t bother to call it treason, because we’re not V’kit’no’sat and we’re not bound by your rules, and yes, we know, you’re going to kill us all for that, blah, blah, blah. My question to you is why you’re bothering to search our stations rather than just blowing them apart?”

“It is believed you were put here by a sponsor race to cheat the boundaries and rules regarding Zen’zat.”

“Oh we’re cheating the rules, that’s for sure, but we’re doing it on our own. You lost all authority over us when you left our ancestors here to die, so we’re charting our own course now.”

“How do a few Zen’zat know how to build all this? I couldn’t if I was left behind.”

Ethan smiled. “You’re a much better diplomat than your short friend there. Ari’tat do seem to forget that we can kick them across the room at will, don’t they?”

The Zen’zat’s stern demeanor broke ever so slightly as a curve of a hastily suppressed smile broke her face.

“They have more territory than others, and for good reason. If there is combat needed on the ground that is what we are for. So you claim to have built this entire empire by yourselves, including the advanced weaponry used to shoot the ship I came here in?”

“Yes, and I would apologize for that…except for the fact you came here to kill us all. Knowing that, I have no regrets about destroying as many of your ships as we just did.”

“There are far more where those came from.”

“We know. I admit our records aren’t up to date, but we know the approximate size of the V’kit’no’sat empire. And if you choose to leave now we promise not to follow you back there.”

“Now who is being arrogant?”

“Not arrogant. Simply stating that unlike those idiot Li’vorkrachnika we had no intention of attacking you. I know you don’t care about that and we all still have to die, yadda, yadda, yadda, but it’s worth noting anyway. You’re coming onto our territory to kill us, not the reverse.”

“What is ‘yadda?’”

“It’s a generic term used to represent other stuff that you don’t feel like taking the time to detail.”

“Zen’zat serve the V’kit’no’sat without exclusion. If you do not hold to that duty then you deserve to die.”

“Except that I was born from Zen’zat, and I’m denoted as having to be destroyed regardless of any decision I make. If we decided to come back and report ourselves to the Ari’tat or others, say a year ago, what would have happened?”

“That is not for me to say. I serve, I do not lead.”

“You know the answer though. We would be exterminated, even if I didn’t have these eyes.”

“Do you think they will save you?”

“If I had to fight you personally, perhaps. Though at the moment I think I’d much rather kiss you, but your little sidekick superiors wouldn’t allow for that, now would they?”

“I wouldn’t allow for that.”

“Hard to get, huh? Don’t worry, we’re not the settling down type. It’s all training and fighting for Archons. The rest of the Humans…that’s what we call ourselves since we’re not Zen’zat or Ter’nat…do the reproducing. We’re too busy getting stronger to bother with it.”

“Then Archons are your warriors?”

“Best warriors. We have others, of many races too. And we’re all going to kick your ass every chance we get as you try to exterminate us, so expect heavy losses even if you succeed.”

“Your technology is impressive, but it’s not up to date.”

“Close enough to get the job done.”

“How much did they leave you with? I thought the planet’s colony had been destroyed prior to evacuation.”

“We found some buried stuff not long ago. Everything else had been wiped from the surface. It’s taken us quite a while to figure out how the technology works…and we’ve made a few improvements. One of which you experienced on the way in.”

“That was basic IDF technology.”

“Which was never applied in this manner, correct? Or have you made some strategic upgrades lately?”

“Your new technology will not work a second time, for we now know it exists.”

“It served its purpose.”

“So it did. And if there was ever any doubt as to your fate, the losses you have inflicted upon us have now sealed it.”

“Oh come on, our fate was already sealed. We have nothing to lose and you got your ass kicked, just admit it.”

“How did you know we were coming if a sponsor didn’t inform you?”

“We have interstellar communications, or did you not bother to notice them on the way here?”

“But that was recent. Why did you construct these IDF devices earlier?”

“Because we thought they might come in handy someday.”

“You expected to be discovered?”

“We did eventually, which was why we didn’t pursue those dumbass Li’vorkrachnika closer to the core. We needed as much time to advance and grow as we could get until you came back to claim your lost colony…and just out of curiosity, were you guys ever going to do that or had you permanently abandoned the old frontier worlds?”

“They exist beyond the mandated boundaries, so you were safe here in anonymity. Pity your attempted purge of the Li’vorkrachnika pushed them in our direction, else you might not have been discovered.”

“Pity from a Zen’zat? Almost sounds like you’re rooting for us?”

“It’s a pity you didn’t have time to grow stronger, for no matter what happens in this battle the wrath that you have incited will flow out from our territories and wipe you from existence with little effort. As a warrior I would prefer a bit more of a challenge. Fortunately here and now I do not expect us to wait for reinforcements. We have sufficient strength to destroy you, though it will be a contest rather than the expected slaughter.”

“Just curious, how old are you?”

“18,923.”

Ethan tilted his head back and forth as if mentally weighing that figure.

“Not bad. What skill level?”

“Zardaku 24.”

This time Ethan’s smile was so wide it showed all his teeth.

“That’s it? Damn, you guys really do slack off with no one to fight, don’t you?”

“And what is your level, or do you not even measure by those standards?”

“I’m aware of them, but we don’t use them. I’m an Archon ViLord 498. In a year or two I’ll hit Frieza 1, though I’m not sure how much of a delay our fighting is going to cause me. We actually advance slower in combat than we do pure training. As for where that would put me in Zen’zat levels, somewhere around Tamrenor 84.”

The red-haired Zen’zat’s eyes widened, and Ethan nodded his confirmation.

“Not lying, sweetie. I’ve been training all my life to prepare for the day you guys came back to kill us, and I’m not the only one. Leave now and we’ll let you go. Press your attack and you’d better hope we feel like taking prisoners. We usually do, but with you guys it’d be pretty hard to pull off without getting more of our own people killed. That said, we do like a challenge, so there’s a tiny chance you and I could get together for a little interrogation date later…but no promises.”

“If you have questions, ask me now. I have no need to lie.”

“Alright. What did you mean by sponsor?”

“We worried that one of our own races was on the verge of rebellion and had been creating an army of rogue Zen’zat beyond the border to assist them. If you are speaking the truth then such fears were baseless. If you are lying, we will discover who the sponsor is eventually.”

“So that’s why you’re looking for information.”

“Some of which you deleted prior to abandoning this station.”

“Personal rule, never give up more than a kiss on the first date…though I don’t actually date, so that’s more like a theoretical personal rule. Yeah, theoretical personal rule. I’m sticking with that.”

“You certainly don’t speak like a Zen’zat.”

“Too much awesomeness? I’ll admit to that.”

“How many psionics do you have?”

Ethan smiled. “You’ll have to find that out the hard way.”

“So be it.”

“Do you have a name?”

“I do, but it is of no use to you, for you will not live long enough to need it.”

“Are you saying our conversation is over? I was just starting to like you.”

“Ours is, yes,” she said, disappearing as the holo channel was hacked and his vision of the station was replaced with a view of a massive Era’tran standing in a sea of neutral black and looking down on him.

“I am Mak’to’ran, and if you wish to talk you will do so with me, for I hold your fate.”

“Fleet commander then?”

“Indeed, and had you been following the orders of another race I was prepared to spare you. This circumstance that you claim was not anticipated and I require additional information.”

“All the more to better kill us with?”

“No Zen’zat were abandoned on this world. The records indicate full surface destruction and a subsequent evacuation of the aquatics.”

“Our records say the same, but here we are nonetheless.”

“Then if you are not aware of your origin, the possibility that you have been planted here by someone after the fact cannot be discounted.”

“Fair point, but we’ve had no contact with anyone in the V’kit’no’sat. Everything we’ve built we’ve done ourselves, and I know that because I’m one of the few originals that have done the building.”

“You are too young.”

“We didn’t discover our buried legacy until around the time I was born. We’ve just built really fast since then.”

“Too fast,” Mak’to’ran, “which is why I do not believe all that you are telling me.”

“But you believe some of it?”

“Your eyes do not lie.”

“They could be, if I altered them to look like Mvor.”

“But you would not know of it unless one of you had achieved it. Tell me of this sharing you discovered.”

“Well, let me save you some time. You’re already analyzing our public records, so you’ll have noticed that the majority of our population acts more like Ter’nat than Zen’zat. That’s because they’re descended from Zen’zat and you’ve never experienced that. I will let you know that with subsequent generations the basic psionics go dormant. We had to unlock ours through intensive training and they didn’t always develop properly. There was an anomaly in a pair of twins that we were able to replicate, thus using one’s status to trigger the other.”

“So your ‘Humans’ have lived as Ter’nat until the discovery of rubble? Then you have advanced so far in less than 2,000 years to counter us both psionically and navally? Do you truly believe that we would fall for such a paltry ruse?”

“Not a ruse, but I think you’re going to have to figure that out for yourself so let’s just make this official before we start killing each other en mass. You came here to annihilate us and you’re not going to change your minds, correct?”

“Zen’zat cannot breed. If you had been proper Zen’zat following orders I could have spared you, but you are an abomination that must be destroyed regardless of your source. And if you are proper Zen’zat lying as to your origin, then tell me now or you will suffer the fate of your lie even if it is exposed later. This is the only chance I’m offering you to right yourselves.”

Ethan threw his hands up in helplessness.

“Sorry, but I was born here and am not a proper Zen’zat.”

“Then your fate is sealed.”

“Isn’t that a bit unfair? After all, I didn’t choose to be born.”

“It may not be fair, but it must be done to maintain the purity of the V’kit’no’sat. Zen’zat cannot breed. It is the price of their potential, and if they violate that trust then their offspring will suffer the consequences along with them. You bear their treason, now in addition to your own for the ambush you set for us.”

“If we’re going to die, then we’re going to take as many of you bastards with us as we can,” Ethan promised sternly.

“You may try, but it will be a far less a number than you hope. You no longer have the element of surprise.”

“Oh trust me, we’ve got a lot more in store for you.”

“Do your worst, little Zen’zat. It will not save you.”

“Today is a good day to die. Let me know how that works out for you,” Ethan said, then his hologram cut out from Mak’to’ran’s view, leaving the Era’tran with nothing but cold rage and confusion. He did not know what was happening here, but he was going to find out.

And when he did, regardless of the truth, these arrogant Zen’zat abominations were going to be destroyed no matter what the cost.

5

March 2, 3602

Solar System

Inner Zone

“All indications are that the Archon spoke the truth,” the Zen’zat commander for the Hjar’at said in the holo conference between V’kit’no’sat commanders, with the absence of the Voro’nam Oprachem. He had been killed in the battle with the defense stations when the tiny enemy ships entered the fight, but the rest of the commanders remained along with his appointed replacement.

“You refer to the rogue Zen’zat as Archon for a specific reason?” the Era’tran asked.

“I do. Their information nets are still active, and while there is a possibility of misinformation contained within them I feel that they are not restricting what is already public knowledge on the assumption that we have already scouted them out and accessed the information previously. Based on it, I do not believe these Archons were ever trained as Zen’zat. There are some correlations, as if they have had knowledge from us to pick from, but the largest deviation is their size. They are Ter’nat sized, and I do not believe they should be referred to as Zen’zat, nor should they be expected to behave as such.”

“They fight differently,” the Hjar’at agreed. “The use of remotely controlled ships is curious.”

“We have ascertained the location of the control signals,” the Zen’zat continued. “They originate from the larger ships that did not enter the fight, and we speculate there will also be control signals emanating from the planets when combat occurs over them. Delay of signal is a key factor here, so their controllers must be within a reasonable distance from the battle. We recommend these be high value targets.”

“Surely their ships will not deactivate with loss of signal,” the J’gar stated.

“Unknown. We are analyzing battle data in an attempt to determine how to block them, but until we are able to we will not know the result. There may be contingency programing, but if it was as effective as remote control then they wouldn’t bother with the heavy signal blanket.”

“How heavy?” Mak’to’ran asked.

“Very. All their ships are constantly broadcasting to one another, including some beam transmissions that we physically blocked with line of light crossings.”

“Can we take control of their own vessels?”

“Theoretically yes, but unless they are reckless they will have prepared for such countermeasures. I do not think such a tactic will be useable in the near future. We will require battle to test this.”

“That will be forthcoming,” Mak’to’ran promised. “What have you learned of their origins?”

“1600 years. Prior to that this empire did not exist and they were confined to this single world. Once the economic organization under the label of ‘Star Force’ emerged their technological advancement skyrocketed and they quickly secured control of the planet while spreading out to others. They were nearly destroyed by the Li’vorkrachnika, then rose to such a strength to conquer their original territory and drive them towards the core. Aspects of their technology are more primitive than ours, even if not counting the advancements made post Rit’ko’sor rebellion, while others are comparable. Their signal complexity rivals our own.”

“It would need to be,” the I’rar’et commander pointed out, “if they wanted to fight us with weapons rather than warriors.”

“They rarely lose Archons, and their other lesser forms of troops are also preserved at high effort. Foremost among them are Knights, which are Zen’zat size, but they appear to have no psionics. After them are Ter’nat sized fighters referred to as Commandos, and they are the basic troops their empire relies upon, though most are not what they call ‘Human.’ They have incorporated several hundred races into their empire, foremost among them as the Bsidd. They reproduce alarmingly fast and in different forms. No special abilities, but they are augmented with decent armor and training. They are not viewed as expendable. Nothing living in Star Force is. They also do not consume meat and have fought several small wars to stop others from doing so.”

“At least they’re civilized,” the Oso’lon commented, though his tone held very little love for the rogue Zen’zat. “Have you divined a purpose to their expansion?”

“They have been growing in size rapidly, but they are only attacking those that give them provocation. They are not blanket conquering for territory. They have an altruistic skew to their actions that betrays pragmatism. I believe we can bait them into attacking if we put some of their people in jeopardy. They are rabidly loyalty to one another and not willing to make sacrifices of the living, though they have been known to prudently sacrifice their ships. They preserve them if possible, despite their small size, but when pushed into an appropriate situation they will expend them accordingly…but only the unmanned ones. Their ‘jumpships’ carry what they call ‘drones’ between systems, thus reducing the size of internal drives and making them more volume efficient. The jumpships are the weak link.”

“How well armed are they?” the Hjar’at asked.

“Fair, with Bra’hem and an unusual weapon called a ‘Bloon Launcher’ that slowly sends a massive ball of various energies in a containment shell to target. If allowed to hit, it will do significant damage and they can alter the contents based on need.”

“Are Ardents the limit of their weaponry?”

“The jumpships do not appear to have them, only their defense stations and probably surface batteries. There is no record of anything stronger, but there is also very little data on the weapons, for they appear to have been a recent addition to their arsenal. However, we have found something truly disturbing. Something that even we do not possess.”

“What treachery have they conceived?” the Oso’lon asked.

“There appears to have been a race that preceded us in the galaxy that was wiped out, but their greatest weapons were too powerful to be destroyed. The victors captured, contained, and sedated them across the galaxy where they have laid dormant until recently. Star Force has acquired the ability to control them by unknown means and has been collecting them in a region they refer to as the ‘Uriti Preserve.’ It is a collection of star systems where they keep the weaponized versions of Hadarak.”

Not a word came from the assembled commanders, for none of them could conceive of what had just been said. Eventually Mak’to’ran asked for clarification, but even he was at a loss for words.

“Explain.”

“The story goes that the elder race captured a Hadarak and forced it to spawn, and that these offspring are what they altered. Each is unique with varying powers, and they were used to destroy the systems of their enemies. Star Force has pledged never to do that and has been collecting them from across the galaxy. Thus far they have held to their word, but many advanced races that we have not come in contact with are at this Preserve and monitoring them to make sure that they do not leave it, for they fear the power that could be unleashed at Star Force’s direction or randomly, for when one was awoken accidentally it went on a rampage that could not be stopped. Only Star Force was able to bring it to heel, for they knew how to issue it the orders of their masters, thus ending the rampage and convincing others to give up their dormant ones to their care.”

“There is the heart of the treachery,” the J’gar said firmly, though even he was visible shaken, “and the reason one of us would dare to violate the mandates. These are not the actions of rogue Zen’zat abandoned on this world long ago. This is one of us working in secret through them, and they mean to use these Hadarak to strike at us.”

“How close is this Preserve?” Mak’to’ran asked, suddenly worried.

The Zen’zat produced a holographic map that appeared virtually between them all in the simulated room, though in reality each of them was onboard their various ships.

“We now have a fairly complete map, though the rimward expansion region is not detailed. We are here,” he said, highlighting Terraxis, “and this is the Preserve.”

A tiny cluster of systems a fair distance away illuminated, and based on the speed of Hadarak Mak’to’ran knew they could not travel that expanse quickly enough to be of concern to his fleet here.

“Are we certain they are all still there?” the Hjar’at asked.

“There are many eyes on them, unless these records have been faked. They seem to have made the Preserve into a tourist attraction for the public, which doubles as weapon demonstrations for any who would doubt Star Force’s ability to control them or the destructive capability that they wield at their beckon call.”

“You said weaponized?” the Oso’lon asked.

“These Hadarak are smaller, but they have been genetically altered to produce weapons that we have never seen in the original Hadarak. As far as fleet combat or orbital bombardment is concerned, these ‘Uriti’ are far superior, though they do suffer from lack of mass. There are also not very many of them. The current count is only 21.”

“What of their armor?” the Les’i’kron demanded.

“The equal of the Hadarak at minimum. Perhaps augmented as well. Star Force does not display their defensive capabilities, only offensive, so what information available is rumored accounts from the rampage that occurred far out in the rim where the first one was collected.”

“How many more are out there?” the Oso’lon asked.

“Unknown.”

“Are they breeding more?” the I’rar’et asked.

“Of course they are,” the J’gar all but snapped. “This entire empire of theirs is nothing more than a research project. They are learning to replicate these Hadarak and experimenting with Zen’zat. They mean to create a force to conquer us, but we do not know who is responsible! Has there been anything uncovered hinting at outside help beyond their remarkable advancement rate?”

“Nothing that we have recovered so far,” the Zen’zat said apologetically. “And I would suspect that if they are lying as to their origins, they will have concealed the truth from their own people. We would need access to a major facility or individual to learn the truth.”

“Then that is what our mission has just become,” Mak’to’ran said angrily. “If one of these Hadarak shows up here we will not engage it, and if my ship should be destroyed you will follow this order and withdraw. They are not something that we can counter with so few ships, for unless they are stupid these Archons will not send them against us unescorted. Right now our primary mission is not extermination, for we cannot risk killing the answers we need to find. Where in the system do you suspect we can garner this information?”

“Their capitol is the most likely source, but there are several other locations that make for viable targets. The second planet in the system is devoid of most civilian habitation, as is the first, but the second appears to be heavily invested in construction and logistics.”

“The atmosphere is toxic,” the Hjar’at said, looking at the data from his end. “And they have full planetary shields. We need something less fortified.”

“The outer planets are a curious mix of subfactions within Star Force that are self-contained empires in their own right, referred to as ‘Clans’ that these Archons rule over. The empire as a whole,” the Zen’zat added before they could ask, “is the product of a Ter’nat named Sean Davis. He is currently alive and leading rebuilding efforts in the rim expansion region along with other leaders. The Archons have 100 that they refer to as ‘trailblazers’ who have built their military from its inception. The one named Ethan that was spoken with is number 14 of their breed and has personal command over Clan Qrow. The Clans also appear to hold the most elite troops within Star Force, Human and otherwise.”

“Are they Ter’nat, Zen’zat, or a mix?” the Oso’lon asked.

“Most are Ter’nat sized, but have the musculature of untrained Zen’zat. We suspect all have been bred from Zen’zat genetics but without further augmentation for the general population. This makes them neither Ter’nat nor Zen’zat, but we have confirmed the general population does not have psionics. Those appear to be reserved for the Archons alone.”

“They are reworking everything,” the J’gar said angrily. “And one of us is responsible for this.”

“Perhaps not,” the Brat’mar said, thinking dark thoughts.

“Who else could do this?”

“Those we have destroyed.”

“The Rit’ko’sor? Are you serious? They never had the technology to even attempt this.”

“Perhaps they are working with someone who does not have the luxury of being unwatched,” the Oso’lon floated. “Perhaps their rebellion was just cover for an element of them to disappear to the rim. Their reason for mounting that futile assault has never been adequately determined.”

“They despised us,” Mak’to’ran dismissed casually. “That was reason enough to strike, and they did enough damage to satisfy their vengeance. Someone is behind this and it is more recent, otherwise these Uriti would have been collected long ago.”

“Which means one of us,” the J’gar repeated.

“I am forced to agree, but let us not turn hostility against one another in this fleet. Most likely the betrayers would not send anyone here with knowledge for us to extract. The true traitors are sitting back in our territory and will be weeded out when exposed. We will not pursue their entire race to destruction.”

“That is not our decision to make,” the J’gar countered.

“I am giving my personal protection to all in this fleet. If the Elder council wishes any of you destroyed, they will have to go through me to make it happen. We are comrades here, and I will not betray that trust out of fear or panic. What we have uncovered is beyond dangerous, but we are warriors. We do not overreact. We analyze and adapt to the threats before us. We will discover the treachery, root it out, and eliminate the threat in due time. Anyone with aspirations to the contrary, relinquish command to a subordinate now, for I will not tolerate incompetence nor forgive panic.”

“We are not panicking,” the Hjar’at said, with Garrtak’s words sounding as strong as stone to the assembled leaders. “We will follow your command and deal with this treachery as you see fit. Where do wish us to strike?”

Mak’to’ran looked towards the J’gar. “You will recommend patience. How do you see that transpiring?”

“These Archons have weaponry that can hurt us, but we have a range advantage. Let us use it now to pluck these defense stations or to force them into a fight without them. We need to limit their safe havens to run to.”

“I concur,” the Les’i’kron stated.

“As do I,” Mak’to’ran agreed. “Once the investigators complete their analysis of the captured stations,” he said, looking to the Hjar’at, “destroy them.”

6

March 4, 3602

Solar System

Inner Zone

Rio and Ethan were both onboard command ships that were poking around the Inner Zone of the system but staying far enough away from the V’kit’no’sat fleet cluster in stellar orbit to not endanger themselves, though they needed to be close enough to their drone fleets to avoid the signal lag that would effectively make them bystanders in the next conflict. So far the V’kit’no’sat had done nothing more than comb over their captured stations and then destroy them, with both trailblazers expecting them to take further action soon.

That action soon came in the form of their ships breaking up mostly by race and forming dozens of smaller fleets that left the Mach’nel behind with only 483 ships. The other fleets scattered on different headings, but the Mach’nel didn’t hold position. It was headed back slowly towards the Sentinels on the incoming jumpline.

“Thoughts?” Ethan asked, suffering through a 3 second lag in their holographic conversation.

“They’re being overly coy yet arrogant at the same time. I think they want to hit something without us knowing what it is.”

“You know what the Mach’nel is going for.”

“And they want to draw our ships to it, leaving other targets exposed.”

“How do you want to play this?”

“If they stay out of range and use their Tar’vem’jic we either have to fight them and waste a lot of drones or let them kill the Sentinels. We’re boxed into a corner there,” Rio said grimly.

“I know. If we wait for it to get to Earth we’ll have lost most of our defenses. We’re gonna get our butts kicked one way or another, but I don’t think we’ll be able to take it out.”

“I agree. It’ll just jump away before we can make the kill and toast any interdictors we throw at it.”

“Then we have to ignore it and target its escorts. It’ll stay and fight while they die, correct?”

“It’ll be interesting to see either way. We’re going to have to bring in more drones to cover the rest of these fleets. Which one do you want?”

“It’s not one if they’re spreading out. We’re going to have to rely on second gen to keep them from hitting a soft target, and even then I think they’ll punch their way in somewhere.”

“We need to use the drones to assault the Mach’nel. Anything bigger will just be wasted with their one shot kills.”

“Maybe two shots,” Ethan corrected him, “but your point is valid. I’ll take the drones, you pull down a summon and pick a fight with the others if they don’t force one.”

“Oh I think they will. How many interdictors do you need?”

“Just a handful. Take the rest.”

“Thank you, I will,” he said as he watched the updating tracks of the V’kit’no’sat ships as they began to spread out across the Inner Zone with some heading for what looked like Jupiter and beyond. “You might want to consider spreading out the Sentinels, either as bait or to delay the Mach’nel from sniping them all down.”

“I’ll adapt as I go. You better get going.”

“Watch for a backdoor. They’re going to figure out our battlemap system pretty quick.”

“They’re not getting me that easy, though I hope they take the bait and try.”

“Be careful. We still don’t know their full capability yet.”

“I’ll err on the side of caution. You…” he said, cutting off as both of them saw it.

“Titan,” Rio agreed. “Time your counterattack as close as you can.”

“Go,” Ethan ordered, breaking their comm.

With a thought, Rio ordered a piece of his fleet of drones to break from the main group that would be falling under Ethan’s command and set them on courses to a jumppoint for Saturn, though they were going to have to swing past Mars to get the necessary alignment for a fast jump. The moon of Titan was the planet’s largest and had a mix of Mainline and Clan colonies, with the Angry Chipmunks holding the largest chunk of the planet. What was unique about it was its orbital constructs.

There were several large stations, but one in particular was so large that it amounted to the size of a small moon, though it was stretched out like partial ring around Titan, wide and fat but more or less flat. The Angry Chipmunks had built it as an experiment in orbital topography, creating surface-like dirt, rocks, rivers, and mountains on an actually flat plain that could be inhabited in an open air environment with redundant shield generators to contain a breach if it ever happened.

It was seen as a luxury within the system and a way to give the inhospitable environment on Titan a makeover without actually trying to terraform the planet. There was so little sunlight available at this distance that it would be difficult to get the surface temperature up to Earth-like levels even with heavy alterations, so the Angry Chipmunks had decided to build a bit of ‘new’ moon in orbit and colonize outdoors there.

When the Clans had abandoned their civilian populations ownership of the ‘Ribbon,’ as it was called, was transferred to Mainline while the Clan still retained some sectors of the 6,398 square miles for their own use. The facility itself was defended along with everything else around Titan and in orbit of Saturn, but the flat shape made its shielding inefficient and an easy target. Combine that with the amount of people and open space inside and it was definitely a soft target either to destroy or board, and if the V’kit’no’sat were looking for information then taking this bit of planet that existed beyond the planetary shields made perfect sense…in addition to the three different mini-fleet tracks that could easily cross paths and give them triple the amount of ships that currently appeared to be headed in that direction.

The trailblazers only recognized that addition because it was a somewhat standard tactic the V’kit’no’sat used when they were outmatched…which was rare aside from limited resources. Their empire was so huge that sometimes they’d dispatch a single ship to destroy 10,000 and it was times like that they had to get clever, with a large playbook that the trailblazers had read cover to cover, so they could see the two nearby feints that were in position to reinforce the obvious primary.

Rio didn’t know how many other targets would get hit or if they were all a diversion to pull ships away from reinforcing Titan, but he knew where he was going to head and he was going to need backup above and beyond the drone fleets and Sentinels in orbit of Saturn.

The trailblazer accessed an extremely rare function in the command nexus, bringing up a simulated landscape on which he was standing. It was empty yet pristine, with the ground being perfectly smooth blackness with nothing visible other than tiny pinpricks of stars above.

He raised his fist into the air and looking up at a particular star, for no other stance and eye line would activate the password he was about to speak.

“Shiva,” he called out, and after three seconds of silence five massive smooth shards of ice fell from the sky and impacted a point before him, fanning out like a flower as a figure floated down from above that was just as clear as the ice, but as the bare legs descended into the center of the ice flower she began to materialize into pale white/blue skin wrapped up beneath a deeper blue shawl. Her hair was long and clumped together into blue dreadlocks accentuated by golden brackets and rings.

When she landed she was fully formed, then pulled an arm across to her shoulder and ripped the shawl off, throwing it from her body and breaking the ice pillars around her into thousands of fragments that flew out and passed through Rio’s body without harming him, leaving only the nearly naked Shiva from Final Fantasy standing before him in all her natural beauty. She walked a few steps towards him then swept a hand across from left to right, materializing a mist of frostiness that resolved itself into a series of icy spheres, 38 in total.

Rio tapped on one of them, turning it from clear crystal into pulsating blue light.

“Summon,” Rio said, with Shiva taking the single orb in her hands and gently cradling it against her abdomen before pushing it inside her until it melded with her body. Her eyes took on the blue glow and she threw her head back, arms spread wide…then the hologram disappeared and Rio was back in the command nexus onboard his ship.

Far below the system plane where most of the planets orbited Sol, a remote location received an activation signal that was absorbed by the sensor-stealthed wall that spanned thousands of miles. It was meant to keep any reflective signals from bouncing back to the heart of the system, making it look as if nothing more than a tiny bit of blackness so far away that no one would notice with even the most intense scans, but that wall also absorbed and registered the summon signal that was relayed to the dry docks on the other side.

These were not a shipyard, but rather maintenance facilities that stored and occasionally upgraded the ships docked on the tiny rod-like spires emanating out from the far side of the wall. At present there was no one here, though facilities for crew were established within the structure to house those that would make the periodic checks and upgrades, having been shuttled here through cloaked Ma’kri and other means to avoid giving away the location of the Shiva platform.

On the automated signal one of 38 sections activated, bringing to life the drones docked there…but these were not standard Star Force drones. These were larger and specifically made to fight the V’kit’no’sat along a particular tactical avenue. For the Shiva platform that was an augmented shield matrix far superior to what standard drones carried and only made possible by the size of the ships, which ranged from 1 mile up to 6 long and were appropriately shaped like ice shards and coated with a Dvapp-inspired crystal armor outer layer that gave them the gleaming clear surface befitting their theme.

The group of ships numbered 620 and slowly but simultaneously undocked from the structure and floated free behind it, then using mooring beams to give them a little physical nudge they eased up above the sensor wall and came into view of anyone watching…though the very weak sensor bounces coming off wouldn’t reach their receivers before the ships did as they began slowly accelerating into jumps headed directed for the star using the limited gravity at this range.

Bit by bit they picked up speed, getting closer to the star and soaking up more of its gravitation tug to advance their closure rate on their weaker gravity drives, for they were not jumpships despite their size. They were designed with sufficient movement capability for insystem deployments but didn’t waste the extra hull space for additional jump power. They were designed to defend this system and only this system, with every aspect of their construction being a counter to the V’kit’no’sat ships, including their greater size that the standard drones could not match.

The ships from Shiva continued on a predetermined course straight for the star until their acknowledgement ping went out to Rio and he responded with a set of coordinates from them to come to. The ships were functioning on autopilot and altered their trajectory towards the star at the opportune moment to get a slingshot effect that sent them out towards Saturn at high speed. When they eventually entered their long braking maneuver there the local remote pilots assumed command over the big, icy vessels and broke up their fleet, sending individual ships to different places around Titan which made the formation spread out like a cone on approach before they began rendezvousing with the standard drones, jumpships, and command ships already in position near the Ribbon or beside other orbital facilities.

A few dozen Sentinels were also in play, but mostly out of position save for the two closest to the Ribbon, one of which had already been destroyed by the time the Shiva ships arrived. The other was still actively fighting the combined forces of Brat’mar, Kar’ka, and I’rar’et vessels that were poaching many orbital stations while more of their kin had already broken through the Ribbon’s shield and landed troops inside while their ships kept Star Force reinforcement teams away, giving them possession of the Ribbon and a decent naval advantage as additional drones from nearby defensive assignments showed up to even the odds.

The arrival of the Shiva ships was totally unexpected, and as soon as they were folded into the fleet composition Rio brought the heavy end of the hammer down on the V’kit’no’sat ships that now had to defend their position at all costs or abandon their troops inside. He had them at a disadvantage until they could pull some of their other fleets here, and he was going to make the most of the short window of opportunity that he had while Ethan was slugging it out with the Mach’nel half a system away down in stellar orbit.

7

The Tar’vem’jic’s orange beam stretched across some 180,000 miles of space and slammed into the shields of the Sentinel, whose own Ardent could not return fire that far away. The Mach’nel and its escorts were not approaching, rather holding at that range and letting the big ship mount the assault alone while the nearby Star Force fleets watched. The second beam shot hit and was also repulsed, for Ethan had previously reformatted the shields so only those facing in the direction of the V’kit’no’sat were powered and thus reinforced, but it was only a delaying tactic. The fourth shot pierced what remained of the upper shield and slammed into the armor, vaporizing meters of it in a shower of gaseous debris that marked the location of the undefendable attack.

More orange beams came in one at a time from the unseen attacker save for the tiny spec on sensors that the weak gravity drives onboard the Sentinel could not hope to reach, leaving it a helpless victim whose middle and lower shield matrixes were also penetrated and the armor beneath them blasted away. Ethan did note that three of the massive beams missed the station as they tried to target specific sections of it, for they didn’t have the help of the shorter ranged weaponry to pulverize the structure that they’d learned could still be combat operational even with moderate damage. Thus they had to take their time and pierce it repeatedly if they wanted it totally out of commission, but after some 18 minutes of bombardment they stopped, leaving its more or less intact floating carcass drifting inside an asteroid field of its own making as the fragments continued to expand in radius around what was left of the superstructure…then the V’kit’no’sat fleet repositioned slightly and opened fire on the next closest one.

“Smart bastards,” Ethan muttered, realizing the bind he was in. The V’kit’no’sat weren’t going to quickly punch holes in the Sentinels then run in to finish them off with their mass of weaponry. They were just going to sit patiently as their big fat chess piece slowly took them apart one shot at a time.

“Listen up,” he said, addressing all the remote pilots that would be operating the combined fleet that would soon be going in, for they had no choice but to stop this before all those Sentinels were needlessly lost. “Do not waste any shots on the Mach’nel. The only way we can kill it is to mass fire, and we’re not going to try that now. Our objective is to kill or damage as many of the escort ships as we can. All control ships will stay outside of Mach’nel range no matter what. One shot from that thing and you can kiss your jumpship goodbye. I expect them to send something to take us out, so this is going to be a mobile fight and that’s why I want us spread. If the Mach’nel comes your way, set the drones to auto and run. Don’t wait for me to tell you.”

“The Mach’nel is currently surrounded by mostly aquatics vessels, so any hull penetrating shots are going to hurt them worse than others. Water isn’t so easy to replace as air is, so even a single breach will have a disproportional effect. Concentrate fire on the smallest vessels then work your way up. We need kills people, and don’t expect them to just sit still and let us take them. They’re going to cycle, so we gotta be smart about this. Remember to keep your drones in between the Mach’nel and your target if possible so they have a friendly fire situation to work around. Keep it tight and hot, otherwise you’ll make easy target practice.”

And with that, Ethan gave the order for the microjumps and 8 different fleet groups began accelerating towards the remaining V’kit’no’sat fleet in stellar orbit while the other enemy sections were out doing whatever across the system. That wasn’t Ethan’s concern now and there were plenty of ships elsewhere to deal with them. His focus was the big one picking off the Sentinels, which he also ordered to start repositioning. They couldn’t move fast, but there was no need for them to stay on the jumpline anymore for the Mach’nel to shoot down at the same time. If Ethan spread them out it’d delay their destruction or might even invite the other V’kit’no’sat ships to come in and eliminate them…in which case they could at least do a little damage before they were destroyed. Right now they were a total waste so long as the Mach’nel could outdistance them.

Ethan’s command ship followed the drones in, traveling with six other jumpships that stuck in close proximity as the others in his fleet broke off and headed to different points on the perimeter. The other fleets did likewise, leaving clusters of jumpships at 270,000 miles from the Mach’nel and what should be outside its effective range. That added up to about a second or so of lag, but Ethan’s pilots knew how to handle that by targeting points on the enemy ships and letting the drones pull the trigger. Unfortunately that was the best they had to work with, for putting manned ships within range of the Mach’nel would be literal suicide.

Then again, leaving themselves with so few ships of their own…only 483 to cover the Mach’nel…was inviting a fight. Ethan knew they wanted to be hit or left free to destroy the Sentinels, and the only reason he could think for that was a distraction so their other fleet segments would face less opposition or because they wanted a chance to hit the jumpships. This fight was going to be messy and he was going to lose far more than they were, but he was going to do damage. As arrogant as they might be, after that first confrontation both sides should have learned what the other was somewhat capable of, meaning that either they uncharacteristically didn’t care about taking losses or they were so incensed by the ambush they just wanted another fight that badly.

But there was a creeping sensation on Ethan’s spine that he couldn’t shake that said something else was in play, but the only way to find out now was to engage…and in a few minutes from their departure jump they would be.

Drones and jumpships were moving around the star system constantly, repositioning from planet to planet to counter the V’kit’no’sat movements, leaving him with a drone count of just under 400,000. That was nearly a thousand drones for every V’kit’no’sat ship ahead of them, and if this battle turned into a slugging match with no one running he could possibly lose them all.

The good thing about having a fleet of ‘tiny’ ships was that the big enemy ones couldn’t chase them all down. Order them to scatter and run and almost all of them would get away, so Ethan had the option of cutting and running more than the V’kit’no’sat did…and he intended to surround them in a way that would cut off their escaping jumplines so they couldn’t run except through his drones, damaging themselves on the way. The Mach’nel could weather that, so he doubted he was going to get a chance to pin it in place even if the rest of its escorts were not there, which was yet another reason why it was such a pain in the ass to counter.

But it was one ship and could only be in one place at one time, so right now he needed to thin the V’kit’no’sat ship count so Star Force would have the upper hand in fleet movements rather than having to scramble to cover multiple targets simultaneously.

Ethan had the smallest drones, the cutters, flying in ahead of the rest. They were easy kills, but if the V’kit’no’sat ships targeted them it would spare the larger ones a bit longer…which was why they completely ignored them and targeted the heavy cruisers and scattering of battlecruisers first off.

But those he had with their shields full forward and nearby auxiliary shield ships to help soak up damage, taking the brunt of the incoming weaponsfire and surviving it in the first few seconds save for the Tar’vem’jic that ceased firing on the Sentinels and started hitting multiple drones with single shots as Ethan tweaked their alignments along where it was shooting to help avoid overlapping targets, for the beam was so powerful it punched through shields, armor, hull and kept on going to whatever else was behind it.

With the cutters and corvettes being ignored, Ethan’s pilots drove them into the defensive formation the V’kit’no’sat were sitting in and shot between the gaps, drawing fire from the lateral weaponry that otherwise couldn’t shoot at the approaching ships, but also forcing the V’kit’no’sat to even out their shields a bit. They couldn’t put them full forward like most of the drones were, otherwise the smaller drones could hit them in the rear…and they were coming in such high numbers that their combined weaponsfire would be able to punish them if they did.

When the approaching bowl-shaped formation slammed into the V’kit’no’sat sphere and merged with the outer edge, the Mach’nel near the top began to move through it to the front where it could engage with all its weapons and soak up damage by making itself an easy target, but the Star Force drones didn’t fall for it. Not a single shot landed on it as they flew around the big shark like schools of tiny fish…as the Era’tran ships on the backside of the formation quietly repositioned to the flanks and made microjumps away from the fight.

“Here they come,” Ethan said unnecessarily, transmitting only to his group of jumpships so the lag wouldn’t cause any confusion, for the Era’tran were accelerating so hard this close in to the star that they covered the distance in seconds, braking just as hard against Sol’s gravity and coming out remarkably close to 36 different jumpship clusters, including Ethan’s, with two or three ships each.

Immediately Ethan detected jamming fields popping up and 3 of the 11 means he had to control the drones failed. All he needed was one, so there was no disruption in the combat, but it was now obvious that the V’kit’no’sat were testing the strength of the control signals in an attempt to find the Achilles heel of their fleet structure even as they opened fire on his command ship from a Kafcha and a Domjo.

Ethan immediately had his ships make a jump of their own, which disrupted their control ability momentarily, though other ships would pick up the slack if needed and the drones would continue on automatic commands issued just prior to the jump by Ethan and the others who reacted instantly to the appearance of the Era’tran. Almost as soon as the enemy appeared the Star Force ships vanished as a lateral jump was made, keeping their distance from the Mach’nel the same but not letting themselves get baited into fighting.

The Era’tran ships pursued, however, and their speed was at least the equal of the jumpships and his command ship, though not so superior as to give them the ability to close to weapons range easily. Ethan kept redirecting his group, hampering their ability to direct the fight and relying on the jumpships groups that were not being engaged to carry the load…which was why he’d had them split up into so many groups earlier.

And as long as these Era’tran ships were pursuing them they wouldn’t be killing drones, thus making those currently engaged live a bit long and take some more V’kit’no’sat ships with them as Ethan called for a section of those engaging to pull back, some 630 drones, and brought them out to him as the other jumpship groups continued evading as planned.

Ethan stopped his fleeing when they met up with the drones and his jumpships popped out their own that they’d been holding onto, increasing the count to 1054, as he quickly brought them into a battle formation and dared the two V’kit’no’sat ships to strike.

To his surprise they did, with the big dreadnaught heading straight in to fire on a jumpship but having drones partially block it. The Var’ko sliced through the open conduit and hit the jumpship’s shields that were focused heavily into that corridor as it fired back with its bloon launchers and green Bra’hems…then the Kafcha got rammed by four drones. The impacts were so slow that no dampener shields activated, or maybe the Era’tran got caught off guard, because when shields met shields the gravity drives on the drones pulsed and did a ‘one inch punch’ version of naval warfare, sacrificing their structural integrity as their shields breached and they physically pushed against the Era’tran’s shields until they popped…though there wasn’t much left of the drones after they did to hit the hull.

The impact shoved the dreadnaught off its trajectory and one of the cutting beams sliced through a destroyer rather than hitting the jumpship as Ethan’s command ship shot forward, drones parting to make way, and unloaded every weapon it had on the now unshielded behemoth before it, targeting specific points on the 36 mile wide monster and plucking weapons and shield generators before the return fire could eat through the command ship’s shields…specifically those that held the V’kit’no’sat dampening generators.

Ethan knew he was putting himself and the jumpships in danger, but they only had two ships to contend with and had the advantage of movement…plus he needed to know what the fat Era’tran ships were capable of. With the command ship and the surrounding drones peppering the exposed sections of the hull and ripping apart defense mounts rather than randomly shooting the thick armor to break through to the interior, they utilized the blueprints on file that exactly matched the Era’tran ship before them…telling them exactly where to strike.

As soon as enough of the dampening shield emitters were destroyed, Ethan had drones flee the engagement only to turn around and jump through corridors in the beehive surrounding the enemy ships. They impacted the dreadnaught fast enough that Ethan couldn’t even see them, only the huge reverse direction mushrooms of debris that splintered out as the drone masses hit the armor and punched through it.

More drones came in on kamikaze runs, hammering the Era’tran ship so hard that it turned and ran despite its massive size advantage. The Domjo, which had been mostly ignored as it tried to get to one of the jumpships and was being kept at bay with a wall of drones catching fire in between, flew up into position over top one of the largest holes and extended its shields to help cover the dreadnaught as it moved out through the surrounding drones, having to push some out of the way to get clear, but Ethan ordered the others to give it room…for he didn’t actually want it to stay and fight to the death, for it could probably take some of his people with it.

The Era’tran vessel managed a slow jump out, hurt badly but still with navigational options as the untouched Domjo, about half the size of the jumpships, kept pace with it as if it expected Star Force to try to land a finishing blow.

But Ethan didn’t send the drones after it or pull others away from the main fight, though he did keep an eye on it as he relinked with the main group and his pursuit was no longer interfering with their ability to direct the fight…though he noticed that the ships in the main brawl were now all emitting jamming fields trying to disable the drones. He just hoped they didn’t get clever enough to detect and interfere with all 11 channels, though the 11th was really a short range last option, in that it required a direct line of sight beam that needed the precise coordinates of both to operate on, meaning there were really 10 channels for this type of combat that would have to be blocked, and right now the V’kit’no’sat were still letting 7 through.

Apparently they figured that out as well, because they were not committed to losing the bulk of their ships in this fight. After doing a good amount of damage to the drones the escorts began jumping out closer to the star with the Mach’nel staying behind to provide cover fire. It was the last ship out, but before it left it fired on the remains of several partially destroyed V’kit’no’sat ships, completing their destruction and insuring that no prisoners could be taken. Once it completed the cleanup while shrugging off the weaponsfire now totally directed towards it, the J’gar vessel made its own jump out and left the rubble field behind.

Ethan did not order a pursuit, but rather sent drones out to assist the still evading jumpship groups that the Era’tran had not completely let go yet. The trailblazer sensed some frustration on their part, for the Star Force ships wouldn’t stand their ground and fight, continually evading them with just enough navigational prowess to avoid the Era’tran getting targeting locks, but they did finally break off when scores of drones came towards them, perhaps fearing a repeat of the tactics used to damage the other Kafcha.

Regardless, they jumped away and reformed with the Mach’nel…only to see that fleet split up into even smaller groups that then headed towards the spreading Sentinels.

“So be it,” Ethan said, realizing they weren’t going to give him a chance to catch his breath. They were going to hit the Sentinels directly now that they couldn’t overlap their fields of fire to such a degree as before. This was what he’d hoped for, but now he had to move quickly else all he’d gain from it was some shield loss or light damage to the V’kit’no’sat ships…and the Mach’nel was heading towards a target of its own.

That one he’d have to let go, but the others were going to be hit and probably done so quickly, not allowing the drone fleet to fully engage…and Ethan was going to have to split them up, reducing their numerical advantage, which was more a threat to the controlling jumpships than anything else.

But this is what the naval division had been trained for, and if the V’kit’no’sat wanted to fight in the shadow of the Sentinels then so be it. With the drones spread they couldn’t threaten the Mach’nel, so it was going to kill all the Sentinels one by one anyway, but they’d have to keep the other ships engaged in order to prevent another massed assault just like the previous one…and the V’kit’no’sat now realized that Star Force was going for their ‘smaller’ ships and not the Mach’nel, and they intended to make them pay for it.

But Ethan was going to exact a price for those destroyed Sentinels, and no matter how much of a navigational advantage the V’kit’no’sat had, he had more ships to move around and herd them with, meaning he was going to kill some more of them…regardless of how many drones he had to burn to do it. There were heavily guarded factories in this system producing more, not to mention other fleets in nearby systems on their way. It was the V’kit’no’sat that had a limited number of ships for this assault, assuming they hadn’t arranged for reinforcements, and thus far Ethan hadn’t seen them send a courier back asking for help…nor were any long range signals possible unless they’d reestablished a bit of their comm network this far out prior to coming here, which he doubted.

All of which meant that they were probably on their own here and choosing to fight them without reinforcements, possibly to accumulate data on their new enemy, and probably at least a bit because they were irate. Regardless, they weren’t taking time to consider their options. Whatever plan they had, they were working it quickly and Ethan had to keep up else give them another advantage to work.

And with them having so many already, any slip-up on his part would cost them a lot more drones and perhaps some ship crews, though so far they were clean on that count. None of the jumpships or command ships had been destroyed or damaged, save for a few scratches on his own hull where the shields had momentarily failed.

Ethan didn’t know how long they’d be able to keep that clean record, but so far the trades in losses were acceptable…despite the carnage of drones and Sentinels now spread across two locations in this system, neither of which they had time to clean up, and there were about to be a lot more in the varied locations they were racing to now, all of which had to be tagged as ‘no flight’ regions on the battlemap so ships didn’t jump through them and kill themselves on the impromptu mines.

8

Rio’s fleet arrived at Titan prior than the Shiva ships, picking up the handful of command ships and jumpships that had fled when their drones had been overrun. Rather than stick around and do a little more damage as they died, they’d made the right choice of running and had even managed to draw off a few V’kit’no’sat ships to one of the nearby Sentinels, taking refuge there and getting the enemy to dive into their firing zone. One Brat’mar ship had been damaged before fleeing, but it had been unsuccessful in destroying any of the Star Force vessels…though a jumpship had its docking array half destroyed, but the crew inside were still safe.

It repositioned along with the others in Rio’s fleet as they gathered, drawing in more and more drones from across the Saturn microsystem and surrounding the Ribbon that they were forced to watch get boarded, for if they engaged too quickly they’d be wasting drones. They had to gather their strength before they struck, and Rio wasn’t going to wait for the Shiva ships to arrive before he started doing some poking…taunting the V’kit’no’sat ships out now that their range limitations were nearly the same as their own.

There were several short-lived scraps that did damage to both sides but with no V’kit’no’sat kills prior to the 620 Shiva arriving with their bulk still smaller than the average enemy ship, but far larger than the drones that reformed around them. Now Rio had vessels that could soak up damage, especially with the shield ‘element’ they were designed with. They also contained Ardent, given their larger hulls, while the best the drones and jumpships had were Bra’hem.

Rio’s command ship had the smallest Ardent Star Force had built to date, but the Shiva ships had those of equal size to what the Sentinels carried, though less in number. When Rio brought all of his ships in towards the V’kit’no’sat in three different groups and began firing at them from range they didn’t have the luxury of sitting back and weathering the storm…for while they could pick off drones fairly easily, the Shiva ships were not going to go down fast and the Ardent they carried packed a hell of a punch.

Add to that, their shields had been configured to mitigate some 40+ percent of the damage from Var’ko, and could be adjusted to several other preplanned modes if needed to counter specific V’kit’no’sat weapons, making them even harder to take out…and if the V’kit’no’sat focused on them, the regular drones would be free to sting them to death en mass, leaving the assembled ships the choice of fighting it out and potentially losing most of their number or running away and leaving their boarding parties stranded while they called for assistance.

They chose the former, but Rio wasn’t going to let them stall this out long enough to get reinforcements from the other attack groups roaming around the system and hitting a myriad of targets. He took his Shiva augmented fleets, tweaked their formations to his liking, and rammed them down their throats just above the Ribbon. Apparently afraid that weaponsfire might damage it and their troops inside, the V’kit’no’sat ships drew the battle away laterally and Rio obliged, coming in close enough with his command ships to enter the fight and drawing several I’rar’et ships around in a flanking maneuver to get at him and the other jumpships stationed further back.

But they weren’t that far back this time and opened fire on the flankers, making them either leave Rio’s command ship alone and cross the distance to them or weather the storm of their Bra’hem and Bloon launchers as they tried to take out the source of the remote control signals. Seeing that the command ship was the smaller of the vessels they opted to go to it, but Rio just dove further into the fray and cycled back several drones, including two of the smaller Shivas, to cover for him while the jumpships pounded the I’rar’et, who had to come to an almost complete stop to target him.

Then came the hard part. His move was mostly a bluff, but the I’rar’et were calling it, choosing to go in hard and risk getting themselves killed in order to take his ship out. Rio could either try to run through the drones and let them peel off, or he could try and delay the ships inside the inferno long enough for the drones to make the kills…and the I’rar’et ships were so big it was going to take a lot of pounding to do it while most of the weaponsfire was focused ahead at the rest of the V’kit’no’sat fleet.

Rio did the mental calculations several times…then brought in a wall of drones around his command ship and dug in, ready to take massive hull damage as he unleashed hell on the I’rar’et.

Taking command of hundreds of weapons batteries nearest him, Rio coordinated strikes on the I’rar’et ships, knowing better than the other gunners where exactly to hit and when. One of the Shiva ships slid into position partially obscuring the command ship when its shields went down, but allowed it to also return fire while regenerating at least a section of shields. The I’rar’et were split about which vessel to target, then opted to try and run up alongside the command ship at pointblank range ignoring everything else.

The Shiva ship moved out, coming head to head with one of the I’rar’et Dak’bri that was easily 3 times its size and made out of more advanced technology, but the advantage the Shiva had in addition to its specialized shields was the fact that it held no crew…with no huge chunks of hull space taken up by air and living quarters. It was a 100% pure ass-kicking machine, and wasn’t going to budge from its position as the ships exchanged weaponsfire at less than 3 kilometers distance…with as much of the I’rar’et weaponry targeting the command ship around the Shiva as possible.

Meanwhile the smaller drones were firing at the I’rar’et vessels, all 18 of them, as they tried to work into other flanking positions. Rio backed his command ship up slowly, with his drone swarm moving to accommodate every move he made and blocking the I’rar’et in order to buy time without causing them to flee. The V’kit’no’sat shields were coming down in places, allowing Rio to target weaponry but they didn’t care. Already there were large gashes in the command ship and some of the transmitters that connected Rio to the drones were going offline…intentionally he thought…but there was so much redundancy packed into the giant donut that it was going to take a hell of a lot more pounding before he couldn’t control the ships right next to him.

Two I’rar’et Ti’mat, of similar size to some of the Shiva, tried to push through the smaller drones and flank Rio’s position from behind, but either they miscalculated the damage from the drone swarm or didn’t expect the Shiva ahead to double back, for they suddenly found themselves within firing range of the command ship but having their lines of fire blocked almost entirely as 12 Shiva of varying sizes moved up upon them and blasted away with their short range weaponry.

The I’rar’et had nowhere to run to, so they tried to ram their way to the command ship only to find so many drones ramming them back that they couldn’t make much headway…then one went totally kamikaze and blew through three cruisers and two destroyers, shredding itself in the process only to impact the dampening shields on the backside of the command ship, which stopped the debris cold at the cost of a huge amount of energy.

But that energy wasn’t being taxed because the I’rar’et weren’t attacking on that side of the ship, so the I’rar’et’s final desperation maneuver was blocked entirely…then when the second Ti’mat saw its impending doom and tried to follow up before the dampening shields were fully rengerated, hoping to get some damage through, it made a microjump that sent it…nowhere, for a trio of support interdictors had made their way through the drone swarm and up next to it, generating an IDF field so large it covered the entire 4 mile wide Ti’mat, neutralizing its engines while other drones put themselves in front of the shield ships as Var’ko cut through them, trying to sever the impediments to the I’rar’et.

The Ti’mat managed to get two of the support ships destroyed before its own gravity drives were hit by Ardent beams coring into areas of hull that had already had their armor burnt off, so when the third ship was finally destroyed there wasn’t enough engine power left to make a kamikaze jump and the I’rar’et were left to die surrounded by enemy ships with no recourse other than to take out as many of the drones as they could before their vessel finally broke up into inert fragments.

Rio continued to lead the frantic battle, taking heavy advantage of the jumpships outside as they came in closer and continued to pound the reverse side of the other I’rar’et ships with bloon strikes that heavily damaged their shields, but his command ship and those guarding it suffered heavy losses as they kept him and his crew of remote pilots alive and operational, taunting the I’rar’et into staying and fighting and, ultimately, dying. All but 5 of their ships clawed at his vessel until they were reduced to junk, with the remainder realizing they weren’t going to be able to finish it off and trying to make their way clear.

Two of them were so badly damaged they didn’t make it out, with the other three pushing their way into clear space and getting hammered by the jumpships as they made emergency microjumps away from the battle, shields down and hull glowing where their armor had been hit, along with numerous deep craters where it had been fully penetrated.

Rio breathed a sigh of relief, entombed in a ship that was half destroyed but with the interior core still intact and operational, sending out guiding signals to the sea of ships around him as the main fight was continuing to take place further below, with both sides taking heavy losses. Star Force was losing far more, but they had numbers on their side and eventually forced the V’kit’no’sat to retreat before all of their ships were destroyed…and with incoming reinforcements still hours away. They would probably regroup and hit them again, but Rio also had more drones coming his way from other planets to counter them.

He added to it by summoning another Shiva cluster, knowing it would take a lot more time to get here but he needed to lock down naval superiority around the Ribbon if he was going to deal with the troops onboard…and the problem was that the giant Star Force construct had not been fully evacuated prior to the attack. Most of the evacuation ships, ranging from large transports to dropships, had been sent to Earth orbit and successfully cleared it of the thick bands of artificial habitation that were presumed to be easy targets for the V’kit’no’sat. Earth had been their colony, and thus should have been their focus for the invasion, leaving the other worlds as secondary priority with regards to evacuating the orbital population down beneath the planetary shields.

The Ribbon had been low on that priority, but Star Force had been ferrying people off it since the initial order had been given. The problem was there were so many people here that they didn’t have the ships necessary to get them all off in time. Its surface area was equivalent to a small moon, but unfortunately it was spread out flat rather than in a sphere that was more defendable. It had never been designed for combat, but rather civilian use, and right now there were still millions of people on it along with V’kit’no’sat troops doing what he wasn’t sure, but it wasn’t anything good.

Another command ship came into the battle/debris field and pulled him off the damaged ship, giving him a fresh steed to command from while the rest of the crew remained onboard the damaged one controlling the drones around them as they targeted and further destroyed the remains of the V’kit’no’sat ships, unable to even attempt any rescue efforts with their own people actively in danger. It had been long said that mercy was a luxury of the dominant, and right now Star Force wasn’t. Rio needed every asset he had to retake the Ribbon and wasn’t going to waste boarding parties onto V’kit’no’sat ships that could very well get themselves killed trying to take prisoners.

The V’kit’no’sat had come here to kill them, and the most leniency he was going to show them while the status quo remained was to eliminate them quickly rather than let them slowly suffocate to death. Had circumstances been different and he had more assets and time he might have tried to rescue at least a few, but given how dangerous they were he’d have to do it in a way that didn’t jeopardize any of his people, and right now he was starting to mentally sift through reports coming from the Ribbon detailing the internal combat there that was completely one sided. The V’kit’no’sat had not only Zen’zat inside, but also Brat’mar on the streets and I’rar’et flying over the buildings in the short internal atmosphere. Two major V’kit’no’sat races along with the Kar’ka, which were known as Gallimimus to ignorant Humans on Earth. They were not the equal of the other two, but were smaller, fast, and agile…not to mention great jumpers.

All three were in the ships that Rio had just destroyed as well as down inside the Ribbon…and they were both capturing and killing every Human in sight, along with destroying whatever buildings they needed to make adequate room for themselves to set up shop.

“Vex, I need you to take command of the fleet and keep the Ribbon safe. There’s another Shiva cluster enroute along with a lot of drone fleets, but we can’t wait. I have to get down there.”

“Go,” Vex-761 said between clenched teeth, for he knew the stakes and could see the horrors occurring below on the recording devices within the city that hadn’t yet been jammed or destroyed by the V’kit’no’sat. The few Archons and other troops down there were too few in number and totally outmatched, able to do little more than poke and distract long enough to buy the civilians a few more minutes, often at the cost of their own lives.

Rio left the command nexus after he’d summoned all the available ground troops in Saturn orbit to his location with calls out to other planets to send what they had…which was a lot, considering this was Sol. He’d have an army here soon, but the people down there didn’t have the luxury of waiting. Some would survive, given how many of them there were, but Rio wasn’t going to wait. He was the most powerful Archon in Star Force and had more psionics than any Zen’zat in recorded history.

Now it was time to see how much that was worth.

9

“Oh my god,” Haley said as she slammed the door shut on her quarters, leaning on it heavily as she and her best friend hid behind it as they sucked in air, for they’d ran all the way back here from the spaceport.

“That was a Triceratops,” Brittney said, sitting down in a chair as her hands shook from the residual adrenaline. “A fucking Triceratops!”

“A what?”

“A Dinosaur!” she yelled, then both girls flinched as a large explosion rippled through the building from somewhere nearby. They’d been in line to evacuate along with everyone else when the Ribbon had been boarded by the invaders, then when the shooting began and people started blowing up they’d ran away along with everyone else, eventually coming back to their residential quarters…for lack of anywhere else to go.

“I don’t care what it is. What are we going to do?”

“Stay here for now.”

“And what if they blow up this building too?”

“I don’t know!” Brittney screamed, the recent memories of exploding and scorched body parts flying every which way was so horrific her nerves were on the verge of permanently snapping. “I don’t know,” she repeated, this time seeming to lose all energy and just slumping back in the chair while her lungs fought to catch up on the oxygen she needed.

“Where is the military at?” Haley demanded. “What are they doing? We’ve got the biggest fleet in the galaxy and they let them just walk in here? And where the Archons?”

“Didn’t you see the one?” Brittney said, tears flowing. “He floated up off the ground and was ripped apart. His arms and legs…” she said, clamping down on her lips as she couldn’t speak anymore.

“What are we going to do?” Haley said as more explosions rippled their way across the cityscape from somewhere to the north. She walked over to the window and looked out, tilting her head as much as she could to see to the left as a winged monster flew by overhead, scaring her so bad she fell backwards in shock, but it passed by without seeing them.

Brittney got up and ran to the wall, hitting the button to tint the windows so nothing could see through, then she knelt down and helped drag Haley to her feet and into the adjacent room where both of them felt onto the couch and held onto each other, crying, scared, and not knowing what to do…hoping desperately that these Dinosaurs or whatever they were wouldn’t find them here.

Ian Draconi ran around a corner as fast as he could in his Commando armor, skidding as he tried to make the turn and having to bounce off the far wall on the narrow street in order to keep moving. The anti-psionics package readout in his HUD registered another Lachka attempt to grab him, but the suit had pulsed a Rentar field to neutralize it…draining the energy reserves further. If he kept getting the invisible grabs on him, his suit would run out of automated defenses and the Brat’mar chasing him would be able to pick him up off the ground and pull him back into easy shooting range…or worse.

But thankfully this narrow street wasn’t big enough for the huge Triceratops to follow him down, though there was a flash of blue energy over his head as he dropped into a subterranean stairwell. The resounding boom from ahead was followed by pounding chunks of building rubble as they fell and hit the ground, but he was out and away from his pursuit and the deadly rain as he ran through an empty subsurface corridor trying to put as much distance as he could between him and the Brat’mar…whom he’d only learned about in the previous days since the alarm heard across the system had been triggered and the Commandos had been brought up to speed on Star Force’s true nemesis.

Ian carried his plasma rifle on his back along with a couple of pistols, but the damn things couldn’t even scratch the Brat’mar. It was the size of a tank and heavily armored…and those two horns and dish-like backdrop on its head formed the equivalent of a canon that could take down building walls in a single hit. He’d seen two other Commandos get roasted on the spot, so he knew he couldn’t fight the thing or protect the people here. The best he could do was lead it away from them, though right now he wasn’t thinking about that or anything other than getting as far away from the damn dinosaur as he could.

He ran down several more corridors, zigzagging in an attempt to throw off pursuit as he went down further and further. They’d been told the V’kit’no’sat could see through walls and Ian didn’t know what their range was. The thing could be following him above waiting for him to come up, so he needed to cover as much distance as possible and resurface somewhere that was small and away from the fighting. If he couldn’t fight them he could at least get some intel and relay to the fleet, otherwise he was tempted to run and hide wherever he could.

Then again, if they could see through walls, he doubted there was anywhere he could truly hide.

When he turned the next corner he skidded to a stop, for there was a dark green armored Human standing down the hallway facing him. He was Knight-sized but not moving, though Ian could see that he held a weapon of some sort on his back, but his hands were free at the moment as the two stared each other down silently.

Ian broke the silence, pulling out one of his pistols as fast as he could and sending a bolt of blue plasma against the Zen’zat armor’s shields. The big figure took the first couple hits mockingly, then he accelerated into a run and came at the Commando without grabbing for his weapon.

Ian kept firing until he was on him, then released his weapon to fall to the ground as he punched forward.

The Zen’zat slipped to the side and rolled, making his punch miss as a hand came around and grabbed the back of Ian’s helmet. He responded instinctively by swinging the elbow of his overextended arm backwards through a circle and pried the hand free, knocking the arm aside and allowing him to punch with his other hand that came around a split second later.

The Zen’zat took the hit on the chest and was knocked back half a meter, then there was a furious exchange of blows that ended with Ian landing on his butt and the Zen’zat looking down at him. He stepped back three strides and motioned with is hand for the Commando to try again.

Ian stood, but instead of running towards him he pulled out his rifle and got a shot into his shields before the Zen’zat swiped the weapon away, but in doing so opened himself up to an Archon punch from the Commando with his left elbow coming forward and up into a battering ram that knocked the bigger Zen’zat back and onto his butt.

Rather than standing there and taunting him back, Ian turned and sprinted away, leaving both his pistol and rifle behind as he pulled out his spare. Wielding it in his left hand he spun around at the next intersection and put a couple more shots into the Zen’zat as he followed, with the second one finally popping his shields in addition to the physical blows that had been landed earlier, but that only seemed to anger the Zen’zat, increasing his speed as he got up on Ian and smashed him to the ground.

Body blows fell into his armor as he found himself face down on the ground, but no matter how much he tried to get up the Zen’zat kept hammering him until he was so shell shocked he couldn’t have found his balance even if he’d been allowed to stand up.

The next thing he knew there were hands on his helmet trying to remove it, but Ian used the override and locked out the external controls, keeping himself inside the protective cocoon no matter how much physical abuse he took, and after a few minutes of wrenching he felt himself be picked up by the Zen’zat…who started carrying him off.

Ian let himself recover for a few seconds, then kicked and punched at any part of the dark green armor he could…but that only resulted in another beating that left him seeing stars. By the time he came to he realized he was back on the surface, then was dumped to the ground a short while later. He stood up, looking around to see the two prongs of a Triceratops pointed at him from only a few meters away, but they weren’t sparking with energy. Rather, his Rentar power charge was being assaulted and he could see the bar dropping rapidly on his HUD.

Ian took off to the left, but only made it a few steps before another Zen’zat stepped out through a broken doorway and clotheslined him with one quick arm flick, knocking him on the ground as his Rentar bar went to zero.

Suddenly his body tightened up and he felt himself lifted off the ground. He was spun around and floated back in front of the Brat’mar, then after about a minute of mechanical screeches and groans his helmet broke apart from the rest of his armor at the neck and his face was exposed to the outside air.

The gleaming silver armor on the face of the Brat’mar peeled back like a retreating wave of water across its skin, revealing a blue/grey thick hide with clear horns. His face was floated over next to the tiny one on its snout, then was smashed against the side of its head…and as soon as skin contact was made his entire body went limp, betraying his command, as he sensed a looming presence within his mind. It was a pressure, but barely that of a ghost to his perspective. What it was doing he didn’t know from his senses, but he’d been told that the V’kit’no’sat could read minds if they could touch your skin…and this one was probably sucking out all his secrets right now, with Ian unable to even  move a muscle as his body hung limp inside his armor.

He knew he was as good as dead, but without even being able to speak there was nothing he could do but wait.

And the wait lasted several minutes before his body returned to his control and he dropped to the ground, then an invisible wave knocked him to the side and into the hands of two Zen’zat. He swung at them, knocking the legs out from under one with a follow-up scissor kick, then a punch to his head sent him reeling. The next thing he knew there was some sort of cutting tool tearing apart his armor as the Zen’zat peeled him out of it. Before he could throw another punch one of their pale hands emerged and touched a pair of fingers to his bloody forehead...

The pain numbed out, but he also lost control of his body again until the armor had been fully removed, then he was dragged to his feet and given to one Zen’zat that took him by the wrist with the mechanical gauntlet constricting so firmly that it might as well have been handcuffs. He was pulled for several steps until he started walking with the Zen’zat, knowing that outside his armor all it would take was a few good punches and he’d be dead, and his head was still throbbing from the one he’d taken earlier, so he didn’t put up any more fight, deciding to play this out and see what they were going to do with him. Maybe there would be a chance for him to get away later…or maybe they were going to rip him apart for fun somewhere else.

Eventually he was shoved inside a room with other Humans…some civilians, some Commandos, and even a pair of lower ranking Archons based off their uniforms, all of which were out of armor.

“Where are we?” he asked.

“Holding,” the ranger said. “They’re taking turns interrogating us. I don’t know what they’re after, but I don’t think they’re finding it too quickly or we’d already be dead.”

“I saw them kill others,” Ian pointed out. “What are they looking for?”

“I don’t know. Fight back if you want, but at this point I see no way of surviving this. I’d rather go down swinging, but without armor we stand zero chance.”

“How many are outside?”

“Two Zen’zat are guarding us. One there,” he said, pointing to a wall that Ian couldn’t see through, “and there.”

Ian saw him point to the hallway that ran parallel to the room.

“Where are they taking us to be interrogated?”

“Down here,” the ranger said, pointing the opposite way. “There’s a couple of the small ones. Kar’ka, I think. They’ve had me in there three times already. Never said a word.”

“Did you lose control of your body?”

“Mostly. I’ve had some training how to resist, but their minds are too powerful for me. I could keep the Zen’zat out for the most part…until they knocked me unconscious.”

“I couldn’t do anything,” Ian said, swiping a trickle of blood off his forehead and rubbing it on the wall instead of his light blue uniform. “Anyone know the condition of the fleet?”

Those military in the room shook their heads in the negative, while the civilians were so freaked out they didn’t care to supply him with any information, wrapped up in repeating memories of the horrors they’d witnessed and the expectation of more to come in short order.

The V’kit’no’sat had blown their own entry holes into the Ribbon then secured all the natural boarding points in order to keep the remaining civilians from fleeing before they could be captured or killed, so when Rio’s assault team tried to board they had to go about cutting themselves a new entry point as well, though they were much more efficient at it. Once they had a surface conduit established down into the internal atmosphere and shield generators holding it inside, they sent down several dropships that were unmanned ahead of those that were, drawing firing from the I’rar’et circling in the air around the entry point and getting blown into bits by the concentrated weaponsfire.

But what came in behind that diversion started shooting back as two madcats fell through pulsing their jumpjets to slow their fall down to the surface, launching scores of missiles at the lightly armored I’rar’et flyers and knocking many of them out of the sky. Most didn’t die, merely falling down and recovering or hitting the surface still alive, but their limited armor was no match for the firepower in the compact missiles and they were left with holes in their wings or missing wings altogether as they rapidly backtracked from the entry corridor as the two madcats continued to empty their racks on the hundreds of the Pterodactyls above.

There was no resistance on the ground, for Rio had chosen a region in the Ribbon that the V’kit’no’sat had not claimed yet, though the I’rar’et could fly just about anywhere they wanted…that was until a few squadrons of skeets came down through the hole in the sky and began chasing after them. About equal size, the skeets had far less biology inside them than the I’rar’et did, making for a pretty even match when factoring in the tech advantage the V’kit’no’sat had…save for the few missiles that the Star Force aerial craft also carried.

Either the I’rar’et hadn’t been expecting that or they just didn’t know about Star Force enough to be prepared for it, because many of them died in the first few minutes until several K’lak’tal showed up in their battle suits and downed a few skeets, but even they had to back off as more and more missiles and energy weapon hits came from the growing number of mechs on the ground, for they were coming down through the opening like drops of water then fanning out on the cityscape below as Star Force immediately began setting up a safe zone and putting out a call to any survivors nearby to come here for evac.

Rio came down through the opening mid stream in a neo, dropping lightly to the ground on a city street before running up to the periphery with several other mechs in tight formation behind him. They had to get to one of the natural spaceports and secure it in order to get the big transports inside, otherwise it would take forever to evacuate the remaining people…and the longer they waited, the less of them there would be to rescue, for the automated systems on the Ribbon that still remained under their control were recording the waves of carnage taking place.

Knowing approximately where the front lines of the slaughter were, he took his 4 binaries of mechs out at point, shooting at whatever I’rar’et was bold enough to come in close, while they hunted the closest of the Brat’mar, which was some 43 miles away, meaning they were going to be there in a little over half an hour.

10

The energy blast coming off the Brat’mar’s horns was different than what the Hjar’at used. Their Saroto’kanse’vam had a range of operations, but the Brat’mar’s Doh’gon had a single use. Each of the two forward-pointing horns could fire individually in a narrow arc forward, not in all directions like the Hjar’at, or they could link the two together to produce a stronger blast that was held between them in a gathering point shortly before release in a plasma-like beam that was both energy and a bit of matter thrown in.

The matter contingent was unstable and decaying as soon as it left the containment of the horns, producing a burning effect on anything it touched that would linger shortly after contact, but the biggest damage the Brat’mar could do outscaled even the Hjar’at. One versus one the Hjar’at would win easily, but as far as unloading a single shot went, when the Brat’mat included their nose horn the trio of Doh’gon emitters would produce a cannon-like shot in the form of a very short beam that was very powerful but low to cycle. They could even amp it up more if they wanted by including the head fin, which acted as a containment device that allowed them to accept even more charge from their armor in the air above of their eyes…as well as giving them a huge bioshield in front of their bodies whenever they wished.

The Brat’mat were ferocious when facing an opponent. It was their flanks that were their ‘weak’ point, though in truth they were strong from all sides. It was just their forward arc that was their sweet spot, both for offense and defense, and it was that that Rio jumped over in his neo as the Brat’mar fired on a madcat and punched through its shields, melting the leg armor and seizing up the knee joint a moment later so that it couldn’t walk.

Rio’s mech came down on top of the Brat’mar, metallic knees first, and knocked it flat to the ground. He recovered his own footing then began punching the silver-armored flank with both hands while firing off mauler and Dre’mo’don blasts into the Brat’mar’s shields while taking a few hits from its secondary weaponry.

A wall of Lachka hit his mech, trying to push it off, but it only managed to allow the quadruped to slide away briefly, for the neo was too heavy for it to pick up. It tried to spin around but the mech was too fast, charging forward and firing into its side again as the stationary madcat fired mauler blasts of its own into the face that was charging up another shot and trying to spin around to deliver it against Rio while delivering secondary Chi’parat shots from its hip mounted weaponry.

Old as the mauler weapon was, Star Force had kept it around for a reason…and that reason was its ability to weaken shields. A mauler blast today was some 200 times more destructive than it had been when the weapon had first arrived in mech form, though that still didn’t match the Dre’mo’dons they now used. However, using both weapons meant the V’kit’no’sat or others couldn’t tune their shields to resist just the Dre’mo’dons or the maulers, and with every hit the madcat laid into the Brat’mar its shields went down far more than from the destructive effect alone.

Unable to get to Rio with its main weapon as fast as it liked, the Brat’mar turned back and unloaded on the madcat. With its shields mostly down, it took the Doh’gon beam straight in the body and the forward armor plates exploded so hard that it rocked the entire mech back. Unable to bend the one knee to compensate it started to fall down, then some agile maneuvering on the other leg and with the two stubby arms had it leaning over at an angle and looking towards the ground as the pilot wresting the damaged mech back up into standing position…but then another Brat’mar came in and physically rammed it, unloading another blast into the forward, damaged section once it was on the ground, and all but killing the mech. The protective cockpit cocoon took damage, but the pilot still lived and had enough control left to unload the left shoulder missile box into the flank of the Brat’mar.

The explosions damaged the mech too, tearing off the missile box as well as the left arm, but the shields on the V’kit’no’sat went down and a good chunk of its armor went with it as Rio kept wrangling with the other while getting bits of incoming Chi’parat damage from nearby Kar’ka weaponry. It was more potent than Dre’mo’dons and the V’kit’no’sat’s primary weapon for small scale conflicts where sufficient armor space was available…and the Kar’ka were about as small as you could get and still wield one, though on occasion Zen’zat would carry large independent weapons of the same make.

Right now it was the Kar’ka that were sniping at the mechs alongside the Brat’mar, with the Zen’zat staying out of the way so they didn’t get stepped on. Their weaponry was infantry only and not up to snuff for this kind of a fight, and really the Kar’ka were at a disadvantage too against the neos. The other mechs were a different story, but the Kar’ka had to operate in groups to take them down, for one on one they didn’t have the firepower to do it.

The Brat’mar were more than a match for the mechs, but Rio was using the agility of the neo and the quadruped limitations of his opponent to his advantage as he finally beat through the shielding on the Brat’mar and began to score armor hits…then a very skillful faint got him momentarily off balance as the Brat’mar looking to be spinning its head towards him then suddenly redirected and whipped its giant tale around from the opposite direction.

Rio’s neo was knocked backward, and as the Brat’mar reversed its spin he saw the blue energy charging over its head, knowing he couldn’t get to his feet fast enough, so while he fired a Dre’mo’don into the forward bioshields covering the Brat’mar he reached out with his mind and unleashed the largest Fornax blast he could straight into the thing’s big head.

The Brat’mar twitched uncontrollably and the beam shot high, missing the neo and traveling a couple of kilometers to where it hit the top of a building, blowing it apart and causing the upper few stories to tip over and eventually fall crumbling to the ground, crushing whatever was beneath it.

Neo knew it would take time for another Doh’gon to charge, so he rushed the face of the Brat’mar and attacked the bioshields, weakening them with punches and shots while staying directly ahead of the Brat’mar and out of range of the hip cannons, though the knee-mounted ones continued to chip away at his shields.

A moment before the Brat’mar’s bioshields eventually collapsed the silver armor on its face rippled and flowed up over its horns, protecting them as the armor’s shields breached a few seconds later and the neo started making body blows…up until he had to pull back as another Doh’gon shot through the space he had been in from another flanking Brat’mar.

A trio of skeets flew in and strafed it, unloading into its side and streaking past ahead of a pair of I’rar’et chasing them just before a huge salvo of missiles from a pair of madcats slammed into the Brat’mar, taking it down so hard that Rio knew it must have already had weakened shields prior to the attack. A pair of neos jumped out from behind a low building on spaceport grounds and went straight for it, leaving him to deal with his previous target as its horns became exposed again and charged up for another heavy cannon shot.

Just then Rio got a battlemeld prompt from two other Archons approaching from the south, with him immediately accepting it and the trio reached out to the Brat’mar’s mind, using their combined Ikrid power to hammer against its incredibly large telepathic presence even as they peppered it with Dre’mo’don and mauler blasts. The battle went on for four more seconds, but just as the Doh’gon was about to fire against his neo again they finally broke through its mental defenses and froze it…with the blue energy dissipating as there was no longer any controlling force behind it.

An umbrella of energy puffed from its head, lightly damaging anything around it as Rio and the others fought to keep a hold on the mind that was bucking their grip as much as possible. Meanwhile they continued to hammer it with mech shots, tearing through its armor until they started making flesh wounds. Once that happened their hold on its mind broke, for the pain was too much for them to suppress. It staggered to the side, firing back with its secondary weaponry as it tried to charge up another Doh’gon, but subsequent Fornax blasts caused it to trip and fall…though it didn’t get back up as more body shots were made and the Brat’mar finally died.

Rio breathed heavily inside the mech, having stretched his Ikrid power to the limit to try and suppress that much brain mass, but then he noticed the disappeared Brat’mar’s mind return, though it wasn’t moving. As other fighting continued and the battlemeld link between the three broke, he zoomed in on the Brat’mar and saw its wounds healing over…knowing that the armor it wore contained a Kich’a’kat that was trying to bring it back to life.

Rio didn’t like shooting people when they were down, but in this case he had no choice…and after the sight of other Brat’mar telekinetically ripping unarmored Humans apart he didn’t feel too bad about this one. He just hated that they were so outmatched that they couldn’t be taking prisoners. They had to kill as many of the V’kit’no’sat as they could, and the number of mechs littering the spaceport attested to the cost of the few kills they were getting. Rio couldn’t let this one get back up and limp off, only to return later in a new suit of armor or to go out with a final cannon blast that would kill or disable another mech.

So he walked up and started unloading into the breach points in the armor until either the Kich’a’kat was destroyed or there wasn’t enough of the Brat’mar left to repair. Either way the healing stopped and Rio ran off towards the closest engagement he could find, though there were only a few remaining. The spaceport would soon be theirs again, but it had cost them a lot…

Suddenly he got hit from behind as a pair of new Brat’mar entered the spaceport landing field, coming out from behind a building and apparently jamming sensors enough not to have gotten picked up on the battlemap prior to that. Both of them unloaded their Doh’gon at him, with Rio only managing to dodge one of the shots. The other hit and blew through his shields, then partially severed his right arm that dropped limp beside him as he ran off in his metallic body as fast as he could, but the smaller Kar’ka with the Brat’mar raced across the gap faster than his neo could move without the counterbalance of the arm, and even then the V’kit’no’sat might have turned out to be faster, because they were closing alarmingly fast.

He didn’t turn to fight, knowing that if they delayed him the Brat’mar would finish him off, so he continued running as their Chi’parat ate into his rear armor. He got nearly a kilometer before they got one of his leg joints and his mech fell to the ground, digging a furrow in the hard pavement and forcing him to fight from a kneeling position...but what they didn’t expect was the massive Fornax blast thrown their way along with the weaponry in his intact arm and shoulder mounts. Another followed it, and another, disrupting their balance but not taking them down to the ground as many of their return shots missed his mech entirely…but then a cannon shot from a Brat’mar hit him square in the chest and knocked his mech flat on its mechanical back.

Free of the Fornax disruption, the Kar’ka swarmed over him, shooting into the armor damage and wrecking his mech until a combination of air strikes and a star of mechs got to him, fighting off the Kar’ka and killing most of them before losing two of their own to the Brat’mar as Rio sat in his armored cocoon trying to get his mech back on its feet…but it was no use. It was toast and all he had was the secondary battlemap feed coming from the cocoon to see what was going on outside, for his command and control systems were down.

He could issue commands, and did send a few quick ones before he started digging his way out of the dead mech. It took him several minutes of pushing and cutting using the tools inside to get through the damaged cocoon even with the help of internal releases, then he crawled out through the gash the Brat’mar had torn in the torso and stood atop his dead mech in his purple/white Archon armor and looked around.

The two Brat’mar were being pushed back by another star coming to assist the broken one, but neither of them were damaged. Shields were low, but no armor damaged yet. As for the Kar’ka…

Rio leapt up off the mech and kicked in his Yen’mer, flying up a few meters then doing a superman low to the ground as he headed for three of the Kar’ka. Each was a good three meters tall and had weaponry that could eat through his shields and armor really fast, but he never gave them the chance. Readjusting his shields into a forward cone and throwing up his own bioshields over them, he dove straight into one of them and knocked it over with his body, dropping both shields right before impact so not to drain them, then flicking them back on after the fact as he bounced to the second one and punched it in the head.

Running/flying between the three he moved too fast for them to easily shoot with their Chi’parat, but they also had smaller Dre’mo’dons on their short arms that they did land a few shots with, but not enough to get through both sets of shields before Rio started messing with their mental aim and causing the others to go wide or to shoot phantom images of himself. He kept them so busy and frustrated that they didn’t even see the skeets coming in, and when he dropped into a ball on the ground between the three and generated the biggest Fornax field he could, the area around him lit up with weaponsfire as the skeets didn’t fly past. They came to a hover nearby and unloaded on the three Kar’ka with repetitive shots…shots that the V’kit’no’sat could not return so long as the Fornax was messing with their aim.

When the weaponsfire ceased all three Kar’ka were full of smoking holes and Rio waved off the skeets as he went around and made sure each of the three remained dead while also watched from afar as the 10 mechs took down one of the Brat’mar and chased the other off…though there were only 4 of them left standing at the end.

Another neo ran over to him and Rio flew up to land on the shoulder, then the Regular pilot ran him across the battlefield to a secure area before heading back out to help clean up what was left of the V’kit’no’sat and establish a perimeter in case more were on their way…and with the local jamming devices they were setting up to minimize Star Force sensors and their battlemeld coordination, the odds of ambushes were considerably greater. Rio was going to need to bring sensor beacons in and set them up everywhere to fill in the gaps, for armor and mech systems working in conjunction were not going to pick up anything beyond line of sight with this much jamming in play.

Another neo guarding the recently established evacuation site…given that it still had some intact ships sitting on the tarmac…commed him and offered his ride, but Rio declined. Instead he headed over to the Morpheus-class mech that was standing guard along with a quartet of drones. Rio had it open up and he flew into the hatch, sliding inside with the two occupants and taking a seat on the floor.

“The neo can cover this location. Get your star moving and out to the damaged mechs. We have to recover pilots before they can get picked off by Zen’zat. I’ve seen one killed already, and I know they’re waiting for another opportunity. I’ll provide coordination and psionic assistance if we encounter anymore Brat’mar, but right now we need to go Zen’zat hunting.”

“Gladly,” the Archon in the controller’s seat said while the Regular that was piloting the Morpheus itself didn’t respond other than getting them into motion. The Archon mentally ordered the four pilotless mechs to fall into formation behind the Morpheus, and Rio rode with them out towards the battlefield as he looked on sensors for dead spots where the V’kit’no’sat may have been hiding jammers…for the Zen’zat were using them cagily to move in and around the various structures and downed mechs, often running across the gaps so fast that no one could shoot them because they weren’t in range, then disappearing from sensors again and unable to be tracked down once a mech or skeet got to their location.

Rio kept checking the battle in the air as well, seeing that what fighting was left amounted to a few I’rar’et poking the perimeter in order to keep the skeets from massing against the ground troops as they fought an aggressive retreat away from the spaceport trying to bleed Star Force of as many mechs as they could without going down themselves.

But they weren’t Rio’s concern…the Zen’zat were, for right now they were acting as assassins and looking to take down the mechwarriors when they exited their dead machines or going after them inside them. Rio picked up on one such attempted to the west and the Morpheus star responded in time, seeing a large explosion rip open the heart of the mech as a Zen’zat ran off under ranged weaponsfire that wasn’t accurate enough to hit him, though Rio had hoped they’d get a lucky hit in.

They didn’t, but when Rio exited the mech and flew down to the site of the explosion he saw that a bit of the cocoon had remained, then he coordinated with the Archon inside to cut him out while standing guard against any more assassination attempts.

The spaceport was theirs, but this was not safe territory yet. They’d have to clear and reinforce it heavily before they could open up the space doors and start accepting in the convoys of transports to evacuate the survivors…and he had no doubt that there would be Zen’zat lurking in the shadows to ambush the unarmored civilians as they transitioned here.

Which meant that he was going to have to be spending a lot of time out of mech counter hunting them…along with Archon teams linked in battlemeld with the same objective.

As long as the mechs and aerial division could keep sufficient numerical advantage to hold the V’kit’no’sat heavy hitters back from this location, and the navy outside could do the same, this was going to be a war of Zen’zat versus Archons with the prizes being the lives of the civilians yet to be evacuated…and Rio knew that they weren’t going to get them all out, so he set himself to the task of hunting the hunters rather than being a defender, and took most of the best Archons he had available with him for the same purpose as other Archons, Knights, and Commandos were deployed in defensive arrangements and escorts along the evacuation routes that were just now being set up to channel the panicked civilians that were running out of buildings everywhere and heading straight for the nearest Star Force troops they could find…

Which the Zen’zat took advantage of, killing many in the chaos before Rio returned the favor and started a killcount of his own that would cross into triple figures within two days…but that was only the beginning of the fight on the Ribbon, for the V’kit’no’sat had come here for answers and they weren’t going to give up their captive population until they had learned from them who among the V’kit’no’sat was sponsoring the rogue Zen’zat.

www.aerkijyr.com

Star Trek Red Alert

1

March 4, 3602

Solar System

Neptune

The subdivision of the V’kit’no’sat fleet led by the Serni’jar broke away from the other races, taking their 296 ships out beyond the main planet to the gas giants in higher stellar orbits, picking the cold blue one with a fair amount of orbital constructs but it was the pair of sizeable shipyards in low planetary orbit that drew their attention. With only four of their defense stations to defend them and a small fleet of the rogue Zen’zat ships, Mak’to’ran had sent Nikken to both take them out and draw system defense fleets away from other targets.

That said, Nikken didn’t like what he saw. A direct attack would cost him some ships and they’d already lost plenty since entering this system without even assaulting a protected world yet. It was questionable whether or not the V’kit’no’sat fleet could destroy this system if they kept taking losses, for the strength of the planetary shields had not yet been tested, and he did not want to contribute to their losses here.

The quadruped strode back and forth on the command deck of his Na’shor, sizing up the defense fleet and nearby ships moving to reinforce the shipyards…as well as the partially completed vessels in the slips. Many were larger than the ships they’d been fighting, but without a complete record of the enemy fleet classes it was impossible to determine their function. He wanted to send troops onboard to pull computer records and other information, but with the resistance being put up so far he wasn’t going to risk it. There were many shipyards, some of alarming size, spread out across this star system, but this pair were going to be eliminated quickly and efficiently…the question was how to do that aside from a straightforward attack.

Using the data from the battle in stellar orbit, Nikken calculated how many hits from those defense stations his ships could take and set up an assault circuit with a point starting beyond their range, then when he was satisfied, the Serni’jar and Octo’mar fleets began running in towards them at high speed, but only a few ships at a time stretched out into a long line.

Nikken didn’t go first, but rather back in the 19th wave so he could monitor the damage on both sides and make adjustments prior to his personal attack. He’d ordered the defense stations and the Zen’zat ships ignored as much as possible and all firepower to be directed on the shields protecting the outer shipyard of the pair. Taking fire from the defense stations and the Zen’zat fleet, his leading ships punched through and unloaded only a handful of shots as they flashed by at high speed, suffering more shield damage on the far side as they accelerated hard to get out of weapons range.

Nikken didn’t get information back from them until they came out of their tiny microjumps, but none of them had their shields go down…which was good, and if the trend held they’d be able to continue battering the shipyard with impunity until they breached the weak shield covering its spindly mass.

But the Zen’zat defenders quickly caught on to their disadvantage, and by the time Nikken’s ship made its strafing run it had enemy ships accelerating to keep pace with it, exchanging fire as they flew in and out of proximity, but when the microjump ended he saw that the Star Force ships were still with his…but they hadn’t followed all of his ships, only certain groups that they now outnumbered.

Clever of them, but he wasn’t going to let them bait him into a slugging match. He ordered his ships to continue fleeing to a new rendezvous point, but the ‘Star Force’ ships continued to pursue. Calling them Zen’zat vessels wasn’t fair, after all, for no true Zen’zat had built these primitive craft.

They weren’t V’kit’no’sat technology or design, but it was going to take a while for Nikken to start thinking of their opponents as something other than their own…which was why he didn’t expect one of his smaller Ti’mat to suddenly drop out of formation as Star Force made a strafing run against the four ships in his group. He expected them to come in close and open fire, but none of them did on this attack run. Instead they came up so close they nearly rammed the Ti’mat, then suddenly they fell back dragging the Serni’jar ship with them.

By the time he realized what was happening and turned his own ships around, more Star Force ships were intercepting the Ti’mat pinned within an engine crippling field and hammering its shields. Like a swarm of rodents they surrounded it and did not relent even when his Na’shor and 9 other ships arrived, with his group combining with another attack wave. They fell on the tiny Star Force ships and began savaging them, but the Ti’mat inside had hull breaches before the rescue battle had even begun and Nikken couldn’t draw their fire away from it.

The Star Force fleet group eventually scattered and ran, now outnumbered, but having destroyed the Ti’mat. Its hull was still mostly there, but with huge holes in it, few operational systems, and drifting on its previous course with no engine power even without the Star Force crippling ships holding it in check. Nikken had destroyed several of them as they fled, but he hadn’t gotten them all and the tradeoff had definitely not been worth it.

Angry at having been bled so stupidly, he began clumping his formation up more as he continued to pound the shipyard’s shields until they eventually failed. When they did, each subsequent pass destroyed part of the giant station, but eventually another Ti’mat went with it. The Star Force fleet assaulted one again as they passed, weakening its shields but not penetrating them as they focused their full firepower on the single vessel during the brief flyby. Like before, some of them accelerated and tried to match pace, but the four defense stations also targeted the single Ti’mat whose shields were already diminished…

Suddenly it dropped from the group just as they were beginning to make their microjumps, with Nikken ordering a sudden abort. He wasn’t going to leave a ship behind to get picked apart, so he decided to weather the Ardents from the stations as his ships surrounded the damaged one, taking hits for it as he called in all his far flung ship groups for a direct attack on the Sentinels.

The battle lasted longer than he wanted, but the outcome was never in doubt. All four defense stations fell and the remains of the defense fleet fled as they were quickly outgunned, leaving both the damaged shipyard and the untouched one at their mercy…though at the cost of 18 of his ships. More were damaged and still operational to various degrees, but the crews on the destroyed ones would at least be partially recoverable. Nikken ordered rescue teams sent immediately and enough perimeter skirmishers to keep the Star Force ships back from any assassination runs they might attempt.

Simultaneously he sent a handful of ships to finish destroying the exposed shipyard, which they could now do patiently without the defense stations waiting nearby to shoot them. Both the Serni’jar and their Octo’mar allies, whom they often paired with on joint missions, methodically took apart the station piece by piece, utterly destroying it in a venting of their rage, but Nikken had them carefully take down and disable the shields on the second shipyard sometime later, then surround it with a defensive screen while he sent boarding parties onboard.

He might not have come out of this with his full ship count, but he was going to get some intel he hadn’t expected to retrieve. It wouldn’t be worth the loss of his ships, but it would be something to help mitigate that loss…and he hoped that Star Force would come back within firing range in an attempt to stop him so he could destroy more of their pathetic small ships.

Nikken’s costly victory was expanded upon as his fleet sought out and destroyed all unprotected orbitals in the region around the gas giant that weren’t under the protective umbrella of a defense station. He’d hoped to draw out the Star Force fleet but they didn’t respond at all, just letting him destroy their infrastructure that, like the shipyards, appeared to have already been evacuated…unlike a larger station in orbit around one of the closer gas giants that the Brat’mar were assaulting. They’d gotten inside to discover a large number of the rogue Zen’zat still remaining, and according to previous reports they were capturing as many as they were killing and beginning to get some answers as to what was going on here.

But then things took another turn for the worse when Star Force staged a counter attack with ships of an unfamiliar kind coming up from somewhere far below the star to reinforce them. The V’kit’no’sat didn’t know who owned them, but they were much larger and heavily shielded, giving the small ships some badly needed mass and allowing them to take back naval control of their synthetic landscape in orbit, though in appearance only. Brat’mar, I’rar’et and Kar’ka troops were still inside and in control, but Star Force had begun shipping in a massive amount of their own troops and initial reports indicated that they were using both aerial craft and large mechanized vehicles and battle suits that were having some effect.

Whenever it was told that a Brat’mar died in ground combat it gave Nikken chills for they fought the least recklessly, and the combination of their firepower and defenses meant it had to have taken something particularly nasty to take them down. As it was, his splinter group was being called to that battle location along with four other fleet segments in order to regain naval superiority against the alarming number of Star Force ships gathering there.

Other fleet segments were being reassigned to punish the enemy’s arrogance in different locations, but as Nikken recalled his various ships from around planetary orbit he got word from the vessels in the center of the system that Star Force reinforcements had begun to arrive, complicating matters further.

“There they are,” Roger-009 said from the bridge nexus onboard his command ship as he came out of his high deceleration jump and began getting battlemap data of the V’kit’no’sat fleet that had spread across the system, but with a chunk still remaining in stellar orbit tearing apart a lot of Sentinels with an Ethan-commanded fleet nearby…and the Slip’in’slide deployed above them.

As the data began to pour in Roger reviewed it quickly with his Sav-enhanced mind and the neural interlink, seeing the initial battle replayed while also monitoring current movements to make sure the 1000 jumpships in the 112th fleet that he’d brought with him in full weren’t disturbed at their  jumppoint. He’d followed the jumppoint recommendations flowing out over short range communications and was glad to see that there were no nearby threats nor any moving towards him.

During that time he also received a message from Ethan, including a set of coordinates that he wanted him to rendezvous at.

“Glad you finally got your ass here, buddy. If you haven’t noticed by now they’ve got a Mach’nel that is causing us a lot of headaches and their ships are a bit stronger than during the Rit’ko’sor rebellion. No major improvements seen yet and with the fleet they brought we’re going to kick their ass, but if we don’t do something about that Mach’nel they’re going to make a mess of our tidy system.”

“Don’t trip over the debris on the way in, we’ve already had one dustup, and Rio is in a bind out at Titan. They got onboard the Ribbon and we’re taking it back to finish with the evacuation. Right now the Mach’nel is picking off Sentinels and I can’t do a damn thing about it aside from trying to trim off some of their support ships, so if you have any bright ideas get your ass over here and take command. And even if you don’t, get over here. I need all the help I can get. These bastards are trying every trick in the book to break our battlemap grid and I’m having to bleed drones to accomplish anything against them.”

The recorded message finished with a position highlighted near Ethan’s current location, and with a thought he assigned command of the jumppoint to another ship with orders to remain on station until everyone had arrived then follow him over to Ethan…but right now he needed to get within realtime comm range and have a chat with his peer.

That took only a matter of minutes when sufficient engine power was applied, dropping him out behind the Star Force position to help avoid a possible intercept that never came. Right now there was no fighting aside from the Mach’nel sniping a Sentinel from beyond its return fire range and methodically poking down its shields.

“Why didn’t we build one of those?” Roger joked when Ethan’s hologram popped up in his nexus.

“Rio didn’t want to tip our hand and I agreed. We’ve pulled in a couple of Shivas, but that’s it. Unless we can get the Mach’nel alone to hammer on it, any assault we make is going to be wasted.”

“And unless you can disable its engines it can just run unless we get it cornered properly.”

“You see the problem,” Ethan said sarcastically. “Any suggestions?”

“Not yet. Why haven’t they touched Earth?”

“They think we’re an illegal V’kit’no’sat project sponsored by one of the current races and they want to know which one. That’s why we think they boarded the Ribbon and are taking some prisoners. The others they’re killing on the spot. Some with Lachka.”

Roger winced. “Pulled apart?”

“The ones caught out of armor, yeah. It’s not pretty, but take a look just to get your ire up. We haven’t tried taking any prisoners yet, both because of that and the fact that we’re not sure how hard it will be.”

“Save that for after we kick their ass,” Roger said firmly. “So long as they’re mobile and dangerous we can’t risk losing other people to pick up their scraps. How badly damaged is that Mach’nel?”

“Not enough. Got a sunbath though.”

“Saw that. Did they lose any weapons and repair them or did they just not take much damage?”

“Unclear, but its combat capabilities don’t seem to be hindered other than some armor loss. By now its shields have fully recharged and they’ve got at least one damaged generator back online. It wouldn’t surprise me if they get the others up before too long.”

“Still, the armor loss is a help and they can’t replace that out here,” Roger said as he continued to pull up past data while feeling out the current situation. “They’re going for the control ships. Why haven’t they got one yet?”

“We’re not making it easy, but I sense some hesitation on their part too. When we run we win by buying time for the drones to fight, meaning it’s not a loss, and they seem to have trouble figuring out how hard to chase and when to head back and shoot up the drones.”

“When they start using Domjo and smaller we’re going to have a problem. They can maneuver close enough to do damage even when we’re evading.”

“They haven’t figured that out yet.”

“Damn them. They just had to bring a Mach’nel. With a fleet this small I didn’t think they would have bothered.”

“And we’re losing drones fast.”

“There are more on the way, and it looks like you’ve got a decent killcount yourself. Mind if I see if I can add to it?”

“I’ll happily take second seat. What do you need?”

“The I’rar’et know how to fly and fight, so let’s ignore them and focus on the plodders with a more navigationally aggressive attack and see how they respond.”

“Do you want to pull down another summon?”

“Not yet. You’ve got enough here for me to comfortably work with, though I am going to break some of your toys in the process.”

“Fine, so long as they’re not the big ones.”

“Have they found the fireflies yet?”

“The orbital stations submerged before they arrived, and we had the interceptors out of harm’s way long before that. No way of knowing how far their sensors have penetrated the star.”

“When are they supposed to emerge?”

“When they run out of shields.”

“Too deep for a recall pulse?”

“They’re as deep as they can go.”

“Alright, we’ll use the interceptors. Get them sipping star while I play with the Vikies here, and reconfigure their shields for opaqueness over the capture area. No point in tipping our hand when they probably don’t know what we’ve got…or am I wrong in assuming they didn’t scout the system prior to arrival?”

“I get the feeling they didn’t do any scouting. I was told the lizards are getting wiped out and they mind raided the information out of them. What they don’t know, the V’kit’no’sat probably don’t know. And I haven’t seen anything to contradict that theory. They came in here blind expecting to squash a bug.”

“How have they been taking the disappointment?”

“Well, but they’re still not registering how much trouble they’re in. They’ve got their big chess piece and are using it to probe a reaction from us, so they’re being cautious here and looking for answers on the Ribbon.”

“Good. Then they’re not going to see this coming. I’d go after the Mach’nel if its shields weren’t up, but there’s no way they’re going to sit still long enough and they’ll just pick off our interdictors if we make them. You were right to try and reduce their number of support ships. We’ll stick with that and let them trade off our Sentinels. They’re worthless without a range advantage anyway.”

“I was hoping you’d have some brilliant strategy to take out the Mach’nel and give us our range advantage back.”

“Like you said, if they don’t leave it alone we can’t do squat against it without bleeding ourselves dry. We…” Roger stopped mid-sentence as he saw an update on the battlemap.

“I see it,” Ethan confirmed as one of the fleet groups made up of the Hjar’at ships began moving out on a slow microjump far below the star and not on any useable jumpline. “They’re trying to backtrack the Shiva platform.”

“243 ships? That’ll be fun to watch. I assume she’s prepped for uninvited guests?”

“Got the confirmation signal back when I summoned the first cluster. Anything gets close to the wall it gets obliterated unless we use the stand down code.”

“You handle the fireflies?”

“Happy to. Just give me cover and let me know where to target.”

“Done. Any word on Sara?”

“Not yet. Expected her here before you.”

“So did I. I hope they’re not hitting multiple systems.”

“Not a peep off the entry route yet, but we did get confirmation from Char. They’re sending a flood of backup.”

“Hopefully we can finish this before they get here. The less tricks we have to pull out of our arsenal the better, but the fireflies we need now.”

“On it. Can you manage here if I go pick them up personally?”

“Yep,” Roger said, sending out priority commands that put all the nearby ships under his fleet control banner and removing Ethan’s. “Go.”

A few seconds later Ethan’s command ship made a microjump out of formation and began arcing its way over towards the jumpline for Earth while keeping well clear of the V’kit’no’sat fleet.

2

March 15, 3602

Solar System

Titan

Rio punched the taller Zen’zat in the face, cracking the already damaged helmet enough that he was able to telekinetically rip off the forward part of it, exposing his forehead and one eye. Over the next few furious blows Rio was able to spin the Zen’zat around and send him tumbling to the ground, then the Archon was over top of him and firing down at his head.

One shot landed and blew out a section of his skull, causing the Zen’zat to go limp on the grass in the Ribbon park where Rio had found him trying to ambush a nearby line of evacuees. Their fight had lasted more than 4 minutes as Rio beat through his shields and then his armor with a combination of fist, foot, and plasma, but like the others he’d come across in past days this Zen’zat was probably a high Kilnor at best…their lowest skill bracket out of six and about the equivalent of a padawan or mage, though this one was very good at close quarters deflections. A lot of the body blows Rio had attempted he’d moved a few inches prior to impact, drawing out this fight longer than a lot of the others.

Rio extended his mind out, searching for more targets while a pair of skeets flew overhead in a search pattern to cover for the civilians. Many had already been evacuated off the Ribbon as the naval fighting had stalled into a draw with Star Force holding part of the Ribbon and the V’kit’no’sat claiming access to the rest. Neither side wanted to fully engage the other, but neither could they allow for their troops to get stranded. The V’kit’no’sat had paid a heavy price to take back and then hold a few entrances and both fleets were now on opposite sides of the rectangular Ribbon and agreeing to stay there without any official communication.

Rio didn’t like that, but they’d have to burn through their remaining ships to get rid of the V’kit’no’sat fleet segments that had recombined here and the addition shivas were helping to keep the V’kit’no’sat from overrunning the smaller drones. The naval situation outside the Ribbon alone was a powder keg, but Roger and Ethan had their hands full elsewhere as the V’kit’no’sat kept hitting Sentinels and other targets without fully engaging any planetary defenses. Rio’s army here wasn’t interesting in holding onto the Ribbon, only in getting the people out, and after that the V’kit’no’sat could camp out here as long as they wanted and hope that Rio didn’t decide to destroy it with them inside.

That objective was why the naval situation outside was a draw. Star Force couldn’t risk the remaining civilians on their narrow advantage, needing to preserve it so they could escort the evacuation ships away from the Ribbon and down to the planet, otherwise the rescue effort would be pointless.

Right now more civilians were being killed by Zen’zat assassins than by the heavy combat, which was why Rio was here and not in a mech…and as his mind searched the area he caught sight of another Zen’zat, one that was heading his way rather than toward the civilians. Rio figured he was going to probably try and rescue the one he’d just killed, though with that head injury it was doubtful if a Kich’a’kat could even revive him.

Rio ran out across a grassy opening and by a few tall evergreen trees, then dove into a thicker area of woods that had been kept in cold, snowy conditions via segmented atmospheric shields to give it a different environment than the rest of the park. He passed from warm grass onto an inch of snow with only a slight resistance as he moved through the shield, then he came into contact with the new Zen’zat a few seconds later, seeing that he carried nothing more than his forearm gauntlets.

The Zen’zat struck first, a lightning fast punch followed by three more, then a kick that sent Rio flying backwards…with the Zen’zat following and pummeling him with punches offset by a Dre’mo’don shot here and there that were wearing down his shields fast.

It took a Jumat blast from Rio to knock the Zen’zat off him, then when Rio engaged again he realized that this Zen’zat was better than the others he’d faced, and to the point was faster than him. His reflexes and agility were superior, and given his larger size that meant Rio was at a significant disadvantage save for his psionics…which he pulled on heavily to disengage from the flying fists several times as the Zen’zat beat through his own blocks and made body shots that continued to drain his shields until Rio flashed up a bioshield a few inches off his armor and the Zen’zat’s next hit bounced off it unexpectedly.

The Archon took advantage of that and dived forward, landing a quick punch with his palm that moved the Zen’zat’s torso back a bit more, then he brought his other arm forward and blew the bigger warrior off him with another Jumat blast followed by him pulling out a pistol and shooting him several times as the Zen’zat got back up and charged.

Rio ran backwards and flew up into the air a couple meters, continuing to fire condensed plasma shots into the Zen’zat’s shields, but his opponent jumped up at him faster than he could fly away, taking a shot directly to the face, and dragged both of them back down to the ground. When they hit he tried to leverage Rio into a headlock and nearly succeeded had it not been for all those training sessions he’d done with the Black Knight. He recognized the move coming and reacted instinctively, ducking down all the way until he was curled up into a ball underneath the larger body and took that opportunity to summon a larger Jumat blast.

He blew it out from around his spherically and popped the bigger guy off, but only enough to get himself a step away before the Zen’zat was back on him. Rio got one shot off before his pistol was knocked out of his grip, then it was a series of losing arm and leg blocks as he fought a retreat across the snow until a wall of Lachka hit him from the side and knocked him into a tree. A hooking fist came around and hit him in the head so hard the impact drove his helmet into the thin tree trunk and snapped it in half as the Zen’zat grabbed Rio by the wrist and threw him back across the snow into another tree…which was when his shields popped, for he couldn’t turn them on and off fast enough to protect against the energy attacks while letting his armor absorb the physical blows.

When his shields went down the Zen’zat held position and raised both arms, firing multiple Dre’mo’don blasts at Rio as he dodged to the right. Some missed, some hit and melted little portions of his armor until his head stopping ringing enough for him to throw up a bioshield that caught the rest as he took off through the trees.

But the Zen’zat didn’t let him get far, actually running him down and punching him towards another tree that Rio expertly dodged, flying in place and letting his feet come up level with his body, then using them to jump off the bending trunk and launch him back at the Zen’zat…who moved so fast that Rio missed, and had it not been for his Yen’mer that allowed him to adjust his movement direction in flight he would have jumped completely clear of him and let the Zen’zat get behind his back, but Rio was able to curve his angle just enough to get a hand on the Zen’zat’s arm, whose shields were up and a bit slippery, but he was able to lock his fingers around the elbow joint and use it to pivot swing himself around and get behind the Zen’zat and put him into a headlock.

Rio latched on tight, then kicked into his back with his knees as the Zen’zat tried to extricate himself, eventually flipping backward in order to flatten Rio, but the Archon spun him around in air with his Yen’mer and landed him face down on the ground.

“You’re good,” Rio said in V’kit’no’sat as he fought to keep him pinned there against the massive muscle below and failing, so he had to summon up and drop an Ubven field over top of him. “Too bad you’re fighting for the bad guys.”

“Who gave you these abilities?” the Zen’zat said, struggling and failing to push through the thick Lachka field and Rio’s weight, which was enhanced considerably by his armor plates.

“We figured it out. And I’d hate to see someone of your skills be destroyed so pointlessly, but if you’re not gone when I get back here with my buddies we’re going to have to kill you.”

“Traitors never win. Whatever advantage you think you have will not be enough. You will be destroyed sooner or later.”

“We’re not V’kit’no’sat, so we can’t be traitors,” Rio said, jumping up off the Zen’zat into the air and hanging there for a moment as the bigger man fought to cut through and destroy the lingering Lachka restraints before Rio could shoot him with impunity, but when he succeeded a few moments later Rio was already above the tree line and flying hard to put distance between himself and the Zen’zat that had to be one of their elites, a tier 3 Tamrenor at minimum. Every other Zen’zat he’d faced here was either a tier 1 Kilnor or a low tier 2 Zardaku, and had he not had a psionics advantage the Zen’zat would have surely killed him.

Rio dropped a hazard warning on the park area and got the two nearby skeets flying low to strafe anything they saw as he headed to the top of a nearby building and perched himself there, giving his breathing a chance to settle as he scanned the battlemap and tried to make sure that there were enough assets in the area to protect the civilians against the Zen’zat…but no further attack against them materialized, and Rio got the distinct impression that Zen’zat had come here specifically for him, though he did note the other Zen’zat body had been removed and probably taken back to wherever the badass had come from.

The V’kit’no’sat gunship that had eventually picked up Kaalo set him and the body of the dead Zen’zat down in one of their strongholds on the Ribbon with Kaalo carrying the body out and handing it over to another Zen’zat before proceeding inside a portable V’kit’no’sat structure that had been set up inside one of the demolished cities. He made his way through the large corridors, passing by both Kar’ka and Brat’mar until he came to the commander’s platform that was but a simple room with a single workstation on which a Brat’mar stood with two Zen’zat assistants as they manipulated numerous holographic displays.

The unarmored Brat’mar turned to look at Kaalo, who retracted his own armor down into thick forearm gauntlets.

“I do not care for that look,” the Brat’mar said skeptically. “What has transpired?”

“I engaged their Rio in single combat after he killed one of our Zen’zat. I defeated him, but was unable to land a killing blow before he escaped. I can confirm he has Nakane, Jumat, Ubven, and whether by body or armor has the ability to fly under low power. I can beat him, but he can run from me.”

“Jumat and Ubven?”

“Yes.”

The Brat’mar considered that for a long moment before he spoke again.

“What of the others?”

“None have demonstrated the skill he has, but some do have Jumat and I believe it correlates to their armor colors.”

“What did he wear?”

“Purple and white. The only one known to bear such markings, but the pinks and golds have also been seen to use Jumat.”

“You said you defeated him?”

“He is smaller and slower. Without his psionics he would not have lasted long, but with Ubven he can lock me in place and run at will. If I engage him again I do not expect different results.”

“No. Now that they know you are here they will target you if possible. I will not risk you again. Stay here and guard against a counterattack, though I do not think they will mount one. Their intent seems to be to evacuate their people. After they are gone they may choose to destroy this construct with us on it.”

“Even with our prisoners?”

“That remains to be seen. It is possible they will try to rescue them first. If that occurs, intervene with their infantry alone. Do not go near their battle suits. They are causing us damage. If they land a blow on you, you will die.”

“Zen’zat know how to evade.”

“Until we learn more about their capabilities it is not worth the risk,” the Brat’mar commander said, flicking his nose horn towards a bit of air that materialized with a hologram showing new battlesuits being deployed.

“These are much larger, and we cannot take them down quickly. They have a free shield and sword and can displace us far easier than I like. We have to attack from moderate range in groups, else they will take us down individually. We can run from them, but it is clear these rogue Zen’zat have been preparing to fight us without the help of their sponsor. Their machines give them a chance, though primarily when they have the advantage of numbers. These new battlesuits that they call ‘Voltrons’ are different. I do not think they can stand up to Hjar’at, but with their physical shield they counter our strength.”

“And if a Zen’zat got close?”

“You would not be able to break your way inside. They have considerable armor in multiple layers surrounding their pilot. Unless the releases can be hacked, you will not be able to fell them.”

“Explosives?”

“Possibly, but others less valuable will test those theories, and without their shields down I see little point. We haven’t been able to claim any wreckage from these Voltrons yet, but if we find a weakness that Zen’zat can exploit I will make use of your skills. Otherwise we will take many more losses.”

“I saw I’rar’et getting slaughtered. What was the source?”

“An even larger battlesuit, equivalent to our Ultras,” he said, pulling up another hologram of a two legged machine similar in structure to the smaller models in use. “They call it a madcat 3, and it has so many missiles that the I’rar’et cannot even get close to it.”

“Countermeasures?”

“They adjust to cluster fire with contact triggers and blanket the airspace with enough weapons that some will hit, and I’rar’et armor is not capable of holding up to that inferno. Fortunately this battlesuit is too large to fit through most of their streets, so it has a limited usefulness here, but can lock down the airspace of select regions that they are routing evacuees through.”

“How many more prisoners do we need?”

“Few, unless they are higher ranked.”

“Shall we arrange an ambush for one of their golds?”

“There are attempts being made, but none have succeeded thus far. They work in concert, save for this Rio. If his capture is unfeasible then we must try to kill and revive others. So far the highest we have is a blue, but his mind is damaged from his injuries and we cannot extract much information from him. If they come for the prisoners make sure they fail…but if you can engineer a higher valued replacement for them, take the initiative…but do not go near their battlesuits.”

“As you wish. Have any attempts been made to recover the prisoners?”

“Twice, but it was minutes after they were captured and before we could get them to proper confinement. It is because of this and the intelligence that we are recovering that I believe they will try for the others if they can find them. We are not going to make it easy for them, lest they expect a trap, but if they do not attempt so before the rest of this construct’s inhabitants are removed, then we will leave before they can turn their naval guns on us. See to it that you are among the first to leave. You are too valuable to the Brat’mar to be lost here. Let the I’rar’et Zen’zat take the risks if they wish. This purge will not end with this fleet. I fear it will take many more to destroy them all, and I do not think they will die quickly. Keep your focus on the longer conflict ahead.”

“As always. My apologies for not completing my mission.”

“Your confirmation of Ubven is suitable compensation. Had we not learned that here and now, we would have lost many more Zen’zat needlessly. Their sponsor’s treason is not your shame. Ubven is reserved for the most sacred of Zen’zat, and with it comes great power. I am satisfied in that he was not able to defeat you. Go and spread your insights with the others so that they might better prepare.”

Kaalo clapped his fist against his chest then turned and walked out of the chamber, his armor reforming across his body as he did so.

3

March 15, 3602

Solar System

Outer Zone

The remaining vessels in the Hjar’at contingent of the V’kit’no’sat fleet assigned to Terraxis, some 243 in number, continued their slow deceleration in the Outer Zone of the star system as they approached what was now clearly visible as a large sensor-stealthed wall, behind which Garrtak knew they’d find the source of the larger ship reinforcements that Star Force had been drawing upon. He expected there to be considerably more here, especially given the size of the wall that could not defeat V’kit’no’sat sensors at this close range.

Thus far Star Force had destroyed far more ships than should have been allowed, and the damage returned to them, while of greater magnitude, was not sufficient for the Hjar’at commander. V’kit’no’sat were meant to dominate, not merely win, so he was taking no chances here and bringing all of his remaining ships, as well as assigning himself to this mission while other races attended to duties amongst the planets as he investigated this deep space outpost…hopefully with a lot more ships he could destroy before they left to reinforce the currently embattled fleets.

Star Force was also beginning to receive reinforcements from outside the system, making their mission here even harder given how long it was taking. They still didn’t know who the sponsor was and the defenses built here, while not V’kit’no’sat designs, were more formidable than expected. Hopefully whoever or whatever was out here would be able to give him some badly needed answers, and if there were crews at this location they would have nowhere to evacuate to. With such low gravity his ships would easily be able to intercept any that fled on their way in towards the star, plus they’d have very little lateral movement capability this far out, making whatever battle occurred here a stand and slug fest that heavily favored the V’kit’no’sat.

To increase his advantage Garrtak brought his entire fleet in towards the same side of the wall rather than spread it out in order to try and intercept fleeing ships coming off various trajectories. He didn’t know how many were waiting for them on the other side, but before they could get there to find out Star Force contacts started popping up above the edge of the wall with alarming speed. A quick sensor focus revealed the use of mooring beams on the far side, which prompted the Hjar’at to slow to a stop prior to the wall and scan it heavily for mooring nodes, but none were being found. If the enemy ships could use them to increase their maneuverability then he did not want to fight on the far side. Fortunately the enemy was being accommodating and coming to the Hjar’at, so he slowly slid his fleet into a defensive arrangement as the long range weapons on both sides began to exchange fire.

The first Star Force ships came straight at the Hjar’at and their larger bulk did little to save them. There was no strategy involved, just a straight line shot to their demise which concerned Garrtak, for this was not how the other ships had been behaving, but he wasn’t going to complain about easy kills so he kept shooting the ships heading for his fleet as more and more began to appear over the edge of the wall. Before long there were so many that they were getting within short weapons range before they could all be destroyed and the true battle began, with the Star Force ships starting to employ basic tactics once they were grouped up, but Garrtak’s fleet was chewing them apart with ease even as he was starting to get outflanked.

But so be it. They were in a perfect defensive alignment with the bulk of his ships situated on a flattened sphere that almost appeared to be a disc that was even with the edge of the wall, affording his ships both cover and maximum firepower at those incoming while allowing the flanks to defend themselves as ships began to pile up on both sides of the Hjar’at and creep around behind them.

The more Star Force vessels that came into play the more return fire Garrtak’s fleet had to weather, but with them targeting only a handful of enemy ships the Hjar’at were able to destroy their larger hulls quickly and efficiently while their own ships angled their shields outward for increased defense and rotated in and out of alignment slowly so fully shielded ships could take their place on the leaded edges of the formation when the weakened ones were near to collapse.

The Hjar’at lost no ships, let alone even a plate of armor, over the first 20 minutes of battle, though they were fully surrounded at that point with more ships continuing to come over the wall of varying sizes, though all of them had the weak, clear armor coating on them that did little against the V’kit’no’sat weapons as they continued to chew up the ships one after another until the sheer amount of Star Force’s weaker weapons began to be felt and the first Hjar’at shield fell.

Garrtak knew to hold position and continue slugging it out, for they were killing so many ships it was well worth it, but as the battle dragged on past an hour and some of his ships were taking serious hull damage he began to get concerned, for the flow of ships over the wall hadn’t diminished. In fact it had been gradually increasing the entire time. Already there were over 5,000 ships here with some 1,300 reduced to debris, but killing them quickly now was not an option and his ships were having to attack to disable the weapons on those nearest rather than tearing apart their hulls just to reduce the amount of firepower they had to whether…in effect using the mass of the attacking ships as shields against the others by plucking their weapons off them.

However, that tactic was countered as the Star Force ships pushed further into the Hjar’at formation even when they had little to fight with, trying to disrupt their firing lines and move them out of position…but the Hjar’at held firm and destroyed any such vessels that did so with a vengeance, then they had to push the debris out of the way and the best route to do that was to shove it either ahead or behind, with Garrtak choosing behind so to clutter the evacuation route the Star Force ships would take when they finally broke their will to fight.

He had designated ships traveling up and down corridors in their alignment dragging debris out of the way easily while other ships found moving sideways painfully hard with no lateral gravity wells to push off of. All they had was a tiny differential from the width of the distant start to work with and some emergency matter thrusters to use, but those where not effective for combat so every ship was aligned facing away from the star and moving on back and forth on paths like a train on tracks, with the cycling of ships from the interior to the exterior being excruciatingly slow save for those ships that were able to latch onto debris and push themselves off it or even the attacking ships when their shields were down.

And Garrtak’s ships were getting good at doing so, bouncing around their formation with far more speed than the plodding Star Force ships were moving and exacting a huge amount of damage for their lack of maneuverability…but still more ships kept coming and within another half hour there were upwards of 10,000 in total, though some 3000 of those were now junk.

But the 7,000 that remained were an even fight for the damaged Hjar’at and more were still coming. Garrtak made the decision to push his formation ahead, which was navigationally easy if the enemy ships weren’t there, because he needed to know how many more Star Force ships were coming in order to judge how to proceed with the battle.

Plowing the road ahead wasn’t quick, but a slight reforming of the disc with weapons trained on individual ships to eliminate, then tractor beams to push their debris or still partially functioning hulks out of the way allowed the Hjar’at to approach the edge of the wall…on which no weapons had been found previously and that didn’t change as they poked their nose over to the far side, seeing that the wall was indeed very thin compared to its width, but it had numerous extensions protruding off the back side where ships were berthed, though most of them were now free and moving towards the top of the wall.

Garrtak realized they’d made a grave mistake despite the kill count they were racking up. There were over 18,000 Star Force ships here compared to his 243, and even if his had been fully intact and shielded he could not have taken that number under these conditions. Their only option now was one that Hjar’at hated to order, but at a time like this there was no other alternative than needless deaths.

He ordered a retreat, but quickly saw that his decision to throw debris behind them to block evacuation lanes was going to cost them more ships, for it was now interfering with their straight line routes out of the engagement…not to mention the Star Force ships had been continuing to fill in behind them to a far greater degree than before.

Garrtak knew they were going to lose most of their ships, but the only chance some of them had to survive was to not let the enemy vessels not yet in the fight join the others, so they began fighting a reverse course and pushing their way through both dead and dying vessels without the ability to clear the debris from their path, so the Hjar’at ships had to tractor to it and swing around, pushing it to the side to propel themselves via inertial reaction, then to yank on it in the reverse to slow their lateral drift…all the while continuing to fight for their lives as more of their own armor was burnt off and hull breaches opened up.

The lack of tactics being displayed by the Star Force ships was now no longer an issue, for the simple and most effective tactic against them was being employed as they fought, with additional Star Force ships coming up over the wall at lateral distances not angling to get behind the retreating fleet, but accelerating out on a straight line to flank and then bypass the Hjar’at ships before creeping in around the debris field that he had ordered created, taking up positions both around and within it and waiting for the Hjar’at ships to approach and try to squeeze through…all the while they would be firing on the V’kit’no’sat ships that were trying to flee.

Garrtak was constantly running numbers through his mental interface, and with his fleet formation getting stretched out to go for the gaps he realized that only a handful of ships were going to make it out, and his was not one of them. Transmitting all relevant data in towards the star so Mak’to’ran could make use of it, he did what any good Hjar’at would do and turned his spines to the enemy, recalling his leading ships back to the others and forming up into a defensive alignment again, shoving off the debris between them even as they were losing ships of their own.

“We die here today,” he told all his remaining ships as they seamlessly slid into formation while they fought, “but we are not going to die running. We are going to stand our ground and bleed the enemy to insure we inflict the maximum cost for this betrayal. Mak’to’ran will complete the mission and uncover the traitors, but we cannot allow these ships to reinforce the enemy or more of our brothers will die. So do your duty to the V’kit’no’sat and deny the traitors this fleet. Take down as many of their ships as you can before you fall, and make these rogue Zen’zat rue the day they ever face another Hjar’at fleet again.”

With that said, Garrtak turned his full attention to denying Star Force every ship he could. The wall was of no consequence and already out of range of medium weaponry, with him having his fleet drifting away from it with the rest of the debris and delaying the new arriving ships a bit longer. He added to this by having his crumbling formation continue to push out lightly through the debris, using some of it for cover as they clawed with every weapon they had at the Star Force warships, destroying so many of them only to have to face fully intact ones following up with machine-like efficiency, grinding down the Hjar’at and plucking away their own weapon systems more often than not.

When his own ship lost forward weaponry he didn’t have the gravity drive power to spin it around fast enough, so he accelerated towards the wall, diving into the Star Force ships and ramming one of them in order to let his aft weaponry target flanking ships. Several enemy vessels took the opportunity and slowly slid in behind him, blocking him off from his fleet until they were destroyed by other nearby Hjar’at vessels, but their debris still partially blocked his view of his kin as his ship tore into all those around them with diminishing results.

Eventually the enemy’s short range streamers burned into the hull nearby his command deck, with the exploding chambers coming his way with telltale pops until the wall to his left joined them. He activated his armor, covering himself with battleplates and shields that kept him alive through the blast to come…then he was bouncing around like debris until two large pieces of ship collided with him in between, crushing what was left of his shields and snapping off several of his spines as his last moments were filled with nothing but rage at the losses these traitors were inflicting upon his troops.

Then another streamer surge burnt through the hull and ended him along with a chunk of his Na’shor.

Mak’to’ran watched from afar as the Hjar’at fleet fell, even as he was being engaged by another Star Force probing attack while the nearby Mach’nel continued to destroy more of their defense stations from range. They could do nothing against it while escorted and it was going to be the key to his conquering this system, but the number of reinforcements Garrtak had discovered sitting behind that wall in deep space worried him, for while many of them had been destroyed many more remained, and they were all of their larger variety and not as easy to kill…except with the Mach’nel. It was better for it to fight them than their smaller ships, for a single shot from it could take down any size vessel the enemy had fielded.

Only their defense stations could withstand a Tar’vem’jic blast, though they could not withstand several in repetition. That meant while a single shot would kill a single ship, mass for mass it would take dozens of shots to their smaller vessels to equal what one would do to their larger ones. Ironic as it was, that meant that near the Mach’nel they did not have to fear those larger reinforcements, but anywhere else in the system they were vulnerable to their numbers and the attrition the enemy was inflicting upon them.

Before it could worsen, Mak’to’ran canceled all other combat assignments within the system save for the Mach’nel and the ships engaged over the Ribbon, pulling back the others to his position with the exception of the Lir’nen fleet, which he sent to augment the Brat’mar as they continued to pry information out of their captives along with a warning to watch the position of those ships near the wall, and if they started to move to reinforce there were to begin evacuating immediately, for Mak’to’ran did not want to have to pull the Mach’nel nor any of its escorts off their current assignment to bail them out. He made that clear in his message to the Brat’mar, then instructed them to dig in and secure as much information as possible up until that eventuality came to pass.

The traitorous sponsor had to be discovered, and while he did not hope that that information would be acquired on the Ribbon, he was fairly certain that the Brat’mar would discover where it could be attained…and then he would take his battered fleet with the Mach’nel at its heart and rip out their secrets from wherever they were buried. After all the losses they’d suffered here, especially Garrtak, the Era’tran was not going to withdrawal without the information they came here for. Once he had it they’d leave the system, deal with whatever internal repercussions resulted, then they’d return with a better prepared fleet and wipe this Star Force scum from the face of the galaxy.

4

March 17, 3602

Solar System

Titan

Sara-012 entered the orbit of the moon along with her Clan Mantle fleet of 46 warships, the most she could grab on the way here, and immediately assumed control of the Star Force fleet holding position over the top of the Ribbon. She could see the larger V’kit’no’sat fleet on the other side and the Shiva units already brought in to counter them, but she knew that a fight right now would result in her loss. The addition of her ships didn’t alter that much, but it was the presence of ground troops from both sides onboard the Ribbon that was contributing to the standoff…along with the fact that the V’kit’no’sat ships would almost all be destroyed if they threw down now.

“Knock, knock,” Sara said, sending a comm signal to Rio’s helmet wherever he was on the artificial landmass inside the giant station. “Guess who’s here.”

“Get your ass down here now,” Rio said with no levity in his voice.

“Fill me in.”

“There’s at least one Zen’zat down here that’s stronger than me and I’m not sure my posse can take him. I need you.”

“How strong?”

“Very. He kicked my ass and I ran away, but they’re holding prisoners we need to get back and I know he’s going to show up again. He hasn’t attacked anything but me the one time.”

“How many prisoners?”

“Not as many as they’ve killed, but they’re here for information.”

“I got the basics from Roger on the way in. Are the Zen’zat really the most trouble you’ve got?”

“No, but we’ve got an agility advantage on the bigger ones. This guy was faster than me.”

“And bigger?”

“Yes.”

“Damn. You think this naval standoff is going to continue?”

“Until they find what they want…which they won’t. We don’t have a sponsor.”

“Well…”

“They won’t find anything about Puff and his buddies, but Ethan is convinced that they won’t accept the idea of rogue Zen’zat doing all this on our own. Especially the psionics.”

“Nefron did help a bit, but I suppose that won’t help here. They’re looking for one of their own?”

“Yeah, and while they’re mind raping the prisoners we’ve got a narrow chance to recover some of them. Otherwise they’re just going to rip them apart when they have no further use.”

“Do you need me, or me and an army?”

“What do you got?”

“Clan Mantle.”

“Send down any mech specialists you have. We’re doing damage but losing a lot of equipment in the process. Brat’mar are a 5 to 1 scenario, and whenever we lose a mech there are Zen’zat assassins roaming to try and pick off surviving pilots.”

“Where are you now?”

“Covering evac routes. We’re about 5 minutes away from another hit. I can see the I’rar’et massing to cover the Brat’mar. They’re going to try to grab some more people and they’re not being hesitant about losses. They’re going for broke no matter what the costs…and we’re not doing a good job of protecting the people when they can just run us over at will.”

“Mechs incoming and I’ll be with them.”

“Hurry,” Rio insisted.

Sara bolted out of the command nexus and got down to the hangar on the warship she’d rode in on, already having summoned the ground troops across the various ships to assemble with a thought, though there weren’t many of them. None of the ships were ground assault models, so she’d just shoved as many units in them as possible when she’d stopped by Miranda and grabbed whatever Clan assets she had available.

So when she got onboard a dropship most of her pre-prepped troops were already ready to drop, then on her order a flock of them headed down to three different entry points into the Ribbon with Sara riding a skeet out across the artificial landscape to nearby Rio’s position where all hell was breaking lose. It stopped atop a low building and she let go of the exterior, letting the pilot join in the battle as she leapt across the street using her jump pack and stuck to the wall of the next building, climbing to the top and continuing her trek across the cityscape until she got near a pool of civilians being funneled into evac ships that were flying off under heavy aerial escort with a ring of madcats on guard in the streets and on top of some buildings to keep the I’rar’et at bay.

Sara dropped down amongst them then began backtracking the flow, running through the crowded streets and leaping over a lot of the congested points until she got to a group of Commandos and a pair of Knights that were fighting off Zen’zat that were poking into the civilian lines with hit and run tactics that were successfully killing many people.

When one jumped down from a building window, shot several people, then sprinted on out the other side, kicking another Commando in the back as he went, Sara took off after him, blowing through the Commandos that got several shots into the Zen’zat’s shielded back…then he disappeared behind a nearby building.

With a mental lock, Sara went after him and caught up fairly quickly, being led into a trap as two Kar’ka suddenly appeared out of nowhere and fired at her.

She caught several Chi’parat on her shields before throwing up a bioshield and sprinting to the side…then redirected with a sliding step towards them, jumping into the air and hammering them off their feet with a pair of Jumat blasts from either arm. That disoriented them long enough for her to land between them and get running to nearby cover, for their weapons were just too powerful to go up against with any longevity. One on one she would have tried to take them, but two plus a nearby Zen’zat was too much given the fact she just got here and wasn’t sure what they were capable of these days.

As she ran she laid down a waypoint behind here, then got around a corner and doubled back, crossing in front of the chasing Kar’ka and knocking them back again with more Jumat, though not taking them off their feet. As soon as she got behind the building wall on the far side she reversed again and came back out right in their faces, jamming them to either side as she passed between them and ran into the Zen’zat behind. Him she punched backward, then ducked underneath his higher torso and shoved his body backward with a combination of Jumat and Lachka as she kept running forward.

The Zen’zat landed hard, rolling over and getting back to his feet as a Knight ran into view and tackled him. The Zen’zat threw him off then got hit by multiple plasma shots as several Commandos came into the street and laid into him. He tried to run but the Knight reached out and grabbed a foot, delaying him long enough to take even more hits as Sara caught up and knocked him back again, separating him from the Kar’ka as she threw up a huge bioshield she knew she couldn’t maintain for long and blocked the Chi’parat shots heading for her and the commandos as they punched through the Zen’zat’s shields and tore into his armor with more troops following them to the waypoint and adding their firepower to the takedown.

The Kar’ka didn’t just stand by and let him die, running/jumping forward all the way up to Sara and the Commandos, but by then there were so many enemies to shoot that they didn’t focus on the trailblazer…which they quickly regretted.

She jumped on one of them, wrapping her arms around its long, thin neck and pulsing her jump pack to drag it down to the ground where the some of the Commandos fired into its shielded belly until it shook Sara off with a strong buck, but she still loosely clung to its neck as it stood up and spun, knocking down a Commando with its tail as the other Kar’ka shot Sara at pointblank range while adding its telekinetic tug against her arms. Between the two of them they pried her off, but by then their shields were dipping so low and so many Commandos were coming that they couldn’t fight them and Sara at the same time, so one of them raced forward and picked up the dead/dying Zen’zat, flipping him over its back with its Lachka before the pair ran off too quickly for the Commandos or even Sara to catch up with.

“Damn they’re fast,” she said, stepping over next to a Commando who was on the ground and still alive, but had a large hole in her chest armor with at least partial penetration. She knelt down and retracted the armor on her right hand. “Cover me.”

The other Commandos and the Knight surrounded her, with the latter’s large shield coming down behind her to provide a physical block as she pushed her bare fingers into the charred gore that sank down an inch into where the woman’s left breast used to be. As soon as Sara made contact she started numbing the pain and cutting down the blood loss, reducing trauma lockdown and a lot of other things to bring the body into a semblance of control as she rushed healing with her Haemra ability to the point where the Commando was no longer in jeopardy of dying, though she was still badly wounded.

“Best I can do,” Sara said, standing up and having the taller Knight take a few steps back, though clearly still protecting the two from any sniping shots.

“That…really hurts,” the Commando said between gritted teeth, and Sara could hear the tears in her voice, but she managed to stand up and retrieve her weapon.

“You,” Sara said, pointing to another Commando that had taken an armor shot, though one that didn’t fully penetrate. “Get her back. The rest of you, cover the evac. They’re trying to bait us out. Hold your ground,” Sara said, not taking her own advice and running off through the perimeter buildings.

By the time she got to Rio he was on the edge of a huge mech fight…like buildings being smashed down mech fight…and she was careful to avoid that and skirt around the edge until she got to him on ground level taking three Zen’zat on the periphery. She sent a mental ping of recognition letting him know she was coming in, then she dove into the combat and started punching and kicking the Zen’zat, getting a feel for their fighting style, speed, and strength before alternating with pulling weapons from her rack and firing a few shots into them…then dropping them and punching some more before telekinetically picking them up and repeating again.

The Zen’zat had an advantage in that their default weapons were on their forearms, leaving their hands free, but they were clearly outmatched by the two Archons. They took down and killed one, then damaged another to the point where the third covered them so they could run…at which point Rio threw up a hand to signal Sara not to pursue, then he walked over and put several more shots into the armor breaches on the dead Zen’zat.

“Don’t get close to the mechs. They’ll try to draw you back there and the Kar’ka are setting up ambushes everywhere.”

“Found one already. How we doing?”

“Badly, but delaying them. You bring me any more mechs?”

“At the LZs and probably on their way here.”

“Come on. Help me hunt down some more Zen’zat. They’re planting explosives and a lot of other nastiness to catch our mechs. We can’t send our infantry against them. We have to use mechs only.”

“Lovely. Lead on.”

Rio took off running to the left and she followed, then they had a hell of day trying to delay the V’kit’no’sat long enough to get this section of the Ribbon fully evacuated…of the living and dead, for if Star Force left the bodies of the civilians they couldn’t protect behind the V’kit’no’sat could revive some of them and add to their prisoner count. As for Star Force, their medical stations were too busy saving the living to try and revive any of the recently dead, and unfortunately they were not as good as the V’kit’no’sat regenerators…a pair of which Rio and Sara were able to steal from some Zen’zat medics during the fighting, which were put to good use saving a handful more of their own as both the troops and civilians pulled out under fire, leaving nothing but mechs remaining that then ran off across the Ribbon in a fighting retreat until the Brat’mar stopped chasing them.

Sara pulled a chunk of her Frieza armor off her leg where the auto-retraction failed due to a melted spot, then tossed it to the ground alongside Rio as he stripped his armor and clothes off and slid into a shower tube. She followed a couple minutes later when he got out, not bothering to dry or drain the water, and allowed her a few minutes to clean up in one of the abandoned buildings within the ‘safe’ zone of another LZ that hadn’t been hit yet aside from a few Zen’zat scouts.

By the time Sara got out Rio was already dressed and back in his armor, but with the helmet and hand pieces retracted as he chewed threw a box of foodstuffs, some of which were ambrosia laced. She got dressed and into her armor minus the damaged piece that she’d have to get replaced, then began eating along with him as they carried on a telepathic conversation covering everything from the varying Zen’zat strengths to mech tactics to planning their incursion to rescue the prisoners…which were being kept at one known location and who knew how many others.

After taking their quick break, the trailblazers headed to an equipment room where Sara got a replacement for her extremely heavy armor and the weapons Rio had requested had been stacked in numerous crates. He opened several of them, pulling out a lot of non-standard weaponry that he knew they were going to need to take down that super-Zen’zat that they’d encountered earlier, for he wasn’t going to be kind enough to stand still and let them shoot him.

Pistols were better than rifles, but what they really needed was more range and more bang, with their plasma weapons not having the same kick as Dre’mo’dons…but unfortunately Star Force hadn’t miniaturized them far enough yet and they’d decided to stick with continually improving plasma weapons until they had.

But since that wasn’t going to be good enough now, Rio grabbed a special gauntlet that attached over his right forearm, elbow, and ran all the way up to his shoulder. Nicknamed a ‘Seru’ it was a tiny mauler that would help penetrate shields as well as tear through armor and would provide a much bigger kick than any of their plasma weapons short of a hand cannon, though the Seru was going to slow down his arm movements appreciably.

“Here,” Rio said, tossing Sara a long narrow cylinder. “You whack, I pop.”

“And us?” Angel-676 said as she walked in with several other Archon ViLords.

“Accessorize as you like,” Rio said as he also grabbed a sword cylinder and attached it to his back rack.

“How are we getting the prisoners out?” Mathis-831 asked, pulling open another crate.

“We probably won’t be,” he answered honestly. “Most will probably die, but if we can even get one out before the V’kit’no’sat kill them it’ll be worth it. We’ll take them out by air if we can, but we’re also configuring some of the mechs with cargo compartments.”

“Do you expect to sneak in?”

“We blast in with mechs and air, then we try and sneak in through all the noise.”

“Just my kind of mission,” Mathis said, pulling out some sticky grenades.

“We’re the only infantry going in.”

“So stay close,” Sara added. “And in battlemeld at all times.”

“All of us?” Darrel-627 asked.

“Pairs at minimum, more when you can manage it. We know there’s one badass out there and there could be others. We gotta kick their ass and not be subtle about it.”

“While pulling out prisoners,” Angel added.

“Anyone we bring out is bonus points,” Rio said firmly. “At the minimum, we don’t let them die in an execution. They go down fighting with us.”

“Extra armor?” Jyra-836 floated.

“We’re not sure how many troops are in there, so we’re not going to take any. We need as much firepower as we can get.”

“Understood,” she said, strapping on an auxiliary shield generator to her right thigh opposite three death sticks on her left.

“This isn’t going to be fun,” Sara said, knowing they all knew it, but feeling it needed to be reinforced. “We have to be the weapon, not the shield. If we pull someone out, we can’t defend them. We have to cover with fighting and give them a chance to run. If we go defensive we’ll get overwhelmed. And if we take too long…”

“…we get stomped on,” Nathan-937 finished. “We know the score. Just promise you’ll kick Superman’s ass.”

“We intend to,” Rio said, now fully geared up, “but he may have friends, so keep an eye out. We have to retreat in the case of a fair fight.”

“Killjoy.”

“You’ll have plenty of time to fight Zen’zat later,” Sara said. “But we have to be cautious with this guy.”

“We’ve got your back,” Angel promised.

“I know,” Rio said sarcastically, “but if you try and block a Brat’mar shot, it won’t go well. Stay away from them no matter how tempting a target they make. Unless you’re in a star of mechs, don’t go near one.”

“Or a Voltron,” Sara added, “of which we’ll have several drawing them off. We stick together and stay away from the big guns…even if it means we have to abort. We are not losing anyone on a rescue mission. Clear?”

“I think the V’kit’no’sat might say otherwise,” Nathan differed, “but I’m game regardless. Let’s do this.”

“Everyone done shopping?” Rio asked, getting nods of confirmation. “Then let’s find our ride.”

5

March 18, 3602

Solar System

Titan

Kevin Sandre flew over the cityscape in a crude block of machinery in a formation with many others behind a wall of skeets and gunships as they headed towards one of the V’kit’no’sat’s main encampments on the Ribbon. Already the I’rar’et had begun nipping at the edges of their formation and were getting beat down by the missiles from the gunships, but now that they were approaching the first defense ring, weaponsfire was starting to come up from troops in and around the crushed cityscape they’d been clumsily remodeling…meaning it was time to land and take this fight to them on the ground.

Kevin trigged the landing cycle, slowing his block to a stop and lowering it to just above the ground as four others hovered nearby. With the dropships landing in the background and spilling out tier 1 mechs, his block began to transform. It altered in shape and began to attach the others around it, eventually forming arms and legs before a head popped up out of the central section where he rode, completing the Voltron-class mech.

He reached a giant hand over his mechanical shoulders and pulled a large, nearly flat shield off his mech’s back and swung it forward as the smaller weapons of the Kar’ka began to spit at them from various bits of surviving buildings. His shield blocked most of that, and with the other Voltrons assembling beside him they came together and formed a loose wall that the other mechs, mostly made up of neos and a mix of madcats and starbrights, lined up behind as they walked forward, slowing forming into a large column that was to meet up with the Brat’mar as skeets buzzed around the sky overhead to keep the I’rar’et from strafing them.

The first cannon-like blasts hit the Voltron shields, absorbing into the energy barrier overtop the physical components before subsequent hits started to tear through here and there and chip away at the armor, but that was the Knight-like shield’s job…soak up hits while the mass of mechs came in closer behind them before finally breaking up and spilling out around the 9 Voltrons and engaging the Brat’mar at close range where they could better flank the heavily armored triceratopses.

Kevin, with his shield almost to the point of burning through in a few places, reached back with his other mechanical arm and pulled a cylinder off his back which he then extended out into a simple bladed sword, then he started his tier 2 mech running forward, taking cover behind the heavy shield as he headed straight into a trio of Brat’mar. He didn’t care how much damage he did to them, for the more shots he took the less the smaller mechs would be hit. The mechwarrior expected his mech to be destroyed, but before that happened he was going to do some damage.

He popped up several shoulder-mounted weapons and fired as he ran, but they weren’t going to do much again the huge bioshields the Brat’mar were throwing up in front of their armor’s own shields, blocking as much incoming fire as his physical shield was. Deciding to force the issue, he ran forward and punched his shield against theirs in what looked like a slow moving collision, but one with a huge amount of kinetic force behind it.

His mech slowed considerably, but he managed to push the Brat’mar back a dozen meters or so until it got its footing and drove itself forward in a short lived contest of strength before Kevin forced his way to the right, trying to get around to its flank, but the Brat’mar turned with him…exposing itself to the Voltron beside Kevin who slammed down on its back with the giant sword it carried.

It didn’t penetrate the shields, much less the armor, but the Brat’mar was forced onto its belly with its legs either crumpling underneath or being forced to the sides, giving Kevin a few steps free of it that he used to get around to its other flank and unload all the weaponry his mech carried into its topside shields as he took another Brat’mar’s cannon shot to the left shoulder where his physical shield was tucked.

It burnt all the way through this time, soaking away some of his mech’s shields as he flipped the sword over in his free hand and brought it tip down on top of the Brat’mar as the other Voltron rushed in and smashed it in the face with its shields, delaying its moving long enough for Kevin to make contact with his sword, whose tip came down with such force that it penetrated the Brat’mar’s shields and put a slight dent in its armor…all the while driving it back down to the ground again with the other Voltron kicking it in the face while unloading its energy weapons onto it.

Their little 2v1 didn’t last long, for Kevin’s right leg was suddenly knocked out from under him as another Brat’mar rammed him. He fell forward over it and took a cannon shot to the chest as a result, but his weight smashed the Brat’mar’s face down momentarily as the two got tangled up on each other…then a pair of neos ran in and started hammering the Brat’mar in the flank even as it threw up its bioshield over its face to protect against missiles coming in from several nearby madcats.

The Star Force focus on those few Brat’mar was too much, and within a few minutes both were killed, but at the cost of many more mechs on the flanks of the formation that were distracting the other Brat’mar long enough to delay their retreating into a more compact grouping that was virtually impossible to break into when they went tail to tail in a circle and threw up their bioshields, giving them heavy protection from all lateral angles of attack.

But Star Force mechs could jump, and Voltrons in particular could fly very slowly when in mech form, so Kevin and two others followed several neos as they ran forward kamikaze style, getting owned by multiple Brat’mar cannon shots, but taking enough hits that the Voltrons could run and slide/jump through the air over the almost locked bioshields and land in the small island inside them.

As soon as that happened the Brat’mar had to break formation, for their hip-mounted weaponry, even coming from dozens of Brat’mar, wasn’t going to be enough to take down the bigger Star Force mechs quickly enough before they could hammer their tails with damage, so the Brat’mar ring pushed out, increasing the spacing between them, then one out of three turned around and attacked the Voltrons with cannon shots, blasting them so hard the Kevin hardly had time to respond. His shield caught a couple, but there wasn’t much left of it and he was getting hit from all sides…then the twin horns on one of the Brat’mar, covered with armor, rammed into his leg and pierced it, skewering his mech and not letting him move with the giant weight now attached to it.

He brought his sword down on the neck of the Brat’mar, but he was going to have to hit it several times to get through its shields and he didn’t have that. His Voltron got torn to shreds first, but even as it was falling to the ground with system after system going offline he saw the outer ring of the Brat’mar formation begin to crumble as Star Force mechs pushed into the gaps and many, many neos started shooting/punching into their flanks, bypassing their heavy bioshields and turning this into a massive brawl…one that he’d have to sit out, for his giant Voltron had been reduced to trash and he was pinned inside it in his armored cocoon, now dependent on a Star Force win or he’d end up becoming another V’kit’no’sat prisoner or casualty.

Yvonne Neir was one of the many mechwarriors being shipped over to the Ribbon from across the star system, but given that they didn’t have the luxury of time those closest had arrived first and were learning the hard way what worked best and poorly against the V’kit’no’sat. She’d come from Triton in a thor, arriving only a few days ago, and what previous battles had learned so far was that the lesser used thors were the best for engaging the Kar’ka.

As such she was following up the main attack ground at a distance as hundreds of Kar’ka were running fast around the battle to try and get behind the Star Force mechs and get at their landing craft if they could get so lucky, or simply circle around behind and pick off weakened or blindsided opponents. Individually a Kar’ka fared poorly against a mech, but put them in groups by the dozens and they were able to pick apart a lone one with alarming speed.

That was why the thors were traveling in skirmisher groups while the neos were in the main attack force. Against the quick moving Kar’ka the neos had trouble getting within hand to hand range, for they’d run or jump out of reach, leaving the neos to fight with ranged weapons for the most part. Madcats were best at ranged combat, but the Kar’ka had learned to get in close to them in order to make the kill, for they were far less maneuverable than a neo and particularly had trouble spinning about in place fast enough to hit Kar’ka behind them…who would just circle with them while firing into their backsides where they had little weaponry.

Thors, however, were more compact, upright mechs with a stiff Humanoid body that were basically walking turrets that had a much better swivel rate at the torso, as well as a rotational spin rate with the mechanical legs, meaning the Kar’ka couldn’t circle them with impunity and the thors outmassed the Kar’ka, meaning they couldn’t knock them down very easily.

Add to that the fact that the thors carried more weaponry than the neos and they became the perfect fit for anti-Kar’ka operations, able to run in straight line speeds at nearly the same velocity while also able to reach out and touch the enemy with various energy weapons when the Kar’ka used their superior agility to suddenly redirect.

Kar’ka weren’t easy kills by far, but thors had a slight advantage on them so long as they didn’t get overwhelmed with numbers and right now the flocks ringing the battle were near to becoming too much too handle…but if Yvonne and the others let them through to the rear of the other mechs they’d tear them apart with swift moving strafing formations while the Brat’mar continued to hammer them from the front.

That wasn’t going to happen today, so with the other four thors in her star they accelerated over a road/debris field towards the nearest point in the surrounding infrastructure where they saw the Kar’ka heading, popping from one bit of cover on the perimeter to another looking for a good ambush angle.

The thors fanned out into an arrowhead formation with Yvonne second on the left, giving them all clear firing lines that they littered with Dre’mo’don blasts, churning up pyres of smoke and debris wherever they hit the ground underneath and around the running Kar’ka. When they got lucky enough to hit one the thors moved in, hammering it as it tried to limp off as the others circled back around and tried to flank the thors, coming around a half destroyed building and hitting them from Yvonne’s left.

She immediately stopped running and spun in place, bringing her arm-mounted Dre’mo’dons around while using the shotgun-like scatterguns to blanket the area ahead of her with tiny, fast moving projectiles. They didn’t do a lot of damage against heavily armored targets, but they were very good against infantry and soaked up a lot of energy from shields...not to mention physically beating back the Kar'ka running towards them and slowing their movements.

Yvonne kept her ‘sprinkler’ on constantly, showering the three Kar’ka at the head of the line as she pelted the area they were in with Dre’mo’don blasts, some hitting some missing, but with the overlapping firepower of the thor beside her they knocked several of the Kar’ka down while more sprinted in past them, drawing attention away and trying to get within very close range where they could unload shots that were not going to miss no matter how much the mechs moved.

As Star Force had seen before and she’d been informed about, the Kar’ka didn’t stand and fight. They blew through, exchanging one attacker for another and leaving none to slug it out, forcing Yvonne to either try and focus on one as it ran past or just shoot everything that came into view.

She chose the latter, just wanting to do shield damage or worse if possible, knowing that her star would add more damage later. Yvonne didn’t need to make solo kills. They needed to work as a unit and wear these fast moving bastards down while holding their ground…but not doing so by standing still the entire time, or the Kar’ka would use that to their advantage.

So after the first few seconds of their hold, their star leader got their formation drifting back out further into the open plane of debris, with Yvonne having to make sure her mech didn’t trip on any of the larger pieces as the five mechs took on a pentagon formation and forced any diving Kar’ka to pass by at least two of them, increasing the odds of them taking major damage before sprinting out the far side.

The mechwarriors watched as their own shield levels dropped considerably, and soon Yvonne was out of sprinkler ammo, leaving her only with her energy weapons. In addition to the Dre’mo’dons she also had some anti-infantry Keema beams of very narrow width that doubled as anti-air along with her Ichods…and she had all of them adding whatever damage they could to the passing Kar’ka, making her and the other thors look like a fireworks platform, throwing so much varied firepower at the attacking flock that the misses were kicking up a huge plume of dust that looked like storm clouds around their drifting formation.

The Kar’ka kept hitting them, drifting further and further out from the cover of the partial buildings until several dozen skeets redirected away from their ongoing battles with the I’rar’et and took it to the Kar’ka…who were too far away from cover now to avoid 6-8 seconds of inferno for those that turned back immediately. Those that didn’t react as quickly to the incoming air strike never made it out.

With the firepower of the 5 thors being able to kill any Kar’ka that stopped moving fairly quickly the skeets focused on wounding as many as they could, leaving Yvonne and the other mechwarriors to run up and hammer them. Their star broke apart with each thor heading in different directions to make the most of the temporary aerial assist and Yvonne racked up another six kills for their unit before the other Kar’ka fled behind buildings and out of her sights, though some of the skeets continued to shoot them from above and she got a targeting waypoint on the far side of the nearest building.

Yvonne took after it, running up to speed and hanging the turn as well as her stiff mech could to find a Kar’ka with a leg missing hopping off as well as it could on one and trailing diminishing drops of blood behind it as the skeets had to break off to deal with a few I’rar’et that were not going to let them keep getting free shots against the Kar’ka.

Yvonne didn’t like taking down nearly helpless targets, but after seeing the information packet all incoming mechwarriors had received that contained the images of unarmed evacuees being shot dead or crushed beneath V’kit’no’sat feet as they fled, let alone picked up telekinetically and torn limb from limb within a second, she knew she couldn’t leave any of these bastards alive or they’d find some way to do more damage. With that in mind she followed up the fleeing Kar’ka and hammered it from decent range with three Dre’mo’don orbs, dropping it to the ground and running up nearby it as two others took Chi’parat shots at her, almost taking down her slowly regenerating shields.

Yvonne knew she had to get back to the others, but she wasn’t going to let this one’s healing tech allow it to survive and be recovered. Firing heavily into the bloody and broken armor, she put enough shots into it that there wasn’t much for the V’kit’no’sat to recover even if they tried…then a group of four Kar’ka emerged around a building chunk behind her and blasted into her rear shields.

They held up a bit longer than the front ones would have, but they still fell before she could turn around…with them blowing past her so fast she had to twist her torso back ahead of her legs to get a shot off at even one of them. It was a clean hit with the Dre’mo’don, but her other weaponry did little more than paint their shields while most of it hit the ground around them.

“Yvonne, what are you doing?” her star leader asked over the comm.

“Making sure one didn’t get back up,” she said, not chasing her new attackers and returning towards the debris plain where the others were. “Heading back,” she added, just another larger wave of Kar’ka raced into view and they all hammered her right leg…blowing apart the knee and dumping her mech to the ground face first.

6

Rio, Sara, and 13 other high level Archons rode into the battle area on the back of mechs, clinging to them with the grip pads in their armor and dropping off short of the actual fighting and clear of the roaming Kar’ka and Zen’zat skirmishers. The team immediately found an intact building and went underground, deep enough to get past the surface ‘remodeling’ that the V’kit’no’sat had done and made their way through the undercity where the Brat’mar could not follow and the Kar’ka would be so confined their speed and agility would be of little advantage.

That left them with Zen’zat to worry about, but the Archons progressed a remarkably long way before even catching the smallest hint of a mind below ground. As per instructions, all of them except Beth-5311 were traveling with their Kgat enabled, shielding their minds from detection but likewise blinding their own Ikrid senses. The single Archon that was visible to the Zen’zat was also sensing them and the V’kit’no’sat above and guiding the team via battlemap and comm, for her telepathy wouldn’t reach the Archons only meters away so long as they were mind shielded.

The Zen’zat that came to intercept Beth didn’t recognize the trap until he was within Pefbar range, but by then it was too late because when Sara and Rio exposed themselves to view they reached out with their combined Lachka, amplified by their battlemeld Nemsa, and wrapped an invisible band around the Zen’zat that he could not break easily. It prevented him from running away until the Archons were on top of him, then they beat/blasted through his shields and armor until they were able to pry a piece of it off.

Sara retracted the armor on her right hand as the others kept the Zen’zat physically subdued, then when she touched his exposed skin and bypassed his Ikrid blocks the combination of her and Rio’s mind quickly broke through his mental resistance. They held position while the other Archons fanned out into a small perimeter, getting loads of information from him, most pertinent of which was the location of the prisoners.

They were being held in three different spots in this camp and routinely mind raided for information as hunter teams were occasionally bringing more in from across the Ribbon. The Archons also confirmed that several of their own had been taken prisoner and were the focus of interrogation, but those civilians that proved of little use were being sucked dry of all pertinent knowledge then summarily executed.

Sara finally stood up in disgust, wanting to dig through more information but knowing there wasn’t time. The V’kit’no’sat expected Star Force to come for the prisoners, but this one didn’t know about any actual traps laid and she wasn’t about to send two of her team back to take this Zen’zat with them for further interrogation. They were going to need all 15 of them to have a chance of getting anyone out.

“Take his armor off,” she said, knowing that there were no external releases available when in combat mode without the proper codes, and only other V’kit’no’sat armor contained them so an enemy couldn’t compromise the defenses of a pinned or fallen ally…but the Archons had incorporated the codes they had into their own armor and they weren’t working on this one. Apparently an upgrade had been made over the years or the codes had been specifically changed when they came here hunting rogue Zen’zat. If this one had been a bit weaker she would have taken control of his mind and had him remove it, but there was considerable resistance to that invasive of a mind raid.

They might have been able to do it if they all joined up in a single battlemeld, but 15 minds together was not something easily done and it would reveal the presence of all the Archons to anyone else in range, most of which were still hiding themselves with Kgat, though this Zen’zat had reported that there were multiple Archons here before he had been subdued, meaning the V’kit’no’sat there was more than one of them underground at this point.

The Archons shot, pried, and punched his armor into pieces until they could pull the unconscious Zen’zat completely out while Rio maintained a hand on him at all times to insure the rough extraction didn’t wake him back up. Keeping his mind suppressed wasn’t hard now that he’d knuckled under, but with the Ikrid block it did require a hand on him at all times.

Meanwhile Sara took a few Archons and moved ahead, securing their route and ready to intercept the Zen’zat they knew would be coming. Not wanting to kill their Zen’zat prisoner but knowing they couldn’t allow him to rejoin the fight, they did the next best thing by destroying his armor and taking his single free weapon with them far enough that they could stash it in a room that he wouldn’t find. They left the armorless Zen’zat in one of the underground chambers in the deepest sleep Rio could manage then moved on, knowing that unless he was suicidal the Zen’zat couldn’t fight until he got another set of armor, and he’d have to retreat all the way into their camp to do it…and by the time he did this battle would already be over, one way or another.

Rio’s group caught up with Sara and they all ran hard towards the farthest prisoner encampment, knowing that they weren’t going to be able to get to all three, but expecting the V’kit’no’sat to be waiting at the closest one for them. Beth and two others continued on that direction, with only her mind visible, then she went dark as well and backtracked to a predetermined rendezvous point, after which all the Archons moved through their own city with ease under the Ikrid invisibility that Kgat provided until they physically ran into another Zen’zat several kilometers later.

Knowing that a simple comm would have revealed their position, the leading Archons let go of their Kgat and killed the Zen’zat after a brief, one-sided fight. She was outnumbered and couldn’t run, especially from the trailblazers, and they didn’t have time to take more prisoners. Two more Zen’zat found them later, attacking in a pair, but they too were overwhelmed…either not having received a heads up to the numbers they were facing or not realizing how strong these Archons were.

But that was as far as the easy combat went, for when they soon came to the underside of where the prisoners were being held they ran into more than a dozen Zen’zat waiting for them and could sense both Kar’ka and at least one Brat’mar on the surface.

What happened next surprised the Zen’zat, and Rio assumed the Brat’mar and Kar’ka had to be monitoring somehow, for the Archons, when going against slightly greater numbers of Zen’zat, inexplicably were able to disable and disrupt their opponents with far more than Fornax. As far as he knew, the V’kit’no’sat were not aware of the battlemeld psionics written into the Zen’zat genetics by the dragons, and if that were so then this was the first time they’d ever encountered them being used.

Rio didn’t think they understood what was happening, but when the supposedly equal forces clashed in the corridors of the undercity the Archons owned them from the first exchange of fire, getting up into melee range and never letting them retreat. The Zen’zat weren’t easy or quick kills, but none of them could focus long with multiple Lew conduits bypassing their Ikrid blocks and jamming whatever premade thoughts were wanted into their minds…whether it be disabling freezes, ghost images, or sensory overloads…every time they passed between a linked pair of Archons.

Physical Neofen conduits knocked them down clothesline style and a multitude of other battlemeld techniques let the Archons literally wreck the defensive Zen’zat forces in remarkably little time compared to the throwdown that was expected…with the Brat’mar on the surface responding by opening fire on the building where the prisoners were being held.

“Shit,” Rio said, heading for the nearest stairwell or elevator he could find as the others scrambled after them. By the time they got to the surface the building was junk and the minds in it were gone, but the Brat’mar, 5 Kar’ka, and a handful of Zen’zat were still there, firing into the rubble intent on not allowing the Archons any recovery of the prisoners…then the Brat’mar turned towards them and fired a cannon shot into the doorway they were coming out of.

Linked as they were in pairs and trios, they were able to see it coming and dodge out of the way…then all 15 of them were in the streets and facing off against more than just Zen’zat.

“Take them,” Sara said, even as Rio telepathically told two of the ViLords to head for the destroyed building and see if they could dig someone out. That left 13 Archons against the Brat’mar and company, and despite the stupidity of attacking one without a mech, neither Rio nor Sara were afraid. They were both enraged and going to take at least a few seconds to do as much damage as they could before they were forced to flee. It might not have been the most prudent course of action, but after all the prisoners he’d just killed they wanted the Brat’mar. The rest were just bonus points.

Rio and Sara extended their battlemeld out to two more ViLords, greatly increasing the stress on their minds but not beyond practiced tolerances. With their combined Ikrid they reached out and sparred with the Brat’mar even as it fired at them with its secondary weapons and the Kar’ka didn’t back down either. The other Archons knew to deal with them and the Zen’zat, giving the most powerful quartet their opening.

This Brat’mar’s mind was large, as Rio guessed all of them would be given the amount of brain tissue they possessed, but it was not particularly skilled. The four Archons were able to jam a freezing impulse into it fairly easily with Rio and Sara actively fighting countermeasures, both autonomic and conscious, with the help of one of the ViLords while the other created and maintained the impulse…causing all of its weaponry to cease firing and it to stand still like a statue as the four Archons ran towards it untouched.

Rio unloaded his baby mauler into its shields as they continued to fight with its mind, trying to trick it into doing what they couldn’t force it, for like the Zen’zat it wasn’t a pushover like the lizards were, and its shields and armor were so thick that it would take forever for the Archons to blast their way through…with their attack doing little more than provide visual cover for the true conduit of their assault.

Meanwhile the other Archons were using their battlemeld techniques to great effect against the Kar’ka, though they often had to jump into the air to get their Lew to cross the heads of the taller, chicken-shaped dinosaurs, most of which had a height of over 3 meters, but they did not have the same Ikrid blocks that the Zen’zat had, and with some work the ViLords managed to take control of one enough to trick it into shooting the Brat’mar.

Its Chi’parat weren’t all that strong, but they were far more powerful than anything the Archons carried…and the sight of that happening sent the V’kit’no’sat into a flurry, for it wasn’t just one shot that landed, but several in a row before the Kar’ka momentarily shook off the Archons’ hold…and it looked like there was a traitor in their midst.

Two of the Zen’zat, apparently loyal to the Brat’mar, turned on the Kar’ka instantly and attacked it, not even bothering to mess with the Archons anymore…and that gave Rio an idea.

Their hold on the Brat’mar lessened, allowing it to see clearly what was happening around it as the weak Kar’ka shot it again, then had to fend off the two Zen’zat as the rest of the fighting finally contributed a Zen’zat death at the hands of the Archons, but with many others showing armor damage and two of the Kar’ka with bleeding punctures…but it was nothing compared to the damage the Brat’mar inflicted when it shot the Kar’ka with its cannon blast, ordering the Zen’zat back just as it fired and catching the other V’kit’no’sat completely off guard, for as far as it knew it was the Zen’zat that were the traitors.

The Kar’ka’s shields, already weakened by the Zen’zat attacks and Archons, popped instantly under the heavy energy blast that proceeded to tear through the body armor and gut the Kar’ka in explosive fashion, spraying charred bits of skin and internal organs everywhere…with the other Kar’ka immediately turning on the Brat’mar in a fury and completely ignoring the Archons who quietly turned and backed off the big boys. Some of the Zen’zat were still trying to take them down, but with a few evasive moves the Archons retreated into the nearby buildings and the Zen’zat that followed them soon wished they hadn’t…all the while the rest had to pick sides as the two V’kit’no’sat races fought it out with messages and reports flying through their comm grid for all to see.

And as subsequent notice was taken, the Archons were no longer involved. Leaving only V’kit’no’sat fighting V’kit’no’sat and making them all wonder if one of these two races wasn’t the secret sponsor of Star Force now backstabbing the others.

“Damn that was brilliant,” Sara said as they met up with the two ViLords they’d dispatched into the rubble and who were now carrying four bodies, two apiece, though several had missing limbs and huge gashes where building rubble had skewered them…but the bleeding had been stopped and temporary heals were keeping them barely alive after the Archons had managed to bring them back from the dead with their Haemra.

“Can they travel?”

“We’ve got them buttoned up as much as we could. There’s a few more that might be recoverable, but I don’t know if they could make it back.”

“Rio,” Sara said, picking up one of the living pieces of cargo to lighten the ViLord’s load.

“I’ll check. Angel, Mathis, with me,” he said as they split up with the main group taking the four recovered prisoners back through the underground as quickly as they could manage, hoping the distraction up top would keep the V’kit’no’sat preoccupied long enough to allow them an easy run back to the mechs.

Rio and his two ViLords headed the other way, working their way back up and to the destroyed buildings where they found bits and pieces of buried bodies with their Pefbar under the rubble and went to the most intact one they could find…which was missing a right leg and right arm. They dug him out of the debris, seeing that most of his bones were crushed but his head was only superficially wounded…meaning they had a chance.

“I’ve got him,” Rio said, with the other two trying to find someone else to potentially save. The trailblazer bared his left hand and pressed it again the gore, hacking into the deactivated nervous system all the while keeping an eye on the surrounding minds that were busy fighting it out and ignoring them…save for one that was heading their way.

“Got him,” Angel said, leaving Mathis to try and dig out the other body while Rio kept working on his, causing flash growth in vital places but finding so much damage that…

He broke contact the moment he recognized the incoming Zen’zat mind.

“Angel, get back now! You can’t take him,” the Frieza said, jumping to his feet and pulling Mathis off as well, but Angel was already within firing range and the Zen’zat wasn’t going to let her retreat. He ran her down with ease and punched her so fast she couldn’t respond, with her pink armor bouncing into the ground as Rio flew into view and tackled the Zen’zat off her.

He threw Rio off him in the following roll, then went back towards Angel as she got up…but Mathis came in just in time for him to link with her and they split directions around him, sending a Lew conduit straight through his head as he reached out and grabbed her arm.

She broke free as soon as the Zen’zat staggered with disorientation, then Rio linked with the pair of ViLords…taking a quick mental glance around the area to make sure there were no other Zen’zat heading in…then as a battlemeld-linked trio they grabbed him with their combined Lachka and pulled him towards them through the air, only to be defeated by a hasty Rentar pulse that broke their grip, but the Zen’zat landed off balance long enough for Mathis to get in his face and hammer him back with an Archon punch to the pelvis.

Rio pushed Angel out past the Zen’zat’s left, dragging another Lew energy ribbon stretched between her and Mathis through the Zen’zat’s head, trying to freeze him up for a second but only managing to slow him a bit, but it was long enough for Rio to get in near him and fake a punch…only to pull back defensively into a crouch as Angel came flying through the air on the end of a Bataf conduit as Rio pulled her to him.

Her feet landed in the Zen’zat’s back, shoving him into Rio where the trailblazer knocked out his legs and sent him spinning overhead, with the Archon pointing his arm at the Zen’zat afterwards and unloading a couple of mauler blasts as the bigger warrior righted himself and dove back towards Rio with the two exchanging blows for a few seconds and Rio losing out, especially with his heavy right arm carrying the mauler, but the few Dre’mo’don shots the Zen’zat got in on him were worth the beatdown that the two ViLords laid on him from the sides.

All three grabbed him with another Lachka field, which he responded to with a Rentar pulse to break it and free himself, but in that bit of delay both Mathis and Angel pulled out a death stick and jabbed them into his armor…Angel into his back and Mathis into his right leg…with the resulting explosions blowing through his shields at both points and leaving him with large craters of armor damage beneath.

7

Sara!

The trailblazer skidded to a halt at the telepathic yelling of her name, then motioned for the Archons around her to keep going as some slowed and looked back.

“Go and keep going until you get them out of here,” she said as she started running the opposite way, heading for where she felt Rio’s mind. It wasn’t holding still, but coming her way in short little bursts that suggested he was retreating along with the other two Archons engaging in similar movements.

Coming! she replied as the level 3 Frieza ran through the various corridors and turns in the undercity, sensing a growing fight happening up on the surface between the V’kit’no’sat and each other, hoping it would continue for some time before they got things straightened out.

Rio threw another Jumat blast at the Zen’zat, barely knocking him off Mathis before he added to the crack in the Archon’s armor. Angel tried to bounce hit the Zen’zat from behind while he was off guard, but he was too fast and turned on her, slapping aside one of her arms and getting a hand on her throat. Slippery as it was to touch shields, his grip didn’t falter and he used his formidable strength to pick her up and throw her at Rio as he flew a few steps forward.

The trailblazer, still linked with both Archons through the battlemeld, twisted to his left while Angel did so the opposite way midair, causing the two to brush each other but not collide as the Zen’zat intended. Rio passed her by and landed a punch followed by a mauler shot that took down the Zen’zat’s shields again, then Rio backed up a step and played defense as furious blows came his way. Ever since the two ViLords had managed to detonate their death sticks on him the Zen’zat had shown a strength that Rio hadn’t seen before, and it was all they could do to manage a fighting retreat while trying to whittle down his defenses.

Rio received a battlemeld prompt from Sara when she got in range, accepting it immediately and feeling his head tighten up with the increased stress, for there were now four of them in the link, but even before she came into view their comms activated and a very familiar battle song began to play, making it clear that Sara…in addition to spending too much time around Paul…had no intention of helping them retreat. She intended to take this bastard down.

Angel and Mathis felt it too, and their movements suddenly shifted from one of controlled panic to determination as they pressed off one another with a Bataf conduit that spread them apart so fast that the Zen’zat couldn’t hit Mathis with another hammer blow, though he did manage to follow up with a Dre’mo’don at a few meters range that melted a new spot on the pink armor.

The Archons had been drawing the Zen’zat further and further underground and away from the ruckus up top, and with no other Zen’zat minds nearby Rio knew they had their opportunity. If they couldn’t take him down here, then they’d at least find out what the depths of his strength truly were.

Sara finally emerged in the corridor behind them some 150 meters away and took off sprinting towards the fight as ‘Duel of the Fates’ played over their comm channel, and fittingly so she didn’t pull out a ranged weapon as she approached, but rather a long cylinder that quickly expanded into a double-bladed staff. It wasn’t a plasma sword or any other type of energy weapon. Just a solid, durable stick.

When she got closer and Rio was punching and kicking in defensive blocks, Angel connected to her with a Bataf conduit and pulled her through the air at increasing speed, throwing her at the Zen’zat.

Sara spun vertically like a buzz saw, but the Zen’zat saw her coming and ducked in time. She passed over his head, nearly hitting him with the end of her sword, then unfurled and landed a few meters away as Rio extricated himself from the fight with a hasty Lachka wall that the Zen’zat didn’t even bother to try and break through. He turned to face Sara as she took her two-handed grasp on the long black rod and stepped into him, swinging with short, choppy strikes and taking advantage of the experience of the other three as they saw through her eyes and vice versa.

The Zen’zat flicked away several hits on his arms then dove forward trying to knock her down, but only succeeded in landing a couple Dre’mo’don shots when his fists fell short. Sara hopped back gracefully, then took a step back in and whacked him across the side of his head as Rio shot him with his mauler, melting a little armor only to be grabbed by a Lachka field and pulled towards the Zen’zat.

He reacted, pulsing his Rentar and breaking the grip, but it off balanced him enough for the Zen’zat to get moving his way. Rather than try to fight or run, Rio let himself fall to the ground face up, and as the Zen’zat came over him shoved a Jumat blast upward that lifted the green/black armor into the ceiling with a crunch.

Sara stepped under him as he fell, swinging one end of her sword up but she was knocked back by another Lachka push, this one coming instinctively at the end of a flattened palm from the Zen’zat, suggesting that his mental fortitude was flagging a bit if he was having to rely on physical triggers to use the psionic, as he knocked her and then Mathis back, but he didn’t get Angel who was coming in a step behind and dove at him with her last death stick.

The Zen’zat couldn’t dodge in time, but the weapon never hit his armor. Instead a bioshield emerged and took the brunt of the condensed Ta’lin’yi, absorbing all of the one shot weapon as the Zen’zat brought his knee up and kicked Angel back, firing three Dre’mo’don shots into and through her shields as she fell before Sara knocked him aside with a whack of her sword and Rio told the other two Archons to stay back and snipe when they could.

The top Archon pulled out his own cylinder and extended his single blade sword, also a simple rod, and together with Sara they went at the Zen’zat who kept putting Dre’mo’dons into them routinely and eating away their shields…but the two trailblazers had no intention of letting him do that anymore, forcing him to block their sword strikes from both sides while Sara engaged and sustained her Da’nu. The tier 2 psionic was a rare one, and it allowed her to emit a field of energy that interfered with both her and everyone else’s Pefbar within the area of effect.

That made her, Rio, Mathis, Angel, and the Zen’zat unable to see aside from with their own eyes, and with the two trailblazers attacking him from both sides that was a significant advantage…in addition to neutralizing everyone’s Lachka, for Pefbar was the guiding mechanism for it, and if they couldn’t control it they couldn’t use it.

Almost immediately the Zen’zat turned his full fury on Rio, ignoring Sara and jumping/clawing his way into physical contact with the Archon and pumping Dre’mo’don shots into his armor, burning away his recovering shields and putting a melt mark on his upper torso…then the Zen’zat latched onto him as he rolled, throwing the trailblazer into Sara and bowling her over as the other two Archons got some plasma shots off at him from range, adding a little bit more damage to his armor.

The Zen’zat ignored the trailblazers and went after the weaker two, springing towards them and sending out a Fornax blast just prior to reaching them. It didn’t have full effect, for both ViLords had Snu that greatly reduced its influence over them. They remained standing and used their battlemeld Cerden, linking their bioshields into a much stronger barrier and put it out in front of them like a wall as the Zen’zat ran into them. His Dre’mo’dons absorbed into it, as did his momentum, giving the pair a moment to charge one of the most powerful battlemeld abilities.

The Zen’zat hammered his fists into the bioshield, pushing the pair back a step as they dropped to their knees to get better leverage, then they released the amount of energy they’d summoned into their Jumatran…and shoved an upgraded, mutual Jumat blast into him so hard he flew all the way back to the two waiting trailblazers several meters down the hall.

Sara and Rio both hit him midair with their swords, bringing him to the ground as Rio poured three mauler blasts into his armor, finally breaking through in one spot and hearing the Zen’zat roar in pain as he sent a wind-like Lachka pulse off him, but unable to control the energy matrix and make it do more than tickle. Sara tried to drive her sword tip into the breach in his armor, but the Zen’zat twisted around to deny that and started firing with both forearm weapons into Rio, not bothering to try to close range with him.

The trailblazer took hits, but Sara was on the Zen’zat before he could truly lay in the damage, striking him in the head with her double-bladed sword so hard he half spun over, landing face down for a moment before leaping up and running off…but a quick Ubven drop by her froze him in place, though she had to remove her Da’nu jamming in order to make it work.

The Zen’zat pulsed his Rentar, eating away at and pushing through the field in slow motion as Rio ran up through it easily, for which his own Ubven allowed via a special energy neutralizer, and he began punching him in the back relentlessly, intending to disorient and daze more than damage, then when the Ubven field finally fell he knocked the Zen’zat to the ground and dropped his own down on top of him…but not before an elbow came up and knocked Rio off him.

The trailblazer recovered quickly as Sara ran out ahead of him, making sure he couldn’t escape, then Rio landed a few more mauler blasts that met the Zen’zat’s bioshield, finally breaking through it as the other two Archons caught up and dropped their Ubvens on the Zen’zat in sequence, allowing them all to hammer him with energy weapons but nothing physical aside from their bodies. Even their swords would have caught on the field, though they were made for more for leverage against armored targets rather than damage, and the other weapons the Archons had brought with them were pouring it out now, including a sticky grenade from Mathis, as the Zen’zat pushed his Rentar as hard as he could to eat his way through the field as he walked towards Sara fighting an invisible hurricane trying to hold him in place.

The armor on his back breached in several places when the grenade went off, with bits of flesh being burnt as the final field saturation failed and he was free again…with the Archons requiring quite some time for their Ubven tissues to regenerate enough strength for a second drop. The Zen’zat, clearly enraged but not stupid, screamed telepathically so hard that all four Archons heard it as he charged Sara, throwing another Lachka attack on her that she slipped out of with her Rentar, but not before he punched her into a nearby wall as he ran past and sprinted away.

Rio flashed past, tearing after him with Sara in hot pursuit a few steps behind, suddenly realizing that she wasn’t going to catch him. Rio surged onward, flying/running down the corridors and catching up until the Zen’zat suddenly reversed course and punched him hard.

Rio half dodged it, but careened off the misaimed blow and into the wall. The Zen’zat shot him multiple times, with Rio’s own bioshield taking some of the hits as Sara caught up with Mathis and Angel trailing farther behind, but before she could strike him he took off running again and Rio sensed two minds pop into view further ahead…then three more.

“Damn it!” Sara yelled, sensing the other Zen’zat approaching. “We had him!”

“I know,” Rio said, getting to his feet and running the opposite way back to the pair of ViLords, who then led them away rather than falling in behind so they could maintain the top speed possible…which was always determined by the slowest of them. “He’s not going to try taking us solo again.”

“Crap,” Angel said as they all sensed more Zen’zat coming down around them, including a few ahead.

“Blow through,” Sara ordered. “They can’t beat us unless we stand and fight or go up top and play with the big boys.”

“The others look like they’re clear,” Mathis said as they released their battlemeld and the stress in their minds lifted. “Are we going to try for the other prisoners?”

“Yes,” Rio said, surprising Sara. “Mr. Badass is hurt and we may not get another shot at this. Go dark and take the main line to the left ahead. We’ll work our way from there and at least find out if any of them are still alive.”

“We need the others,” Sara reminded him.

“They have a job to do, and if they can get back here in time so be it, but getting those four out is paramount. I’m not drawing any of them off until they’re safe.”

“You three are beat up,” she argued.

“Then you can do most of the ass kicking if needed.”

“Alright, we’ll have a look. But we can’t take on a Brat’mar with just four of us and do more than tickle him…and by now they’ve probably got a lot more guards on them.”

“If they haven’t made adjustments yet I don’t want to waste the chance of getting one more person out.”

“Agreed,” Sara relented, using her Kgat and disappearing from the minds of the others along with losing her Ikrid tracking of them as well, but with their Pefbar and battlemap there was no issue of them getting lost. They just couldn’t spot the Zen’zat closing in on them, but with the change of direction and their familiarity with the subsurface Star Force structures they were soon able to elude the enemy and began making their way to one of the other two prisoner holding areas within the huge V’kit’no’sat camp.

Kaalo kept running away from the Archons until his Zen’zat got to him, then he turned around and was ready to fight if they were still pursuing, but unfortunately they were not. He sensed them running off like the cowards they were, but at least they were pragmatic. There was no way they were going to win now and they knew it.

The Tiparen-level Zen’zat balled up a fist and punched one of the Star Force walls in anger/frustration, breaking through it and creating an impact crater around the penetration point as his fellow Zen’zat stood by waiting to follow his lead.

“Make sure they leave the area,” he said, pointing them ahead.

The other Zen’zat ran on by, leaving him to walk back towards the surface as he used his Sesspik to begin healing his injuries, which were significant. He’d learned long ago to not let pain slow him down in battle, but the wounds into his back and chest were deep enough that he had to force himself to stop and hold still long enough to fully stop the bleeding, though most of his wounds were nearly cauterized to begin with.

When he finally got back to the surface there was a gunship waiting to pick him up that flew him across the distance he normally would have ran, but from its elevated viewpoint he could see the continuing battle on the perimeter of their camp where the Star Force battlesuits were attacking in far greater numbers and being torn apart methodically. He did not fear them taking the camp, but he did know that there were many Brat’mar and Kar’ka going down out there.

When the gunship landed near a medical station he triggered his damaged armor to shed all non-responding components, with a shower of sand-like material falling away before the rest retracted back into the typical forearm gauntlets, leaving the burn marks in his clothing and body where the Archon weapons had burnt through…though it was their simple rods that had given him the most trouble, and that was an embarrassment he did not tolerate well.

“Do you want a Kich’a’kat?” a Zen’zat medic asked when he walked in and the extent of his injuries became visible.

“No,” he sneered in disgust. “Use the gel.”

“If you wish, but you’ve lost a lot of muscle mass. I’m surprised you can even stand up straight,” he said as another Zen’zat pulled out a canister and brought it over.

“I have no patience for the ignorance of medics,” he snapped, but made no further retort.

“How did they beat you?” the medic inquired, respectful but stern as he opened the canister and the pair began pulling out small amounts of glowing gel with their own Lachka and pushing it into the charred remains of his flesh at the wound points. It began dissolving all dead tissue and spurning the normal regeneration of tissue immediately without enacting the flash growth that would deny the muscle tissue the adaptation enhancement from the wounds’ recovery.

“There were four of them and they were all steeped in treason,” Kaalo growled, but his ire wasn’t directed at the medic. “They have psionics they have not earned, and a great deal of them. All four of them had Ubven.”

Both medics froze, aware of what the tier 3 psionic was but never having encountered anyone who had actually possessed it, for it was extremely rare.

“All of them?” the second medic asked.

“Indeed,” Kaalo said, sneering against the burning sensation of the gel as it worked deeper into his wounds, not harming any living tissue but energizing it in a very uncomfortable fashion.

“If you are needed immediately for battle, why not use the Kich’a’kat?”

“There is no immediate need. The cowards fled.”

The medics continued in silence for the next minute, filling every charred crater with a pale while glow until all were attended to.

“Finished,” the medic said, pulling off the tatters of Kaalo’s shirt and offering him a new one.

The tier 4 Zen’zat put it on slowly, not wanting to disrupt the gel any more than necessary, then headed for the door as his armor redeployed across his body in a quick wave of what looked like liquid material until it hardened.

“You will be needed shortly,” he said as he left, though it would be more than an hour before the wave of Zen’zat casualties started coming in.

8

The Voltron’s physical shield smashed down into the rubble, blocking a Brat’mar cannon shot headed towards the Archons carrying the prisoners as they came up to the surface behind the battle lines that were falling apart. The V’kit’no’sat had suffered a lot of casualties but the Star Force mechs were dropping far faster and recovery operations of downed pilots was taking priority as they started to fight a withdrawal after the Archons reappeared…with their location being swarmed by the V’kit’no’sat nearby.

A neo ran up and punched a Kar’ka back as it jumped over a limping madcat to try and get a shot at the Archons as numerous Zen’zat were now pouring out of the subsurface corridors everywhere, but staying in the shadows and out of the line of fire trying to get a chance to take out either the Archons or the prisoners. Why it was so important to get them the mechwarriors didn’t know, but they’d be damned if they were going to let those bastards get through to their people.

A second Voltron ran over and blanketed one area of partially constructed buildings with weaponsfire, chasing several Zen’zat contacts back underground as the 11 Archons continued to run with their four recovered prisoners at the center of their tight formation with numerous bioshields deployed to hit anything that got through. Further back, having stayed out of the heaviest fighting, several madcats ran forward, firing from their arm- and chest-mounted weaponry at distant targets and Zen’zat trying to get out ahead of the retreating Archons, but with their missile boxes remaining silent, as they had been throughout the battle.

Two madcats stayed on a direct course to the fleeing Archons while the others fanned out into a perimeter as they stopped, firing at anything that moved while the missile boxes on the two opened up…revealing empty compartments inside as the mechs stooped down as low as they could on their legs.

Two of the Archons jumped up on the mechs and climbed into the missile boxes, then using psionics pulled the prisoners up to them, locking them inside while the rest of the Archons headed for other missile boxes, cramming inside as the two mechs scooped up the vulnerable infantry and spun around, running away from the retreating formations and getting their precious cargo clear while the other madcats stayed and helped to collect pilots recovered from both downed mechs and skeets as the battle was switched to a high speed retreat.

Those mechs that fell on the way out caused minor delays, for Star Force intended for no one to be left behind…though the four Archons still inside the enemy camp were an exception. The trailblazers had ordered the mechs to get clear after they determined there were no more prisoners to be recovered. The other two groups had been either destroyed or moved, and the Archons were going to make their own way out.

The mechwarriors didn’t like that, but they weren’t going to disobey two trailblazers. The plan had been to pull all of them out, but if they could get clear on their own it would save a lot more mechs. With that in mind the battle slowly disintegrated as the V’kit’no’sat chased after them until some clever ambushes discouraged the practice and the two sides retreated to their respective strongholds.

Star Force’s was well off, but flocks of dropships came in once the area was safe and picked them all up, including the madcats with the four prisoners, and took them back to one of the Star Force-held spaceports.

“Damn it,” Sara said as her four-man team stayed under Kgat anonymity and moved even further inside the V’kit’no’sat camp…the last place they were expected to go. They had decided to try the trick after heading for the edge and making sure they were seen traveling that direction, with them doubling back and going after the prisoners that had been moved. Their search had brought them near a V’kit’no’sat landing zone where they saw them being loaded onto a gunship that had just taken off, headed for one of the giant doors in the sky that led back into space.

“We can’t get them now,” Angel said, angry but pragmatic.

“That was only three of them. Where are the others?” Mathis asked.

“Good question,” Rio agreed, “but Angel is right. We can’t signal the fleet in time to intercept, and if we did we’d pull them down on top of us here. We’ll review the logs and see where that gunship went, then tag the ship with a marker for potential capture later. Odds are that won’t be an option, though.”

“I hate these fuckers,” Angel added as the Archons pulled back from their observation point just above ground and took to the subsurface tunnels again, crawling through a layer of debris until they got into the intact substructures.

“Where we going?” Mathis asked.

“Does anyone have any memory of where they might have split the others off?”

“No,” Sara said icily. “Think they used those three as decoys.”

“Meaning they’re still here,” Mathis argued.

“We can’t keep roaming around pressing our luck. If we don’t know where to look we need to get out of here before they decide to start blasting.”

“Without the mechs they can focus on us now,” Angel agreed. “I don’t like leaving, but we can’t let ourselves be captured either. Question is, do we bag one of them on the way out?”

“No,” Rio said, heading down a tunnel of his choosing with the others following. “We move fast and far. We’re ghosts until we get in the clear.”

After that there was no more talking, only single file running and silence until they got well beyond the boundaries of the V’kit’no’sat camp and to a working transit hub, then they took a train car through subsurface landscape all the way back to the edge of the nearest spaceport and got off where the damage the V’kit’no’sat had done earlier had cut the lines. From there they signaled for an aerial pickup and got back into the business of continuing to evacuate the remaining civilians, hoping that no more of them would be snatched up or killed before getting them off the Ribbon and down beneath the protection of Titan’s planetary shields.

Kaalo walked by the Zen’zat guards surrounding the single prisoner camp they now possessed in another landing zone camp, but this one was well underground with all approaches physically blocked off so no potential rescue teams could easily get to them. There were several hundred prisoners here that had been deemed of some value, but it was the few Archons that had been captured that he was interested in.

A few entrances had been reconstructed to allow the Kar’ka down this far with more ease, but the Brat’mar could not reach the prisoners. Hopefully this would help to further camouflage their location, but the Tiparen didn’t care about that. He wanted another shot at their Rio, though the Brat’mar had ordered him not to seek out combat until he was fully healed.

At the moment though he needed information, so he located one of the holding cells with an Archon currently under interrogation by a Kar’ka and walked in on them, seeing the Archon outside of armor and laying stiff on a table with a three fingered Kar’ka hand laying over his head making the physical contact necessary to bypass the Ikrid block. Another Zen’zat stood by for assistance, and both V’kit’no’sat looked over at Kaalo questioningly.

“Leave,” he commanded, retracting his armor into his forearm gauntlets as he looked down on the Archon.

“What is it that you want?” the Kar’ka asked.

“I have questions that need answering, and I will ask them alone.”

“I have not finished with this one.”

“You are finished…now,” Kaalo said, staring up at the Kar’ka and making it clear with his gaze that he was not in a mood to be argued with.

The Kar’ka sniffed rudely but made no other objection, knowing the status of this particular Zen’zat along with the fact that he could remove the Kar’ka by force if he wished, and some of the elite Zen’zat tended to throw their weight around more than they ought to.

The Kar’ka released the Archon and walked out, with the other Zen’zat going with him as the prisoner, now with his body back under his own control, sat up and slid off the table with a mix of fear and rage in his eyes.

Kaalo shut the large door with a telekinetic tug, then looked down on the smaller Archon.

“You may not know the identity of your sponsor, but I require different information.”

“I’m not going to tell you anything,” the Archon said, a little wobbly from the drugs he’d been given to loosen his mental resistance. “You’re going to have to dig it out like the rest.”

Kaalo pointed a finger at the Archon and lifted him up off the ground with his Lachka, holding him head level so he could look him eye to eye.

“I can kill you in an instant, and I don’t even need my weaponry to do it.”

“Get on with it then,” the ranger urged.

“At least you have the spirit of a Zen’zat, but not our size. Why? You have others of Zen’zat size, but not your elite. This makes no sense.”

“Maybe you should try thinking rather than blind obedience,” the Archon said as his feet hung dangling in the air, though his eyes caught sight of the healing wound on Kaalo’s arm, for he wore a sleeveless shirt with his long pants, both of which were skin tight and dark green. “Maybe learn to duck too. You got shot up, didn’t you?”

“My injuries are healing. I would have defeated your Rio and the three Archons with him had it not been for your treachery. How have you bypassed the Ikrid restriction?”

“He got you in a headlock, didn’t he?”

“No. I do not mean by physical contact. How have you bypassed it remotely? I was told this was impossible.”

“We have a penchant for doing the impossible…but I actually don’t know what you’re talking about. Rio is a trailblazer, so he knows a great deal more than I do.”

“That is obvious. If you possessed Rentar like the others you would have freed yourself from my grip already. If you do not follow protocol, why don’t you possess the psionics that the others do?”

“I haven’t earned them yet.”

“None of you have earned them,” Kaalo growled. “However you managed it, your abilities are not naturally gained. Why not give all of your kind the same?”

“Only those who are worthy get them, and I’m too young to have proven myself for all of them.”

“What did Rio have to do to get Ubven?”

“Ask him.”

“I am asking you, warrior to warrior, answer my questions directly or I will treat you like the rest of the scum of your bastardized race.”

“If you’re going to kill me, then all I can do is resist. Would you give away information if you…” the ranger said, cut off as he floated within reach of Kaalo and the Zen’zat punched him so hard in the chest that ribs snapped…then he was inside his head, digging around but still asking questions, amplifying his physical voice until it boomed so loud that the ranger couldn’t help but shudder with each word.

“How do you bypass the Ikrid restriction? What psionic have you altered to accomplish this?” Kaalo asked, but as the ranger said he did not know the answer. As much as he knew, Ikrid could only be bypassed by skin to skin contact, which was one reason why they wore full armor in combat.

“What psionics do you possess?” he asked next, with the information rising to the surface of his mind as he posed the question, making it easier to recover. This Archon had the basic 7 abilities that all Zen’zat did, but none of the second or third tier like the others had. It was a pity that none stronger had been captured, though he would have had several if not for those overlapping Ubven fields. It and their other rare psionics gave them the psionic power of legendary Zen’zat, which was an even greater sacrilege given how low their physical skills were.

“What do you know of their skills? Their psionics? Their tactics?” he asked, getting a lot of information hits that he had to further dig out. It took him several minutes until he crossed something unusual. Something that no Zen’zat possessed and betrayed all reason.

Kaalo checked again, digging out any and all information this low level Archon had, but the word was clear and there were a few instances of him having heard stories from others, though he’d never observed it occur himself. The higher level Archons had something they called ‘battlemeld’ that was supposed to combined the psionic power of more than one individual to make them stronger as a pair or group than the sum of their individual powers.

Was that what Rio had meant when he promised to kill Kaalo with friends? Did they gain strength in numbers? And did that somehow allow them to bypass his Ikrid blocks and mess with his mind? It was the Ubven that had caused him the most trouble, but it was the mind tricks that truly worried him, for Zen’zat had always been immune to them. Fornax operated differently and they had become acquainted with both using it and weathering it, but if these Archons had found a way to cheat the Ikrid block then their treachery was growing to a truly dangerous level.

“Battlemeld. Who has it? What creates it? Is there a weakness to it?”

The Archon wouldn’t answer, and unfortunately his mind did not contain much in the way of answers beyond a single memory of some type of tournament he’d observed…no, that he had reviewed images of later…in which many high level Archons participated. During group combat this Archon had seen two others swing each other around various objects, both pulling and pushing the other with their Lachka to great effect…but they always had an extended arm or arms to do it, and both of them, which made no sense to Kaalo. Only one used Lachka, and while physical directions helped one to focus their concentration they were not necessary.

This Archon had also saw something odd with the way they operated, speculating that it might be some form of battlemeld psionic while realizing that such things would not be revealed to him until he made their rank of Padawan. That was when they were instructed by another more skilled Archon in the attainment of the additional psionics. This was where their accursed ‘sharing’ occurred and the natural progression of development was cheated. It was also inferred that this was where the battlemeld was learned if not previously gained.

Somehow they even had cheaters within their own ranks, sharing powers before their approved time. How could a group of Zen’zat, no matter how bastardized by their illicit reproduction, function in such discord?

Kaalo was beginning to question how a sponsor could be so silent and still manage to keep this rabble functional…and yet he had witnessed himself how effective they were in combat, undeserving of their psionics for certain, but their effectiveness was more than just fortune.

Had this Star Force actually created new psionics? Or was there more to them that even he did not know? If the latter was the case he was going to find out now. If the former…

Kaalo released his physical contact with the Archon, pushing him away from him in his Lachka grip slightly.

“Your kind cannot be allowed to exist. You are an abomination that will be purged, no matter how many of us it takes,” the Zen’zat said, grabbing the Archon’s arm and flipping him over his head so hard that his shoulder dislocated as he slammed him down onto the table, breaking his nose…but Kaalo didn’t stop there, pulling on his arm again as he smashed the Archon’s torso to the table with a Lachka field so that the limb ripped clear off the body in one sickening snap/crunch.

The Archon screamed, then rolled off the table onto the ground making more sounds of agony as Kaalo left the room, pulling open the giant door with his Lachka and walking by the Zen’zat outside. He tossed the Archon’s bloody, severed arm at her and the Kilnor caught it on the wrist so the blood wouldn’t drip on her.

“I am finished here. Reattach it if you wish.”

9

April 3, 3602

Solar System

Venus

The Tar’vem’jic from the Mach’nel continued to fire from range, hitting another Sentinel in Venus orbit as the V’kit’no’sat fleet made a run in toward the planet similar to what they had been doing in previous days. Already one shipyard had been destroyed and it looked like they were going after another now, with Roger having deployed a lot of the remaining Shiva ships here to help defend the planet, but there was no outdistancing the Mach’nel. That forced him to engage it at closer range, and every time he did so he lost ships.

The V’kit’no’sat fleet had gotten smart, in that they didn’t allow any long battles to ensue. The size of their ships meant that the Star Force fleet had to hammer them for a while in order to do sufficient damage to kill them, thus the V’kit’no’sat fleet, in a very atypical strategy, was making fast hits to do damage to the Star Force orbital defenses and ships before retreating to recharge shields and repair the limited damage to their hull plates…so it had become a frustrating game of attrition with Roger trying to slow the damage they were inflicting on Venus orbit while picking off a ship or two when he could.

And the Mach’nel wasn’t just shooting at the shipyards and Sentinels, it was also targeting and one-hitting the Shivas, forcing Roger to run them up in the face of the other V’kit’no’sat ships in order to use the enemy vessels to block incoming hits, otherwise he was just wasting them. If the Mach’nel wanted to shoot at destroyers and frigates he’d let it do so all day, for most of its primary weapon’s destructive power was wasted to take them out and he had hundreds of thousands of them to pull on, but bring a big ship or station within range of the Mach’nel and it was going to be quickly destroyed, just like all the Sentinels in stellar orbit had been.

The trailblazer had hoped they’d go after the Slip’n’slide, but they’d wisely ignored it, for it wasn’t a threat to them now, and destroying it would have wasted valuable time that they could otherwise use to hit more important Star Force targets all the while more drone fleets were returning to Sol and increasing their numbers.

Roger thought they might be able to win a straight up fight right now, but he didn’t want to waste the number of ships that would involve nor tip their hand to how many more summons they had…but Roger couldn’t let this damage keep going forever, so it was time to up the intensity and try to counter the hit and run tactics with a quicker takeout punch.

Directing the combat from a distant command ship, Roger sent his fleets in towards the Mach’nel and its thousands of escorts as it sat out of range of Venus’s orbital defenses and continued sniping Sentinels around another valuable shipyard. Once they were in range of the V’kit’no’sat fleet and a good-sized brawl broke out the Mach’nel stopped firing on the Sentinels and redirected its primary weapon at a Shiva, punching through its enhanced shields on the first shot and gutting the ship with a hole blown straight through and out the other side, followed by explosive plumes of debris out both openings as the ship’s center tore apart and shredded like a piñata.

But that Shiva had deliberately drifted high to attract attention, for with the Shiva ships hidden amongst the beehive of regular drones were another summon that Roger had quietly pulled down several days ago. These ships were Ultima and well hidden behind the wall of other drones as they all headed into the defensive alignment the V’kit’no’sat had used in previous engagements, setting them with decent spacings so they could focus fire from multiple directions while also blocking for one another.

Roger hit the outer ships hard, but before they could get to their predetermined minimum shield strength and begin to run, peeling away from the formation while allowing the Mach’nel to continue sniping targets, he ran the Ultima ships up close and activated their element. Where the Shiva ships had special shields to make them more durable, the Ultima ships had basic technology across the board, from weapons to defenses, with one key addition.

Many Star Force drones suddenly lost propulsion, drifting on previous headings as conical-shaped IDF interdiction fields stretched out and grabbed the leading V’kit’no’sat ships, taking away their ability to maneuver along with all the drones in between. Almost as soon as they did a Tar’vem’jic blast fired at one of the Ultima, hitting many other drones in between and failing to get more than a bit of energy through…which was absorbed by its shields.

Roger began throwing more ships into gap, some of which had to decelerate hard to cut their momentum before they hit the field, but others were able to block while maintaining navigational control because the interdiction field wasn’t spherical, but rather focused along certain channels and strong enough to hold all the mass in it that it wished.

With multiple ships captured per field and dozens of Ultima casting their fields into the V’kit’no’sat lines, Roger had ships pinned in place that he could now kill, but he knew the V’kit’no’sat wouldn’t stand for that. They were going to pour the rest of their ships into the engagement and fight it out rather than abandon their ships and let Star Force get some ‘easy’ kills. Anticipating that, Roger also had other ships in this formation that had not engaged the V’kit’no’sat before…in the way of fully topped off Fireflies.

With the already weakened V’kit’no’sat ships stuck on the edge of their formation, Roger ran the fat firefly interceptors up through his ships lightning fast as the drone swarm parted for them under his direct control, allowing them to get into firing position before the other V’kit’no’sat ships could flank the IDF fields while the Mach’nel was busy shooting Shiva and trying to punch through to the Ultima with primary weapon and others.

The Fireflies, running with energy shields that hid the glow inside them, moved up to almost pointblank range with the pinned V’kit’no’sat ships, drifting forward as they lost engine power as well, but with their ‘firehose’ mounts still pointed toward their targets as other drones flanked them to provide extra blocking ability, both with their mass and shields, as well as contributing as much firepower to the targets ahead as they could, for the IDF only interfered with gravity drive operation. Not weaponry.

The first Firefly got within four kilometers of an 18 mile-long Voro’nam Dak’bri when it extended a shield column up to the enemy ship just after the V’kit’no’sat shields fell. Roger was hoping for that, because the Fireflies were not as effective against shields as they were matter, and had tweaked their approach timing to get them their best shot…which this Firefly took now.

It opened up its aperture and poured fiery hot plasma sucked up from the star through the shield ‘straw’ to help contain it further until it got to its target. What normally would have been a laughable plasma attack against a V’kit’no’sat ship took on a whole new dynamic in the amount of plasma being channeled. This wasn’t a plasma weapon being fired, this was the entire content of the Firefly being funneled out through a very wide tube in a one shot attack.

And that attack burnt into the V’kit’no’sat hull on a specific spot, eating into the armor plates and puncturing through before the full load was delivered. Return shots were fired immediately, but the Firefly was well enough shielded to survive them long enough to unload, blasting a crater in the hull and vaporizing so much internal structure that there was a backwash of molten debris thrown out into space as the Dak’bri pounded the drifting Firefly into scrap, not realizing that it had nothing left to attack with.

But it wasn’t the only one hitting the Dak’bri, for three others did as well, opening up points in the thick hull armor that the surrounding drones then tore into as adjacent weapon systems went down, no longer with power or otherwise gutted by the plasma flow inside the ship that ate into it like venom.

Roger had timed the attack so well that all 126 Fireflies he’d brought into this fight delivered their attacks within 2 minutes of one another, and combined with the Ultima pinning the targets in place and the mass of drones around them firing constantly, Roger got more than a handful of ship kills in this engagement before he finally pulled back when the V’kit’no’sat wouldn’t. He gave them a little breathing room, fighting a withdrawal and protecting both his Shiva and Ultima as he reset his formation into a better defensive alignment.

The V’kit’no’sat didn’t press in, suddenly turning around and fleeing now that their damaged ships were no longer pinned. Those that could move did so, and those that didn’t got towed away while the remains of others were targeted by friendly fire and destroyed as the V’kit’no’sat ships made hasty microjumps as the Mach’nel continued to snipe drones the entire time.

Roger, knowing it was going to leave soon, sent his ships in towards it so it couldn’t sit around an extra minute or two and get free kills in on his ships or the Sentinels…and given the numbers he had now and the threat of the Ultima pinning it in place, it did in fact run, pulling back through its own microjump and abandoning the attack on Venus until the V’kit’no’sat fleet could lick its wounds and adjust to the new ships and tactics Roger had just effectively thrown at them.

As it left, Roger pulled up a bit of media from the Halo library and sent a cinematic clip to both the V’kit’no’sat fleet and made sure all his remote pilots could see Sergeant Johnson as well.

“The message just repeats…regret, regret, regret.”

“Catchy. Any idea what it means?”

“Dear, Humanity. We regret being alien bastards. We regret coming to Earth. And we most definitely regret the corps just blew up our raggedy ass fleet. Hoorah!”

Within two seconds he had thousands of replies through the battlemap, either text or audio, echoing the ‘hoorah’ at the end, and with his Sav-enhanced mind he could hear/read all of them at once.

For the moment the attack on Venus’s orbital infrastructure had been paused and they’d just destroyed another 47 ships and damaged upwards of 200…and given just how big those ships were, that was a huge victory despite the 3,000+ drones lost.

“They’re starting to pull out.”

Rio frowned and pulled up the battlemap focus on the nearest V’kit’no’sat camp on the Ribbon from where he sat on top of a tall building overlooking the continuous evacuation of the civilians, guarding against another attack or assassination attempt.

“Damn. They’re going to bombard the station when they’re clear. We have to get them out faster.”

“We can shove more ships through other portals if they’re not contending,” Sara said over the comm.

“Keep an eye on it, but I don’t think they’re going to be that gracious. They may still have Zen’zat on the prowl up until the end too.”

“It won’t take much to breach the atmosphere, but they’ll have to do it section by section. Do you wanna hit them to delay their pullout?”

Rio thought about that for a moment, then shook his head.

“No. We straight up race them. Pull everyone back and pack them in as tight as possible. Send the dropships out beyond the spaceports if you have to.”

“What about the prisoners?”

“If you have a good idea I’m all ears.”

“Destroy their ships,” Sara said grimly, but Rio understood what she meant. If their people couldn’t be rescued, and they knew that the V’kit’no’sat were going to kill them anyway, better they go out in battle rather than being tortured to death in the various grotesqueries that they’d long known about from the pyramid database before they started to see some of them here in real life.

“Yeah,” Rio said reluctantly, not giving up on the prisoners but also not seeing any way to get at them right now, though he’d always keep an eye open for an opportunity if it arose. “Let’s make sure no more get grabbed, but we have to scramble people to get out before the rain starts to fall.”

“If they want to shoot the Ribbon, it’ll give us free shots at them.”

“They might do it anyway. Call in some of the larger transports and we’ll see if we can pull a Covenant on them.”

“Risky, but it’ll save us some time. I’ll take care of it, just don’t go on any dates with our favorite Zen’zat without me.”

“No promises,” Rio said, knowing full well that he might show up again out of nowhere for round 3 while they rushed to get the remainder of the civilians out.

Two days later…

“Let’s go, let’s go!” a Commando yelled as he waved people forward in a thick and fast moving line across the spaceport tarmac.

Haley and Brittney ran together, arms locked so they wouldn’t get separated amongst the others in dirty clothes that hadn’t been changed in over a week. They’d managed to hide out in their quarters’ building for a while, but eventually people started dying nearby and they ran before they found out what was going on, moving from city to city on the Ribbon and grabbing whatever food they could on the way from abandoned cafeterias as they headed as far as they could get from the Dinosaurs.

They eventually got to a working rail line and got in a car that took them even further away to a city with some Star Force troops in it, but that city got attacked two days later and they had to run again, somehow managing to stay alive until they ended up in a makeshift refugee center guarded by infantry and mechs. They’d been there until three days ago when all of them had been moved out on foot through the streets with occasional vehicular transports or dropships coming to pick some of them up, but the mass of them had to travel mile after mile on foot until they got to the spaceport.

There had been no fighting on the way, and Haley didn’t want to think about them getting shot so close to getting out, but it was in the back of her mind constantly as she and her best friend ran forward until the crowd got pinned down as they funneled between a pair of Commandos and into a line only four or five people wide. Hanging onto one another the pair of civilians were shooed forward, running again as they headed for a giant purple energy tube that reached up into the sky.

They didn’t know what was going on until they got close enough to see people being carried up it, then they were shoved ahead by more Commandos without a chance to think, crossing inside the field and suddenly being lifted off their feet.

“Shit,” Brittney swore as she was suddenly weightless, but both of them held onto one another as Haley’s foot hit the outer edge of the tube as they were going up. It bounced off it, luckily, rather than letting her fall out and to her death as they and the others above and below them were sucked up into the sky, past the clouds, and to the far up roof of the Ribbon where they passed through the energy field separating it from space and into vacuum.

Haley thought they were going to die with no air, but the purple energy tube kept them alive and breathing until they reached the underside of a ship. They were pulled inside of it then carried sideways until the field dumped them out beside the hole in the floor that they could see space through, with both cringing away from it as more Commandos pulled off those that didn’t move quick enough, for more and more people kept coming up behind them.

Haley and Brittney went with the flow that ended with them being herded into a giant empty cargo room packed with people elbow to elbow, so close that she immediately felt claustrophobic with the cacophony of voices from the crowd adding to the effect. She started to cry uncontrollably, feeling like she was going to be crushed as people filled in behind her and surrounded them as everyone was getting packed together as tight as boxes.

Brittney pulled Haley’s head into her shoulder so she couldn’t see anything, then the two just held onto each other and suffered through it, not knowing if they were safe or going to be shot by the enemy ships. No one was telling them anything, just pushing them around like cargo, but at the very least they were off the Ribbon and that was worth putting up with the sounds and smells and constant bumps of people around them.

“Close your eyes and think of someplace else,” Brittney said, doing the same thing as she hung onto her friend. “Someplace with tropical trees, beaches, and hot men.”

“I can’t…”

“Just try, babe. Just try.”

“I can’t breathe.”

“Yes you can. It’s just crowded. And we don’t have to walk anymore. Just stand here and cry. Cry your eyes out if you want. I’m not going anywhere.”

“What the fuck is happening…” Haley whimpered, pressing her face against Brittney’s neck as her friend held her up while other people were freaking out around them. Some screaming, others trying to sit on the ground and tripping others when there wasn’t room…all the while more people were coming up the gravity lift and being crammed inside far faster than dropships could ever have managed.

“Hang on,” Brittney said, tears seeping out her eyes as well. “Just hang on.”

10

April 9, 3602

Solar System

Inner Zone

The Brat’mar gunship landed inside one of the hangar bays on the inner edge of the ‘tuning fork’ prongs that made up the front of the Era’tran Kafcha, blocking them from most external weaponsfire while daring anyone to come inside the overlapping fields of fire. At the moment that wasn’t an issue, for the entire V’kit’no’sat fleet had reassembled in a null orbit between the first and second planets in the system as they continued to digest the information taken from the prisoners and free data they were still getting from the public grid, the comparison of which was yielding some interesting results.

Normally discussions between ships would occur via hologram, but this was not a typical situation and Kaalo, a Zen’zat assigned and loyal to the Brat’mar, walked off the gunship onto the Era’tran deck that was even bigger than Brat’mar standards between two waiting rows of assembled Zen’zat who flanked him as he walked, ceremoniously escorting him through the ship amongst the bipedal giants that had built it, drawing many skeptical looks in the process.

Kaalo took his time, walking rather than running, and over the miles it took to get across the hangar he didn’t wavier. The Era’tran weren’t his enemy even if they were a rival of the Brat’mar, for he was Zen’zat and loyal to the V’kit’no’sat as a whole, but old habits died hard and with the prospect of one or more races betraying the others tensions were even higher than normal…not to mention the fight between the Brat’mar and Kar’ka on the Ribbon that had been thankfully stopped, though not until two Kar’ka were unrecoverably dead.

So the Era’tran Zen’zat escorted him with respect and purpose to insure there was no misunderstandings as they finally arrived at a Zen’zat support system of tiny tunnels and lifts that Kaalo took to speed his progress across the 47 mile long ship. The base frame of a Kafcha was designated as 36 miles wide/long, but the Era’tran ship design was elongated, much like the I’rar’et’s T-shaped vessels, and the lesser bulk was therefore compensated for by increased length to keep vessel combat capabilities essentially neutral despite the varying designs.

That meant there was a lot of walking to do onboard an Era’tran ship if one wanted to get from bow to stern, and for security reasons the command deck was in the stern and well away from the hangar bays to protect against the possibility of boarders, though such things had not been a concern of the Era’tran for a long time. Lessons of long ago were still heeded to this day as protocol, even if of no apparent use, for the V’kit’no’sat had a long history of bloody battles and when a deficiency was discovered it was adjusted for...which was what brought Kaalo to the fleet commander in person, who chose to receive him in a private chamber rather than on the command deck where their conversation would be in front of others.

“What have you discovered, Zen’zat?” Mak’to’ran asked, staring down at the tiny biped who stood before his unarmored bulk, though out of respect Kaalo had his armor retracted into compact mode…though even if he deploy it, it wouldn’t matter. The Era’tran could still kill him before he could do enough damage for it to matter. “And why come to me directly?”

Kaalo took a knee, an unnecessary height reduction given his miniature status, but for Zen’zat it was a sign of confusion and therefore submission to those who could give them direction.

“I have encountered something truly disturbing. Something that I was long told was impossible. Given that the Era’tran know Zen’zat better than any other I have come to you with this knowledge. I have not discussed it with any other due to the implications, and as fleet commander you are the one that must accommodate for it now.”

“What new treachery have you discovered?”

“I have fought their most skilled Archon and defeated him. He fled only for us to meet again a second time in an assault to regain possession of prisoners. He had with him two, then three others. I could have defeated them, for their strength and speed are vastly inferior to mine, but all four possessed Ubven and subdued me long enough to inflict serious injury. I am recovering now and can fight if needed, but never before in Zen’zat history, as far as I am aware, have multiple Ubvens been used in combat. It is something we are not prepared for and gives these abominations a significant advantage.”

“Four of them?” Mak’to’ran considered. “And if there are four, how many more possess these skills?”

“It is of great concern, as is their varying fighting styles. They do not fight like Zen’zat, though they have clearly studied our ways and incorporated aspects into their codex. They have built weapons and constructed team tactics that are unfamiliar to me.”

“I have stopped thinking of them as Zen’zat entirely,” Mak’to’ran admitted. “To do so now would be a grave error, as well as an insult to your race. These mutations are something else entirely, and expecting them to behave as Zen’zat is a mistake that I will not make. Has there been any other noted use of Ubven or other tier 3s?”

“Jumat is prevalent in combat, and they use it to disengage from me repetitively, but the weapons they carry are inferior. In the second engagement they came with additional ones, but still they are not well equipped to deal damage.”

“Yet the reports of Zen’zat losses are high.”

“We have been deployed behind enemy lines. With such risk comes losses.”

“The Brat’mar should not waste you merely to kill a handful of useless Humans,” he said, using a term that was still unnatural to him. “Especially if they cannot fight. Zen’zat are valuable resources and should not be squandered.”

“We were also taking captives in the process, but I am not here to debate with you how the Brat’mar operate. There is a more important matter.”

“The conflict between the Brat’mar and Kar’ka. The Ikrid tricks of these Archons are formidable, it seems. We have always assumed that our minds are too advanced for your kind to enter and control, and that if one does manage to it is the weakness of the individual that is at fault. Did the Brat’mar and Kar’ka underestimate the enemy?”

“I fear it is something far worse.”

“Explain,” Mak’to’ran demanded when Kaalo didn’t continue.

“I cannot speak for what happened to them. I was near but not present, engaged in my own battle, during which I encountered…an impossibility.”

“You mentioned so before. What is it?”

“It was not Fornax,” Kaalo began, ruling it out before the Era’tran could ask. “I am certain of that.”

“They influenced your mind as well?”

Kaalo looked up from his kneeling position at the huge head over and just in front of him. “It was momentary, but yes, they did. I was told this was impossible for Zen’zat because of our Ikrid restriction. I have reviewed my memories many times looking for fault of my own, but I can find none. I fear that somehow their treachery is responsible for this.”

“Your hand,” Mak’to’ran said, taking a step forward and almost stepping on the Zen’zat as he came within inches of his kneeling form, then Kaalo reached out and made skin to skin contact with the Era’tran so it could bypass his own block and enter his mind.

The search did not take long, but the review of his memories, incomplete as such things always were, went on for a very long time. With what seemed great reluctance, Mak’to’ran broke the contact and Kaalo retracted his hand as the Era’tran stepped back.

“Your failure was not your fault,” he pronounced, relieving a bit of shame from the Zen’zat, but having been so damaged without making even a single kill still burned within him. “Nor is your analysis incorrect. Somehow these Archons have bypassed the Ikrid restrictions…and yet this Rio did not use the technique against you individually. It only manifests when there are multiple Archons…and did you notice that one Jumat blast was far greater than the others?”

“Two attacked me simultaneously for greater effect.”

“No,” Mak’to’ran said firmly. “It was not cumulative. The impact was far greater than that would have entailed. It appears they increased their power above and beyond what either could individually generate. Tell me, have you ever heard rumors of such things before?”

“Never.”

“I have. From a very long time ago. What I am about to tell you is for your knowledge only. You will not share it with the Brat’mar nor other Zen’zat.”

“As you wish.”

“There are stories of Zen’zat with…unusual powers in V’kit’no’sat history. Those stories have been eliminated from all records, but some have still passed through the Era’tran as legends. We have a keen interest in your race and are continually watching your progress to see how many psionics you can unlock. What you have accomplished thus far has eliminated most criticism for your inclusion into the V’kit’no’sat, but we believe you still have greater potential within you. It is a pity that the other races do not train you properly.”

“The Brat’mar have done well enough.”

“There is a reason why the Era’tran hold the most powerful Zen’zat save for a few outliers. We have you train better and longer. Others are more lax. You know this, for you have succeeded where they have not, Tiparen.”

“Others require more motivation than I do.”

“And that is an oversite of your masters as well as your fellow Zen’zat. What the Brat’mar do not instruct you can still do, and have in your case, but the others do not. They are satisfied with their current strength, wishing it to be greater but not submitting themselves to the optional training to make it so. Push a Zen’zat too hard and they will break, but push them not enough and, like all other races, you become complacent. We do not tolerate this in our Zen’zat, but only those who seek out the training will truly ascend by it, as you have done and are doing.”

“Your words honor me, but my strength was not enough against the treachery of these Archons.”

“Nor will it be, I fear. At first I had believed this rogue ‘Zen’zat’ civilization to be a work of folly, but more and more I see a devious and ingenious plan becoming exposed. The Hadarak are truly frightening if they can be controlled, but these Archons are quietly just as dangerous if they can overpower a Brat’mar’s mind…and I would suggest that they did not do so individually, but as a group. That is not unheard of, but like your Jumat encounter, I do not believe it is an accumulation of individual attacks, but rather something more powerful. You say you have not heard any rumor of such things in Zen’zat history?”

“None. Individuals have tried to hone simultaneous mental attacks, and while that might make it more difficult for a Brat’mar to resist, they cannot coordinate them to a necessary degree and often they counteract one another…and any preplanning is lost when they have to adapt to their target.”

“Well said. But what I have to tell you comes from the culling of the Les’i’kron. It was more than an internal division that the V’kit’no’sat fought. It was their entire race…and it was not as limited a fight as the records depict. We have access to more complete data, but even those of lesser station within the Era’tran do not know the full extent of their eradication. The Les’i’kron are those loyal to the V’kit’no’sat, but they were originally of another name. It was changed when they were defeated and their race remade, but the originals were a founding member of the V’kit’no’sat along with the J’gar and Oso’lon.”

Kaalo looked startled. He knew the Les’i’kron were major race, but he had no idea they had actually been a founding member along with those two longnecks.

“One of air, one of water, and one of land,” Mak’to’ran went on to say. “They were more powerful than the Oso’lon and J’gar, both in numbers and knowledge, but over time the strength of the V’kit’no’sat grew greater and a division formed. The originals were not fully loyal to the V’kit’no’sat and eventually a confrontation occurred that resulted in their annihilation. Rather than lose their formidable power the Les’i’kron were created out of their remains, but they have never had the power the originals had…which included Zen’zat that fought against the V’kit’no’sat during the culling who displayed what is rumored to have been joint abilities.”

“New psionics or undiscovered ones?”

“I know the full extent of the psionics within your genome. Those that Zen’zat have not uncovered yet do not fit this description, nor has any record been made of their existence, but the rumors have persisted. The originals had knowledge beyond us and may have upgraded their own Zen’zat in violation, either in response to the culling or preceding it.”

Kaalo blinked as he continued to kneel, thoroughly confused. “Were not all of their Zen’zat destroyed in the culling?”

“They were, as was every facet of their race that we did not wish to remake. They are gone and have been so despite fantasies to the contrary, all of which have proved baseless. I do not think that somehow survivors remained to spawn the heresy here, but if it has been done before then others may have remembered and sought out similar development on their own.”

“How effective were these altered Zen’zat in battle?”

“It was before my time, but they were rumored to be incredibly powerful…as well as possessing armor that allowed them to fly.”

That brought Kaalo’s head up another inch. “Their Rio.”

Mak’to’ran nodded in one long, slow motion. “The Archons appear to use a tiered system much like our own, with the upper echelons mimicking these legends. It is possible that the stories inspired this research, though who is conducting it I cannot determine. Many races I can rule out individually, but if there is a pact between several then everyone is suspect, even the Era’tran, though I highly doubt we are involved. But you can be assured that whoever is doing this, from trying to recreate Zen’zat of legend to controlling Hadarak, has the end goal of destroying the V’kit’no’sat. There can be no other goal of this treason, and no possibility of us ever condoning it. We stand on the brink of a civil war, not a mere rebellion like the Rit’ko’sor, and that hurt us badly enough. This could destroy us.”

“Did these legends speak of the Ikrid block being bypassed?”

“No. I have no knowledge of how it is even possible, but the binary nature of the attacks against you suggest that it is part of what occurred in the past or perhaps a new addition altogether. I also do not know how a Hadarak can be controlled, yet obviously it can be done.”

“What are we to do if they can enter our minds?”

“Do as we have always done. As disturbing as this is, it is also an opportunity to prove your worth. The Ikrid restrictions were created to keep you immune from manipulation, but also because it was thought you needed the assistance to counter your inferiority. Even the Ari’tat do not have a block, and in my opinion you are superior to them. Learn to function without it by strengthening your mind. If you cannot, then you truly are lesser than an Ari’tat.”

“Understood. We either stand on our own or we do not deserve to stand at all. However, this will greatly reduce our effectiveness until we can learn to compensate.”

“It will do far more than that, but this is the hand you have been dealt. Adapt to it.”

“As you will. Is there any other counsel you can offer?”

“When you find this Rio again, do not fight him alone unless he is alone. Take other Zen’zat with you.”

“We have withdrawn from their station. I will not have another opportunity.”

“Orders have not gone out yet, but a decision has been made. Based on the interrogation of the lower level Archons you captured, we have discovered that not all the V’kit’no’sat structures in this system were destroyed by the Rit’ko’sor. The planetary defense station still exists.”

“Why was it not detected on arrival?”

“They have hidden it, and not well, for it has not been moved. It is at the same location as before, but they have constructed a city over top of it. I do not believe they did it to hide it from us, but rather from their own people for a reason I cannot fathom. Their masses of Humans do not know of the V’kit’no’sat, nor do they know of the defense station. It has been kept from them and the concealment is for this reason, I believe.”

“Why would they hinder their greatest defensible position in such a manner? If it is intact, it possesses the most powerful weapons they have access to.”

“I have consulted with the J’gar on this, and they assure me that primary and secondary weapons were locked out when this world fell, which was why the Rit’ko’sor did not try to claim it and merely submerged it. Such codes that prevented them from accessing it would also prevent anyone other than the J’gar or Oso’lon from doing so. Even the Era’tran do not possess the codes to override them.”

“If they are behind this treachery, then the defense station could fire through the city to strike at us.”

“If either of those two races have betrayed us, then the V’kit’no’sat are already doomed.”

“Are you certain it cannot fire?”

“Both of them have assured me that the lockouts cannot be bypassed, no matter how much effort is given to the task. Whoever is sponsoring this Star Force cannot unlock it, and the fact that they have chosen to build over it is both a sign of this and of their folly, for while they may never have intended to use it as a defensible outpost, they have compromised its perimeter defense with the structures covering it.”

Kaalo’s face cracked a touch of a smile. “They are vulnerable to a ground assault.”

“This is a tactical mistake and we are going to exploit it. Once there is a breach in their planetary shields a team of Zen’zat will be dispatched to infiltrate their structures and gain access to the defense station. Once inside you will seize it and destroy the city surrounding it when the J’gar supply you with the necessary instructions to reactivate its weapons. We will reclaim our property and secure a foothold on the planet. If there are answers to be found there we will have them, but even if the databanks have been wiped clean not we will not run from these vermin. We will hold at the defense station and I will send for reinforcements. When they arrive, we will begin exterminating the Archons, this Star Force, and eventually deal with the Hadarak. Whoever is responsible for this will show their involvement eventually if we are not able to discover their identity…else they will have to sit by and watch us annihilate everything they have painstakingly created here.”

“You believe they will launch a major strike?”

“I do, but in what form and where I cannot guess at. We will draw them out and crush them, no matter what the losses. The V’kit’no’sat cannot stand with this poison inside us. It must be purged. Only then can we rebuild on a solid foundation. But if we cannot decisively succeed here it will encourage dissent and perhaps further betrayal. We must reestablish our dominance, and for that I will need you and every other high level Zen’zat in the fleet to take the defense station. The rest of us are too large to move through their city, and the Ari’tat are too pathetic. We must rely on the Zen’zat for this, and I have little doubt that their Rio will respond to the incursion. You have another chance to fight him, but this time do so with support. V’kit’no’sat are not individuals, we are a united whole. Fight as such, and do not allow ego or your opponents to goad you into doing otherwise.”

Kaalo clapped his fist against his chest hard, having come here disillusioned seeking answers, but now his purpose and path forward were clear.

“It will be done.”

Duel of the Fates

Halo clip

www.aerkijyr.com

1

June 11, 3602

Solar System

Earth

Barbriea Nooner set up the harvesting equipment over pod #1934 in the Antarctic bioharvest facility where she worked with a few button presses. Then after visually confirming with a glance that the apple trees were ready to be plucked again, she opened the top hatch on the acre-wide pod from her position outside the clear glass walls via a control gauntlet that the Star Force tech wore on her left arm.

The collector assembly lowered through the containment shield beneath, entering the thicker atmosphere inside that was mostly CO2 and would suffocate her or anyone else that went inside, but the trees absolutely loved it and the machines designed to harvest crops didn’t need to breathe. The platform that lowered into a gap between the trees stayed on the roof of the pod and extended a number of arms and tubes down as if it were a mechanical mirror image of those growing below, but it did nothing else as it waited for Barbriea to get to work.

Standing outside the pod on the narrow walkway that separated it from the one directly behind her, the tech hit a button on her gauntlet that caused it to create a holographic control board that didn’t move with her arm. It floated independently in front of her and allowed the tech to press the tactile floating buttons in conjunction with the mental control patch attached to her forehead.

One of the buttons brought her into a virtual view inside the pod that overlaid with her actual senses, making her both in the walkway and between the trees at the same time. When Barbriea had first been taught to use this equipment that duality had caused her a lot of trouble, but after 67 years working bioharvest facilities it had become second nature now and she linked with the collector arms as easily as if they were her own.

Using the sensors on the mechanical platform she was able to see the various apples, both those exposed and hidden beneath leaves. At a glance she could measure their width and ripeness, knowing which ones to pick and which ones to leave for more development. Those that were ready she locked as targets mentally, then pressed buttons for each that the collector automatically maneuvered an arm to, located the stem, and cut it when a collection basket was placed underneath.

Those baskets weren’t physical, but rather made of shields that caught the 10-15 pound apples softly as they fell, then maneuvered them low to the ground near the tree trunks and back towards the small center gap below the collector. There they were pulled into a physical terminal that shunted them up a tube that had an atmospheric shield of its own. Each of the huge apples passed through it into normal atmosphere as they were carried along via the lifting shields inside the tube that would take them to a prep area to either be cut up and processed or stored whole for later usage…but that was beyond Barbriea’s task, for she was assigned to only collect and spent four hours each day moving from pod to pod harvesting crops, whether they be apples, corn, potatoes, toretia, narcal, kepper, or the thousands of other varieties that Star Force grew that ended up becoming food cubes, noodles, or the Archon favorite donuts.

It was a repetitive job, but then again most tech assignments were unless you were in maintenance, construction, or research. She didn’t mind the solitude that the position brought, meandering about the huge indoor fields of crops and crossing paths occasionally with other bioharvest techs. This was an essential part of logistics within the empire, for without food it could not exist. So while it was quiet, repetitive work it was important and Barbriea was both pleased and honored to have the assignment.

In the past she’d been paid credits for similar jobs, but she’d risen to a tier 6 rank now and they were the first level that received no pay, nor did those above them. That meant she was full Star Force and didn’t have any civilian interests…such as starting her own business or indulging in credit purchases of luxuries. Tier 5 and below were paid, with tier 5 being paid fairly well. The transition between the two meant that those who agreed to level up to 6 were interested in doing the work for work’s sake rather than it being a means to gain credits.

Barbriea got everything she needed for free now, without limits, but that didn’t include the public markets. Everything that Star Force produced she could get, but privately made products required credits. She still got a small stipend from previous work completed, but there was no pay for days worked going forward. She wasn’t going to be buying any private spacecraft or building her own station in Earth orbit. After all, why would she want to when Star Force built far better ones and she could move about them freely?

It was true she didn’t own any of it, but tier 6s and above considered each other to be family, and now that she was an ‘insider’ there was no desire to try and build something of her own when the entire empire now belonged to her in part.

Other people couldn’t understand that and would never work unless compensated with credits…and that’s why those people would never rise far within the Star Force ranks. Greed was easy to weed out, and Star Force certainly wasn’t hurting for workers. It had taken Barbriea a long time to get this far by developing her skills, for her harvest rate had increased greatly since she’d begun, and in the bioharvest industry time was also a commodity.

Some had argued for using fully automated harvesting equipment, but doing so in some experimental pods had resulted in greater inefficiency. A machine could only do what it was programmed to, and deciding which apples to take and how to take them was more of an art than science. She didn’t want to break branches in the process, and since trees didn’t grow along predictable paths a machine didn’t always know how to move around them to get at the apples.

It was a minor thing, but Star Force liked to get the absolute most out of each pod and that required a mind guiding the collecting arms and choosing when to take an apple or when to let it continue to grow. This pod and the others that Barbriea worked were hers and hers alone, and the mild competition to see who could produce the most over the course of time was an added motivation to attend to detail each and every day.

When her four hour shift was over she’d rejoin the civilian population in the nearby cities, take care of her training, then have free time to deal with however she wished. Some people worked doubled or even triple shifts to acquire more credits, but Star Force discouraged such things and outright prevented it at her tier. Unless there was a shortage, they weren’t going to encourage people to skip workouts or sleep, with the four hour shift being about average throughout the various divisions within the empire.

But every moment of that four hours Barbriea was in motion, moving from one pod to another and harvesting crops or adjusting nutrient and atmospheric levels. It was quiet work, but mildly intense as neither she nor the other bioharvest techs wanted to waste time. Their job was too important, for it was them that fed Earth, and those of their tier and above were here because they wanted to be, so they took their job very seriously.

The quietness was also soothing, which Barbriea appreciated, so when an alarm sounded throughout the facility it spooked her so hard that her mental connection to the collector arms inside the pod caused several to jerk wildly, snapping branches and causing a few apples to come crashing down to the ground far below, with some breaking apart on impact.

Barbriea disconnected from the equipment, shutting down her control gauntlet and following the new holograms popping up in the walkways. The one to her left was specifically for her, and as she began running towards it the little dashed line in the air disappeared. She followed the evacuation path quickly, not knowing what was happening but the presence of an alien fleet in the system wasn’t a secret. She and just about everyone else had been following the news feeds intently, but when she’d come to work the professional in her and the others meant they didn’t sneak looks, rather being patient enough to wait until their shifts were over before catching up on the battles occurring on their doorstep.

But if there was an evacuation order for this bioharvest facility that either meant there was a major malfunction or, more than likely, the invaders were headed here…and that thought made her run through the various walkways as fast as prudence would allow, for the turns were very sharp and if she went any faster she’d start bouncing off the clear pod walls.

With her eating up her evacuation route line like old school Pacman she eventually merged with another line, seeing out of the corner of her eye at the turn another tech racing towards her 50 meters back. Barbriea didn’t wait for him, knowing to clear out as quickly as possible. If there was going to be fighting occurring here then they needed to clear the area so the military wouldn’t be hampered by them…and if the facility was going to get blown up there was no point in waiting around even a second longer than necessary.

She knew the planet had huge shields covering every square meter of it that these V’kit’no’sat would have to break through, so why they were being evacuated now she didn’t know. Barbriea trusted her fellow Star Forcers enough to just go with the evacuation route and worry about figuring things out later, so when she got to the end of the holographic line and joined the crowd of others briefly waiting to get onboard subsurface cars at a transit hub there was no talking or hysterics. No pushing or shoving. When a new car became available they crammed as many people into it then the few security force officers present sent it off and began loading the next one.

Barbriea waited her turn then got pancaked inside one a couple minutes later, standing shoulder to shoulder with the other bioharvest techs as the tube visible outside the car started flashing by as they traveled through the undercity and hopefully away from whatever the danger was.

“Does anyone know what’s going on?” a guy somewhere behind her asked.

“No,” she said after a moment of awkward silence. “I just got the evac warning and ran.”

“They have to be attacking Earth. Attacking here,” someone else suggested.

“Why here?” the man next to her asked.

No one had an answer for that, and without any knowledge to share between them there wasn’t much point in talking. By the time they reached the end of their transit they were several hundreds of miles away, having been taken north across Antarctica and deposited in a random city there…but when they got out of the car they didn’t see or hear any alarms. Everyone in the giant plaza they eventually came out into were behaving normally aside from seeing the curious number of Star Force techs suddenly pouring out of the transit system.

Barbriea meandered out with the others, having received no further instructions and not being sure what she should do with herself, but eventually she and a lot of the techs were drawn to a live news feed that was being put up on the main holo in the next promenade outside the plaza. When she got there she saw images of the enemy fleet orbiting Earth. Their ships were so huge it was crazy, and they were all clustered together in a group while the much more numerous Star Force fleet was nearby but not yet fighting.

Then she saw the zoomed images of a giant orange beam traveling all the way from the high up enemy fleet hitting the planetary shield over top of them…which had to be why they’d been evacuated. If it managed to punch through and hit the bioharvest facility they’d all be vaporized.

But as she continued to look and listen to the commentary being provided it didn’t make sense. There was only one enemy ship attacking, and doing so from a range outside the planetary defenses…meaning Earth couldn’t shoot back. But if only one ship was attacking…

Then the enemy suddenly started to move with the whole mass of ships heading in closer to the planet and Barbriea’s hand involuntarily came up and covered her mouth as her jaw dropped.

They were coming here. And they were going to attack Earth with every ship they had.

She saw the Star Force fleets react instantly, accelerating to intercept them and her not knowing if they’d get here in time or even how long it would take them to pound through the planetary shields. She’d been told the defenses were stupidly strong, but against that many huge ships who knew…

But then she noticed something odd, for the point on the shields where the orange beam had been hitting was marked on the map…yet it wasn’t located over the facility where she worked. Not even close. The beam was coming down on the very edge of the continent and her evacuation route had actually brought her a bit closer to it.

“What the fuck?” she whispered, trusting Star Force but not having any why they’d been evacuated from that bioharvest facility.

Mak’to’ran watched the readouts from the command deck on his Kafcha as the J’gar fired its Tar’vem’jic into the planetary shields. It did not penetrate on first hit, and as subsequent impacts were registered and data analysis was conducted he began to grow very displeased. As powerful as the Mach’nel was, it couldn’t easily get through the shields protecting the planet…which were multi-layered and modulating. Even when it did puncture the top layer several minutes in, the lower layers prevented it from hitting the shield generators beneath. Doing the math he could see that it would take days to break through at the minimum, then when his analysts got him their determination of the effectiveness of the attack it was clear that the Mach’nel’s Tar’vem’jic wasn’t powerful enough on its own to get through to the surface.

He was going to have to bring other weaponry into range in order to breach their planetary shields…and that meant exposing his fleet to their orbital defense guns.

The Era’tran knew that would result in the loss of many more ships, for there was no way the Star Force fleet was just going to sit by and watch while they broke through and took out ground based defenses. They were probably sitting by now and waiting because they knew the Tar’vem’jic wouldn’t be enough on its own to get through, but as soon as he sent ships down to cover and assist the Mach’nel as it brought its full arsenal to bear against the shield they’d swoop in and engage in the most defensible position they had within the system.

Mak’to’ran had already plucked the nearby Sentinels from orbit, so at least they wouldn’t be able to add defensive firepower, but this was going to be a bloody fight to punch through the shields and land his Zen’zat assault team…with the fleet commander knowing that the way to limit his losses was by making this as quick as possible. That meant taking the entire fleet in, assaulting the shields and creating a breach point in the minimum amount of time, and distracting the planetary defenses long enough to get a single ship to the surface.

He’d wanted to pluck those planetary defenses prior to that, but now there wasn’t going to be time. He’d label them as primary targets, but this slugging match had to be as short and to the point. If the Zen’zat could be delivered safely he was confident they would accomplish their mission and give the J’gar a remote link to the planetary defense stations systems, allowing them to bypass the locks and give the Zen’zat full control of the defenses…which they could then use to hold that position indefinitely so long as they won the battle inside.

To make sure they did he’d already assembled all the top Zen’zat in the fleet onto one Voro’nam Domjo that would hide behind the protection of other vessels as they escorted it down through the kill zone he was about to thrust the V’kit’no’sat fleet into…but there was no other way to do this. Send less vessels and he’d lose more. The safest means to take the planetary defense station was to hit the planet with everything they had and let their mass strength be their shield.

The weak link was that single Domjo. He had to make sure it wasn’t hit and got to the surface before their enemy could react to the light invasion. The lockout the J’gar had implemented on the now hidden planetary defense station did not include the defense shields, so if Star Force had managed to repair the damage the Rit’ko’sor had done to it they could throw up that additional shield and block the Domjo from landing…which was why they’d be going down outside the maximum perimeter of the shield and landing the Zen’zat in gunships that would travel underneath its altitude as far as they could get before being forced down.

Mak’to’ran thought there was a chance they could make it all the way to the defense station’s location before Star Force could throw up sufficient aerial interference, and if they wanted to send some of their tiny starships down to strike them they’d have to lower the shields to do so. If they did Mak’to’ran was going to send his own ships down and fight it out long enough to block the attempted maneuver, even if it meant losing every one of them to create the distraction.

If he succeeded there then the only hindrance to the Zen’zat would be anti-air surface defenses and their aerial division. The Zen’zat knew to head to ground rather than fight it out if they couldn’t progress as far as needed, taking to the Star Force cities and their numerous underground structures that the V’kit’no’sat had not been able to enter on their ‘Ribbon.’ Only Zen’zat had been small enough to fight there, and likewise only they would be small enough to fight on the planet below. Their battlesuits and aerial craft could not fit, and Mak’to’ran was confident that his elite Zen’zat could handle any number of infantry thrown at them.

They’d make it to the defense station sooner or later, meaning the difficult task lay in getting them safely to the surface. If they could do that then he could have the fleet withdrawal to a safe distance and wait for the defense station to come back online…but if Star Force was able to accidentally down that Domjo before it delivered the Zen’zat, this attack would be an utter failure.

The Era’tran huffed his approval. He was a fleet commander for a reason, and if he couldn’t protect a single ship with the thousands of others he still had, then they didn’t deserve to win this fight.

With a thought through his mental interface he gave the attack order and the entire V’kit’no’sat fleet moved as one down into low orbit over Terrax and began exchanging fire with the Star Force planetary defenses.

2

Kaalo waited inside the Voro’nam hangar bay in one of several Brat’mar gunships that contained their most elite Zen’zat, of which he was the strongest, but there were several Zen’zat from the other factions that were stronger than him and all of them were assembled here for the insertion to the planet below. The plan was for the Domjo to get them down to the surface below the majority of the anti-air defenses then release all the gunships from the hangar at minimum altitude…after which they would be on their own as the ship returned to orbit, assuming it made it that far. There was a good chance that it would be destroyed prior to that along with many more ships securing their entry.

This mission relied entirely on the Zen’zat after the insertion and Kaalo knew that if they could get down inside the Human cities and travel through rather than over them, then there would be nothing that could stop them short of orbital bombardment. The fleet was going to make sure that didn’t happen for as long as they could, but they couldn’t hold position forever under the assault they were going to have to endure. The Humans had a great deal of planetary defenses in addition to their assembled fleet that continued to get larger with every passing day.

He and the other Zen’zat had to get in and secure the planetary defense station, and in order to do that some of the weaker Zen’zat accompanying them were carrying breaching gear to override the locks on the various entrances. Finding one was going to be difficult if the entire structure was built over, but even if they had to blast their way to the exterior of the station they would and they’d brought sufficient munitions for that if needed, though nothing was going to cut into the thick Yeg’gor armor with the haste they required.

That meant they had to hack their way in, and fortunately they had the two primary races in the V’kit’no’sat with them to supply the necessary codes to override whatever Star Force was using. Kaalo and the others would get inside even if only a few Zen’zat made it that far, and he knew that if either he or one of those stronger made it, they’d be enough to kill every Archon inside assuming Rio and the other elites hadn’t predicted this attack. If they were waiting in ambush it would take Kaalo plus support, but the other Brat’mar Zen’zat standing beside him and in the other waiting gunships would be enough…though he didn’t expect all of them to make it to ground.

Whether he died in the short gunship flight or survived to make it inside the defense station it did not matter. Star Force wouldn’t stop all the Zen’zat, and those that did make it would take control of the battle station and use its weaponry to blast enough of the city overtop of them away to allow additional ships to land while securing the orbital tracks above them. If they could do that there was nothing Star Force could throw at them to dislodge their foothold…and then they could begin eating away at the vermin on this planet one city at a time as more reinforcements were summoned.

It all depended on the fleet getting them to the surface and then the Zen’zat taking the defense station, but for now he and the other Zen’zat waited in silence inside the gunships, not knowing what was occurring until they got the order to depart. Until then they loyally and patiently sat on the benches shoulder to shoulder and still as statues.

“There they go,” Roger said through his computerized mind meld with Sara, Ethan, and Rio. He’d been wondering how long it would take them to figure out that their shields weren’t going to fall to just the Mach’nel’s Tar’vem’jic. Powerful as it was, the recharge rate of the planetary generators were greater and the multi-layered shielding prevented spot punctures thanks to the scattering effect of the second layer.

“Ignore the Mach’nel?” Sara asked, seeing the tactical situation along with the others, though their holograms were but bobble-head sized on the periphery of her command nexus.

“Yes,” Roger said while sending out orders to the planetary gunners as well as his part of the combined fleet in orbit, though each chunk wasn’t in exactly the same location. “We have to destroy weapons, not ships, and we won’t get to them until the shields go down so ignore it completely. Make the rest of the battle look convincing but keep the Ultimas intact.”

“Copy that,” Ethan agreed as the V’kit’no’sat ships raced down towards Antarctica and the trailblazers knew they were going to arrive first, but the bulk of the Sol defense fleet was now in Earth orbit and would be there shortly…and if the Viks were busy shooting the planetary shield then they wouldn’t have weaponsfire to counter the incoming ships. If they shot the ships then the planetary shields would hold up longer. It was a paradox that the enemy had to deal with by hitting as fast and hard as possible, meaning this was going to escalate quickly.

“Rio, backdoor.”

“The surface isn’t evacuated yet.”

“I know,” Roger said as his command ship accelerated and the view of Earth began to increase in size as they approached. “We don’t have a choice. Slug it out until then, but don’t lose your Ultimas.”

“If we don’t use them, will they suspect a trap?”

“They’re not trying to run this time, so don’t even bother pinning their ships in place. Just use them for fire support, but make sure they’re close enough to the Mach’nel to grab it when needed.”

“I doubt they’ll make it that easy,” Sara complained as her icon on the battlemap began to get closer and closer to the other trailblazers’ and the single dot that was the full V’kit’no’sat fleet.

“They need the Mach’nel’s other weapons, so they won’t pull it out. Grab a few ships so they can’t retreat to recharge shields if they try, but I think most are going to hold their ground and pound the planetary shields until they’re through.”

“I agree,” Ethan added, pulling up a quick Mass Effect clip from the ship’s database of all things cool.

“Our influence stopped the Rachni, but before that we held the line. Our influence stopped the Krogan, but before that we held the line. Our influence will stop Saren. In the battle today, we will hold the line!”

“Yeah, I think that pretty much fits,” Sara echoed. “They ain’t moving for nothing.”

“Make sure they don’t and we can win this,” Roger insisted as the first weaponsfire started to register on the planetary shield in addition to the Tar’vem’jic that continued to fire on approach. Simultaneously hundreds of Ardent began streaking up from points around Antarctica as the V’kit’no’sat fleet slowed and maneuvered around into a line of attacking ships…primarily the larger ones with the Mach’nel at the center…and a line of defenders above them in a flattened half sphere to protect against the incoming Star Force ships.

Roger saw several metallic rail gun slugs popping up from the surface through brief gaps in the shield that went streaking into the assaulting fleet, some of which were targeted and deflected prior to impact, but those that hit put huge dents in the shield energy of the targets, including one Na’shor that had already been weakened by concentrated Ardent beams. It punched straight through the remaining shields and planted a huge crater in the hull, though the 26 mile long battleship hardly felt the impact as its weaponry continued to pour down into the atmosphere, setting it aglow even before hitting the first of the shield layers with a combination of beams and orbs, though none of the ships were getting close enough to engage their short ranged weapons, which would have meant they had to get inside the atmosphere where their maneuvering options would be significantly limited.

Suddenly the fleet disposition changed and some of the frontline ships started throwing up dampening shields that stopped the incoming rail gun slugs cold, but that meant power had to be diverted away from the regular shields, weakening their recharge rate and making the Ardent strikes even more effective as multiple breach points started to occur in the first planetary shield, allowing the Tar’vem’jic clear shots at the second layer…which broke on the first hit, though it scattered the beam so much it became a cone as it traveled down to the third.

The hammering continued both ways as the Star Force fleet decelerated hard and got itself into a bit of alignment before engaging. Going in recklessly was to the V’kit’no’sat’s advantage, so the four trailblazers forced themselves to be patient a bit longer and got their drones into their favorite engagement formations before taking it to the defensive sphere over top the bombarding ships. Rio took the high road avoiding the first conflicts, cutting off their exiting jumpline and making the highest V’kit’no’sat ships turn around to attack them…all the while coordinating with ground-based weaponry so they didn’t get involved in friendly fire when an Ardent or railgun slug missed, or hit and passed through an enemy ship.

Numerous Bra’hems also opened fire, having been the primary defense weapons for many decades and now taking a secondary role, but still effective in adding so much firepower to select V’kit’no’sat ships that they were destroyed within a minute of initial contact. They never wavered though, holding position and firing constantly up until their destruction as layer after layer of planetary shields were being stripped away until the first Tar’vem’jic blast shot through a gap in all of them and hit the shield generator beneath on the surface.

The auxiliary shield covering the structure itself couldn’t stand up to that amount of raw energy, with the orange beam penetrating it on contact and vaporizing the huge tower along the internal spine, blowing out the rest of it in a donut of shrapnel that hit and destroying surrounding buildings…not to mention the damage done to the undercity as the beam penetrated even further. Fortunately the shield generator was the same one the Tar’vem’jic had been firing upon from higher up in orbit and the people in the area of assault had been evacuated, but that didn’t hold true for the weapons batteries and additional shield generators ringing it that were subsequently targeted.

The planetary shields tried to regenerate, but their ability to do so was weakened with the loss of that single generator and the bombardment hadn’t diminished with the destruction of the first V’kit’no’sat ships, for whenever one was destroyed another from higher up would drop down and assume its position, giving them a nearly constant assault that was continuing to push through and keep the shield from regenerating what had been lost while other ships were targeting through the gaps and taking out key structures in a wave of destruction that began to snowball…with the coverage of the planetary shield pulling back as a result.

Kaalo got word the same as all the other Zen’zat inside that their Domjo was deploying, but none of them moved. There was no point in doing so until they were on the ground, so all of them continued to sit and wait but the pilots shunted tactical data to them so they could start familiarizing themselves with the battle conditions on the surface that they were about to fly through.

Kaalo was pleased to see so many defensive weapons being blasted into oblivion, but the exchange of fire between the fleet, the surface, and the defending fleet was far greater than he had anticipated. The V’kit’no’sat ships engaging in the bombardment were getting torn apart, but they had succeeded in punching a short-lived hole in the shields that they were holding open with additional bombardment while softening the approach area for the Zen’zat.

It was costly, but as expected they were getting the job done as the Domjo moved out of its parking orbit between the two layers of ships and headed down towards the planet at the back of a formation of some 83 vessels that drew immediate fire from the planetary defenses. Kaalo saw a Lir’nen Na’shor get obliterated within half a minute as they came into the atmosphere and had to slow down, with so many surface batteries still remaining that its bulk was torn apart with alarming speed. The burning chunks from it floated up, relatively speaking, through the descending fleet as the drag tore at them as the rest of the ships powered down through the atmosphere as fast as possible…but the debris would rain down on either the planetary shield or through the gap and hit the surface soon enough.

Even as they descended, the blocking ships targeted and took out many of the exposed defensive batteries, but there were so many adjacent to them and still protected underneath the planetary shields that the descent to the planet was a gauntlet that had to be endured rather than defeated, and as another Na’shor broke up ahead of them and the other ships had to fly evasively around its debris, Kaalo could sense the moment of their inevitable victory coming, for soon they’d be below the firing arcs of most of the planetary defense guns and they’d…

“Time?” Jasmine-1188 asked, her voice calm but strained as she stood within the V’kit’no’sat pyramid at one of their Zen’zat control stations atop the Oso’lon platform on the command deck while another Archon was manning a Star Force add-on a few feet away. The pyramid systems and the Star Force battlemap had never been integrated into one another for security reasons, so Jasmine wasn’t able to monitor the progress of the evacuation of the bioharvest factory above them, but she could see the carnage occurring in orbit further to the west over the edge of Antarctica as the V’kit’no’sat began to punch through the planetary shield and hit a surface generator with the Mach’nel’s primary weapon, taking it down in a single shot and making the eventual fall of the rest of the shield layers covering the continent just a matter of time.

The pyramid’s own shields couldn’t extend that far out, which was probably why the V’kit’no’sat were attacking that far away, but she couldn’t understand why they were being so stupid. Yes, Star Force had to evacuate the people above them first, but what made the V’kit’no’sat think they wouldn’t come under attack by its weaponry? It made no sense. They obviously knew it was still here, otherwise there would be no reason to invade Antarctica when they didn’t have enough ships and troops to take the planet. They had to be trying to retake the pyramid by landing ground troops outside the shield perimeter, but as soon as the evacuation was complete they were going to get hammered.

“40 seconds,” the nearby Archon confirmed, watching the tracks of the people moving out through the adjacent cityscape. They had a minimum calculated range to get clear from, otherwise Jasmine would not fire. Dying in battle was one thing, but Star Force wasn’t going to kill its own people no matter what the situation was and damn anyone who argued otherwise.

“Good,” she said, seeing a column of V’kit’no’sat ships heading to ground already. Gritting her teeth, she realized that they might make it before she could get the first shot off, but there was no way in hell they were going to park there and just unload with impunity. Maybe the V’kit’no’sat were willing to accept egregious losses to get some troops on the planet, but at this point she didn’t care. They’d just made a very bad mistake and she was going to make them pay for it.

With a thought she shunted power to all the weapon systems in the pyramid, taking them through a quick pre-cycle as the power core buried deep in the planet beneath the pyramid amped up its production by the tens, then hundreds, then thousands of times. What Star Force had originally misinterpreted as the extend of the pyramid was really just the cap on the massive defense station, for below the living levels was over 35 miles of automated structure that sunk down to touch the magma layer beneath, sucking some additional energy from it but primarily using the rock of the planet as additional, lateral armor while the thick Yeg’gor atop protected against the most direct and obvious attacks.

The structure beneath that cap stretched down like a spike into the planet, and within it was the massive power cores in addition to the bulk of the Tar’vem’jic, whose firing aperture was located atop the pyramid. The destructive energy would be gathered below and channeled up to it when needed, meaning that even if the armored cap was destroyed the bulk of the weapon would still lie intact deep inside the planetary crust along with most of the major systems, insuring that they would outlast the inhabitants.

Jasmine started sending pyramid data to the Star Force battlemap over comms so the planetary shields could coordinate their rapid and precise lowerings around the firing lines of the weapons she was about to bring online and had not been test fired in over 100,000 years…but neither she nor anyone else in the pyramid had any doubts as to whether they would work. As malevolent as they were, the V’kit’no’sat knew how to build proper equipment that time could barely scratch at.

Jasmine let her mind become absorbed in the V’kit’no’sat firing program, into which she incorporated other ‘Zen’zat’ stationed on different pedestals around the command deck. They took control of the other myriad weapons the pyramid had while she retained command of the big gun herself, sending the first energy transfer up to the peak and pooling it there in its final form as the last few seconds ticked off.

“Confirmed,” the Archon nearby said. “Evacuation zone is now clear.”

“Firing,” Jasmine said, rousing the large Tar’vem’jic beam cannon from its slumber and taking aim at the Mach’nel in orbit.

3

Ethan stood in the nexus onboard a command ship that was situated well away from the combat, as were the other manned vessels that could be taken out in a single shot from the Mach’nel, but his mind was right in the thick of the battle along with the other trailblazers as their drone fleets hammered the V’kit’no’sat in a weapons exchange that eclipsed everything to date in Star Force history.

The size of the enemy ships was so problematic that Ethan literally had to throw away drones in order to do damage, and even the Shivas and Ultimas weren’t making a huge dent. Had they brought in other summons that would have changed, but they didn’t have time now and they also didn’t want to let the V’kit’no’sat know they existed, leaving him with a superior ship count to fight with, but he was losing them at a rate that was galling.

The V’kit’no’sat were winning too, and not just in their assault on the shields. If this battle was allowed to continue as it was going the Mach’nel would remain standing after the other ships basically annihilated each other. Ethan knew it wasn’t going to come to that, for the planetary shields were going to fall first, but so long as Star Force didn’t get baited into attacking the Mach’nel they were going to destroy all the other V’kit’no’sat ships with the help of the planetary defense guns. That would be a win despite the losses, but the Mach’nel could then sit over its hole in the shields and systematically destroy every bit of infrastructure on Earth’s surface with impunity.

Using the summons against it was suicide, for the bigger ships were easier to destroy. Ethan knew they needed thousands of little stings that were hard to target to get through that armor and the V’kit’no’sat knew it as well, meaning that no matter how this battle ended the V’kit’no’sat were going to end up last man standing.

Except that they had made one critical mistake, and as the countdown in Ethan’s mind began to approach zero he and the other trailblazers started moving the Ultimas in closer to the Mach’nel subtly, keeping them behind a lot of other drones and their IDFs silent for the most part, but getting within range to completely blanket the huge ship. If even a single one of its multiple gravity drives could pull on the star or push off the planet then it could escape, meaning that full immersion was required with enough backups that when the V’kit’no’sat realized their mistake and turned their full attack on the Ultimas the overlapping field wouldn’t fall instantly.

How long it would stay up was the question mark here, and when the countdown reached 7 seconds all four trailblazers lit up the Ultimas and caught hundreds of V’kit’no’sat ships and thousands of their own drones inside the engine-crippling fields along with the Mach’nel.

“Time for the boomstick,” Ethan whispered as the countdown reached zero.

Mak’to’ran was onboard his Kafcha in the outer defense sphere with his Era’tran engaging in battle but also keeping his ship out of the worst of it as he watched the column of ships descending through the hole in the planetary shields. The leading vessels were taking a beating, but he could see that the Domjo with the Zen’zat onboard would easily make it to ground to release them. Whether or not it made it back up to orbit wasn’t certain but they were going to accomplish their mission one way or another, after which the fleet would withdraw and the assault would be solely in the Zen’zat’s hands.

Suddenly his displays lit up with the presence of interdiction fields. None were crossing his ship, but a huge chunk of both fleets were now without engine power, including the Mach’nel. He expected some type of counterattack to come, but the warning alarm indicating a tiny amount of power buildup at the assumed location of the planetary defense station nearly escaped his attention. Just as he was trying to determine the source of both issues the energy surge spiked as a massive detonation occurred in the cityscape on the heels of a brilliant orange beam that shot at an angle into the sky and tracked through the battling fleets and directly into the Mach’nel.

The horror of that single attack and all it implied chilled him to the bone. The planetary defense station was operational. The J’gar and Oso’lon had assured him that was impossible, for only they had the necessary codes to unlock the weaponry. This should not have been happening, but Mak’to’ran knew he didn’t have time to think about it. He had his fleet to save…or as much of it as he could.

“Target their interdictors exclusively!” he roared while also sending out mental commands to his Era’tran and the overall fleet. “We must free the Mach’nel!”

“Yeah baby!” Sara yelled while still micromanaging her portion of the fleet and making sure all of their own ships stayed out of the firing line they’d cleverly disguised, for only a handful of seconds after the first Tar’vem’jic beam hit the Mach’nel’s shields and took a chunk out of their power a second shot was fired, then quickly a third.

Meanwhile there was a huge debris cloud expanding out around where the pyramid was, but it wasn’t diminishing. Within the next 20 seconds more chunks of debris were began being blown off, soon followed by a scattering of additional weaponsfire, for while far smaller in magnitude, the pyramid did have more than one battery that could reach orbit. And as more holes were punched in the surrounding cityscape and firing lines were opened up, that weaponry, in both beam and orb form, began flying up to hit the lowest ships in the V’kit’no’sat lines that were no longer assaulting the planet, but were turning around and charging towards the Ultimas.

But the Ultimas weren’t the only interdiction-capable drones in the fleet, and the much smaller support ships were actively snagging single vessels and delaying their attacks on the larger platforms as the Mach’nel used its own Tar’vem’jic to shoot through multiple drones simultaneously to get at the Ultimas. It didn’t even bother trying to shoot back at the pyramid, who now had its own shield generator active beneath the planetary layers, making it clear that nothing was going to get down to it.

That meant it was a race to do damage to the Mach’nel before it could escape, and Sara literally jumped for joy a few inches into the air when subsequent hits from that big, beautiful gun finally punched through the Mach’nel’s shields and hit the Yeg’gor armor beneath. It had already been damaged from its run-in with the star, but it greedily began soaking up as much energy as it could and diminishing the destructive effect…but there was no way to absorb that much energy, and bits and pieces of glowing armor debris began blasting off like fireworks with each additional hit.

Over and over the pyramid fired, with its secondary weaponry getting more and more intense as it ripped apart the cityscape around it. Those Dair’me and Sat’chi may have been older models, with the former now replaced by the upgrades made to the Var’ko that most V’kit’no’sat ships carried, but the sheer size of the Dair’me saw pure green beams of transit energy hit enemy shields and scatter across their surface like lightning, draining so much energy that it almost like cheating.

The shield draining weapon did damage to the hull where it hit, but considerably less. The armor on the V’kit’no’sat Kafcha especially could almost shrug it off, but the gunners in the pyramid wisely didn’t continue with the attack, switching to other ship targets that were going for the closest Ultimas and stripping their shields away as well, allowing the drones to do more damage on their own but also setting up shots for the Sat’chi orbs.

They were the slowest firing weapon the pyramid had that could reach orbit, though their tightly packed energy matrix continually expanded as it traveled, making it an extended ‘medium’ ranged weapon, but the V’kit’no’sat fleet was close enough and their ships large enough to catch virtually all of the sparkling teal orbs that were the big brother to the basic Dre’mo’don that was the foundation for V’kit’no’sat weaponry.

When one of the Sat’chi hit the unshielded hull of a V’kit’no’sat Domjo it nearly snapped the entire ship in half, melting in through the armor and detonating inside. It blew out through so many areas that the ship was immediately out of the fight, though the larger vessels with thicker armor didn’t succumb so fast, but there were six different Sat’chi cannons in the pyramid and soon all of them had broken free of the cityscape and were following up on the Dair’me, knocking out ships so fast that many Ultimas survived longer than they should have on the lower edge of the battle.

All the while the Tar’vem’jic continued to hammer the Mach’nel, pounding the same spot in the armor until it finally broke through. When it did the interior decks vaporized…both the water, the J’gar, and the weaker internal structures. The ship was so huge everything didn’t die at once, but with a couple shots put into that hole the Tar’vem’jic readjusted its aim and started boring another one some 60 miles away on the hull all the while the Mach’nel sat helpless as it fought the surrounding fleet trying to free itself from the interdiction effect.

Kaalo saw the cityscape over the planetary defense station explode, with his eyes noticing the orange beam leaping up into space even before the destruction registered. It was so powerful it just melted through all the unarmored structures above, then the surrounding destruction ensued as horror gripped him and every other Zen’zat. Their mission had gone from one of leisurely time to a desperate assault. He knew they had to get to the planetary defense station and disable it from the inside while the fleet retreated, but…

Then those hopes were crushed as he started to see the cityscape surrounding the defense station explode where the Tar’vem’jic wasn’t, and even as their column of warships were rushing their way down to the surface and almost ready to release the gunships he knew their mission was a failure…for the secondary weaponry in the defense station was blowing apart the cityscape covering it, and if that continued there would be no way for the Zen’zat to approach the structure without getting immediately shot. The disadvantage Star Force had created by building a city overtop the defense station was literally being peeled away, meaning he and the other Zen’zat had no chance of success.

He had four seconds to dwell on that before a green beam leapt up through the distant debris clouds and hit the Domjo he was in. The Dair’me tore through the shields in one shot, with the excess energy eating into the hull armor but not penetrating it…then a second shot hit and Kaalo could hear the destruction outside the gunship.

When the third hit it was only a graze, for they had dropped too low for the weaponry to target them around the curve of the planet, but it wasn’t a Dair’me. It was a Sat’chi orb whose graze was enough to tear off a section of the Domjo, destroying enough gravity drives that the ship fell out of alignment with the others and almost rammed a Dak’bri covering it from behind. A collision was averted, but when the Domjo slid out of the protective arrowhead blocking that was dying for it, a pair of Ardents from the surface hit the ship and reduced it to a giant falling ball of metal with the Zen’zat stuck inside.

Kaalo’s gunship immediately lifted off, with the pilots not waiting any longer. They overrode the hangar bay doors and opened them just in time for about two thirds of the gunships to escape before the Domjo rammed the planet’s surface fast enough to imbed the entire ship in the cityscape. Kaalo saw it from a much too close rear view as the weight of the ship crushed the towers beneath then punched into the undercity and down into the bedrock below…with him knowing that the Zen’zat still trapped in the hangar were either dead or pinned inside.

A few gunships nearby his got hit with anti-air fire and exploded on contact, for whatever was shooting them was not small weaponry, but the pilots already had the flock of Zen’zat craft heading for the surface and soon the survivors got down below building height and out of most of the anti-air, though Kaalo’s own ship took several smaller hits as they angled into surface-hugging flight as the pilots evaded whatever they could without orders to follow.

Still receiving telemetry from the orbiting fleet, Kaalo could see the destruction around the defense station continue with debris flying up for miles around the orange beam leaping into the sky…and during the brief pauses in firing he could see the green/black Yeg’gor armored plates that were the peak of the defense station reasserting themselves over the landscape as if the city above had been little more than worthless camouflage.

Someone had screwed up massively, but Kaalo didn’t expect he’d survive long enough to find out what had happened. The more he watched the destruction around the defense station the more he knew they could never achieve their objective…which left the question of what could they destroy elsewhere in preparation for the inevitable assault to follow, for no matter what happened to the fleet in orbit, the V’kit’no’sat would not permit these abominations to exist and they’d return in far greater numbers…whatever was necessary…to purge this planet and all others that they had defiled.

And whatever the Zen’zat now beneath the planetary shield could destroy would keep other V’kit’no’sat ships alive later when it happened…meaning they needed to take out anti-orbital guns, shield generators, and power cores.

“Kaalo,” he heard another Zen’zat’s voice say over the comm, “we need to combine our forces to have the most effect. Proceed to the new landing zone with as many gunships as you can get through.”

Kaalo saw the now distant landing zone pop up, several hundred miles away but not near the defense station. Traveling that far by air was risky, but it was Neatras giving him the order and the older Era’tran Zen’zat was one that he was not going to argue with.

“Confirmed,” was all he said, then he shunted the coordinates to the pilots of all the Brat’mar gunships and got them headed towards the edge of the defense station’s own flat shield that was covering the landscape, but not so low that they couldn’t fly under it.

“Zen’zat, hear me,” he said through the comm to all the Brat’mar gunships remaining. “Our mission has failed before it began. The defense station is operational and the Star Force structures we were to approach through are being destroyed. We cannot get close to it now without dying needlessly, so we are proceeding to secondary targets. We will die on this planet shortly, but the more damage we can do now will assist the planetary assault that is assured to come later. This treachery will not be ignored and you can be confident that this world will fall. How many V’kit’no’sat die taking it is the question. If we can destroy a single shield generator we will reduce that number, so as we travel across this vermin-infested world and we are killed one by one, know that we are fighting to save the V’kit’no’sat coming here in the near future. Hold nothing back, but focus on worthwhile targets.”

“We understand,” another Zen’zat said, with telepathic pulses from the others indicating their agreement and Kaalo knowing he needn’t say anymore. All Zen’zat were fiercely loyal to the V’kit’no’sat, and as had been determined previously, this Star Force was not rogue Zen’zat. They were something else, a type of abomination that Kaalo would not survive long enough to figure out, but the Zen’zat here were loyal beyond question and they would do their duty to the end.

But if they could get to ground near their target and disappear into the undercity, they were going to be very hard to dislodge. He had no doubt there would be plenty of Archons to kill along the way, but their primary objective was the planetary defenses…though he wouldn’t mind if a particular Archon showed up and gave him a third try to destroy him.

And with his fellow Zen’zat alongside, Kaalo had no doubts as to the outcome if such an encounter was to occur again.

4

When Roger saw the first Tar’vem’jic blast penetrate the Mach’nel’s hull, 28 weapons ports went offline with it. While in the overall carnage of the battle that wasn’t much, it did slow the destruction rate of the drones a bit and the trailblazer now had a dead zone to maneuver in. It wasn’t safe from fire, for there were many other weapons on the Mach’nel that could still cover the area around the breach, but it was less dangerous than before and he needed to take every advantage possible keep the Ultimas in position for the maximum number of seconds.

Right now they were getting hammered, with Roger and the others pulling so many drones in front of them to block that the region around each of them looked like a confetti field. Even so, many of the Ultimas were being destroyed and he had to keep moving those still functional around and adjusting the size of their interdiction cones to insure enough overlap that the destruction of one wouldn’t open up a gravity drive that could then drag the enemy ship out of the others.

The more chess pieces Roger lost the harder that was, but every shot they could get in with the pyramid defenses was worth it, not only against the Mach’nel but the rest of the V’kit’no’sat fleet that had to stay here to defend it. They were losing many ships to the other pyramid defenses, but the drones were inflicting the most damage…though their number was decreasing rapidly.

But the trailblazers were playing a losing game and soon Roger saw a hole open up in the IDF coverage. Rio adjusted quickly, bringing around another Ultima and repositioning its field, but oddly the Mach’nel didn’t move during those 6 seconds of opportunity. The Tar’vem’jic from the pyramid kept hammering it while the Mach’nel’s smaller version continued poaching Ultimas up until another hole in the field resulted that the trailblazers could not cover. Only a piece of the Mach’nel was now free to touch gravity, but again the massive ship didn’t move for a good 20 seconds…then it began a slow drift away from the battlefield, too slow for the pyramid’s big gun to miss as it continued to pound additional holes in the armor and gut the interior.

The movement caught the Ultimas out of position and while Roger tried to move his to follow, the rest of the V’kit’no’sat fleet was in the way and he couldn’t get his Ultimas through quickly enough. Adjusting cone size bought them another half minute, but eventually the Mach’nel pulled out entirely and made a slow microjump up to a higher orbit.

“Stay,” Roger said to the other trailblazers as he saw several ships from their groups begin to break off and pursue as he organized what remained of the Ultimas and began pinning as many V’kit’no’sat ships in place as they could. Many began to flee in the wake of the Mach’nel, but the more they could hold here the better. Roger knew they needed to chase the big ship, but if them delaying a half hour saved another hundred drones then it would be worth it…though he too wanted to kill the thing once and for all.

Fortunately the other three trailblazers trusted him and began reforming their fleets into containment bottles, using both the IDFs and their dampener shields to block exiting jumplines as the pyramid continued firing into the fleet…and with the Mach’nel no longer around to shoot at, it’s big gun was now targeting the ‘smaller’ V’kit’no’sat ships.

Mak’to’ran’s Kafcha was one that was caught in the shadow of a Star Force interdictor, unable to move along with several other vessels as they urgently tried to destroy everything between them and the vessel pinning them in place. He’d already ordered a chunk of the free vessels to leave, knowing that if they were to stick around and fight they’d die against the planetary defense weaponry, so right now those further into the naval brawl were having to fight their way out…but his ship was one of many that couldn’t.

The Era’tran could also see that the Star Force vessels were making holes in their formation to allow the Tar’vem’jic through, letting him know where it was going to fire next. Wisely, it was now targeting the largest vessels and eliminating them with a handful of shots each. When the Kafcha pinned next to him took a hit to its weakened shields they fell completely, then the second shot punched into the hull armor so hard it burnt through with the single hit…then the third landing in the same place ate through the interior and punched a dome out the far side from the internal explosions, cracking the armor there for a few seconds before the next shot cut through the ship entirely, with the remaining beam continuing on out into space.

With the Star Force vessels realigning to clear a shot to his Kafcha, Mak’to’ran was given a slight reprieve as the Tar’vem’jic put more shots in to the massive vessel beside him, for even with the critical amount of damage it had sustained in one area it was still fighting out of others. The next four shots hit on the underside of the right prong and all but severed it from the ship as the interdictor holding them in place was finally disabled.

Engine power returned to a number of ships and Mak’to’ran ordered an immediate retreat, wanting to stay and help others escape that were still pinned, but at this point the battle was snowballing in the enemy’s favor and most ships that stayed around were going to be destroyed. Had the defense station not been in play that would have been a different story, but it was killing their largest vessels with ease.

There were hundreds still trapped without engine power and more fighting their way to get free of the Star Force vessel swarms. Knowing he had to act now, he set a course to take him and those ships around him out through those swarms with his Kafcha physically ramming several to make way. He managed to link up with another group of 7 with a small redirect, but he couldn’t risk delaying more than that. As soon as he dragged those ships into the clear while keeping the bulk of the Star Force fleet and even his own dying ships between him and the defense station to block incoming Tar’vem’jic shots, the Era’tran commander and his surviving fleet group made emergency jumps out beyond the range of the massive weapon, then moved to regroup with the badly damaged Mach’nel that was limping its way into a high planetary orbit…though moving through the cluttered ring of Star Force orbital stations around the planet and blasting apart a lot of them on the way out.

Mak’to’ran could understand their frustration, but this was no time for vengeance. That would come later and, damaged or not, he needed the Mach’nel back at the center of what was left of his fleet. He gave the order for a rendezvous and the limping ship finally broke off its strafing attack as it redirected up from that circular plain and towards the jumpline for the star where Mak’to’ran and every other surviving ship was congregating…though he quickly had to amend that and took his and another Kafcha back towards the planet when several heavily damaged ships had successfully fled the range of the planetary defense station, but were being hounded by the tiny ship swarms and picked apart.

Mak’to’ran thought he could pull a few vessels out of that mess before they were destroyed, but he knew he wasn’t going to be able to save them all.

“Roger, can you and Ethan tidy up here?” Rio asked in a mildly ecstatic voice as he was seeing reports from the surface that several crashed ships were spilling out V’kit’no’sat into the Antarctic cities.

“Go,” Roger said. “And take Ethan too. I’ve got this.”

“You sure?” Ethan asked.

“Unfortunately we don’t have that many ships remaining. I can handle them all. Get to ground and link up in a triple battlemeld. You’ll need it for the big ones.”

“They’re not what I’m worried about,” Rio said ominously, knowing that the larger V’kit’no’sat races climbing out of the ship debris could be taken down by mechs and aerial craft. It was those small enough to disappear into the cityscape that were going to be a problem, for a lot of the crash areas were still populated...and in addition to the deaths resulting from the enemy ships crushing them, he was already starting to get reports of the V’kit’no’sat going on a killing spree and taking out as many civilians as they could find.

“Go,” Roger insisted even as he was assuming operational command over what was left of the other three fleets and sending them on pursuit courses for the disabled and pinned V’kit’no’sat ships in orbit, along with those limping away on one or two gravity drives at most.

Rio, Sara, and Ethan all disconnected from the battlemeld at the same time and within minutes Roger saw dropships emerging from their respective command ships that took them down to the surface. Out of prudence he sent a few smaller drones ahead of them to help pluck any remaining weaponry off the crashed V’kit’no’sat ships. Losing one of his peers to a single working battery at this point was something he wasn’t going to risk…plus it was a lot easier to kill V’kit’no’sat with close-in naval guns than with mechs.

Roger assigned that submission to another Archon and let her handle it while he sent two more of his most trusted naval comrades off to chase the slowly fleeing ships while he stayed put and handled those that couldn’t run and were slugging it out for all they were worth with the drone fleet that had now fully surrounded them save for firing lines being opened up for the pyramid weaponry. Right now it was doing more damage than his entire fleet combined, and the remaining V’kit’no’sat ships weren’t going to last more than a few minutes at best, so the trailblazer opened a comm to them.

“You are beaten,” he said in V’kit’no’sat. “Signal your surrender now and I will let you live. Fail to do so and you won’t have time to regret your decision. Cease fire and signal your compliance by individual ship. If not, would you mind telling me why you were stupid enough to enter firing range of the planetary defense station? Or did you think it wasn’t still here? I was pretty sure we didn’t hide it all that well.”

While no surrender came in, his goading did prompt a response from a Brat’mar vessel that was still half intact.

“Who unlocked the weaponry for you traitors? Tell us so we can kill them before we come back for you.”

Roger raised an eyebrow. “Unlocked? What made you think it was locked in the first place?”

“Only the Oso’lon and J’gar had those codes. Which is it?”

Roger smiled widely, connecting the dots and realizing that the pyramid weaponry must have been under some kind of lockdown prior to the Zak’de’ron visit. When the dragon unlocked the restricted files he must also have unlocked everything else…and if there had been a block on the weaponry above and beyond what was restricted to Zen’zat, that explained why they thought they could assault Antarctica and not come under fire. In fact, that ground assault run was probably to deliver ground troops with the intention of retaking the pyramid…and then unlock it for themselves.

That was a sweet bit of strategy, which made their karma-induced failure all the more gratifying. They’d all but wiped out the Zak’de’ron, and yet with a simple code they’d managed to vicariously get their first dose of revenge…though he wasn’t going to tell the V’kit’no’sat that.

“Why don’t you wipe both out just to make sure?” Roger suggested, but no reply was forthcoming as battle damage cut the transmission. He kept a keen eye on each of the V’kit’no’sat ships under heavy assault, but none of them transmitted a surrender or deactivated their weapons. They stubbornly fought to the death, but Roger had the pyramid cease fire while there were still a few damaged ships remaining. The drones finished them off, but left several mostly intact hulks stripped of weapons and power intentionally…and by design they were mostly the smaller V’kit’no’sat races.

Roger left a scattering of drones behind and ordered in one of the command ships and multiple jumpships to that location, using their weaponry to maintain possession of the remnants of that destroyed V’kit’no’sat fleet and to beginning scanning for survivors to be captured later, but for right now they were simply going to be contained while Roger’s command ship and the rest of the controlling vessels that had been waiting safely out of firing range followed the drone swarm as the trailblazer took it out past the limping V’kit’no’sat ships that were already being taken down.

Roger left a few jumpships behind there with orders to offer a surrender, but he didn’t stick around to find out how that went down. He bypassed them entirely with the bulk of his swarm and headed straight to the stellar jumppoint, racing the Mach’nel that clearly had most of its propulsion disabled. There was no way it was going to leave this system, but so long as that primary weapon was still online it was going to be a problem. Before it could regenerate its shields they needed to take it out, though the secondary shield generators covering the aperture of both it and the other weapon systems were very hard to destroy…both because of their small surface area and because they had to be designed so robustly to match up with the Yeg’gor armor, otherwise you could just shoot out all the weapons and leave the floating fortress impotent.

The pyramid was too far away to pinpoint target its twin weapon system and the drones had been ordered not to shoot the Mach’nel, focusing on the other vessels in order to protect the Ultimas, but now that that wasn’t the case Roger was going to hit that weapon directly. If the ship tried to run he knew he had the engine power to overtake them unless they were playing more wounded than they actually were.

If they delayed, then the few summons he had enroute would catch up and they could hammer them further, but Roger knew that he couldn’t give the Mach’nel time to make repairs, no matter how much of its interior had been gutted. As powerful as the pyramid weaponry was the sheer size of that ship was too much to destroy quickly…but the holes were big enough that he could slide his smallest drones inside them, and once he did that they could methodically gut the entire ship and the V’kit’no’sat would have no defense against it.

So Roger had two primary objectives as his swarm approached the stellar jumppoint. Kill the Tar’vem’jic before it ate away another significant portion of his drones and get some of his cutters and corvettes inside so they could either force a surrender or take out the occupants…though blasting through hundreds of miles of interior decks would take forever with only a few holes punched through the armor. Roger could have his fleet chip away at it and wear it down from the outside, but with over a thousand V’kit’no’sat vessels remaining to escort it, damaged as they were, he knew he wasn’t going to have that option.

But then suddenly those ships that were closing on the Mach’nel to protect it from his fleet reversed course, heading instead back to the jumppoint where they coalesced, waiting for other damaged ones to catch up as an incoming transmission from one of the Era’tran Kafcha popped up. Roger accepted it and was suddenly looking at the hologram of an unarmored T-Rex. He’d seen visual records of them before, but this was the first live one he had ever encountered, despite the fact it was just a hologram. That said, he could feel a chill as the big head swung slightly to orient on his image and its teeth became partly visible as its lips rippled in some type of gesture he wasn’t familiar with.

“The victory is yours, Star Force,” he all but spat with contempt, “but we leave with the knowledge of your sponsors. Either the Oso’lon or the J’gar are responsible for this, and once we determine which we will get the answers from them as to what they’ve created in you. Your secrets will be exposed and your weaknesses determined, then we will return and destroy you all. You have my promise on that.”

“So…I guess you’re not going to surrender if I offer it then?” Roger responded with a touch of lag in the transmission.

“There is no surrender. You are an abomination that cannot be allowed to exist. We are your death.”

“Still. I offered your other ships a chance to live and I’ll offer your remaining fleet the same.”

“Chase us if you wish, but you will not catch us. Nor will I wait for more of your reinforcements to arrive, but from one warrior to another, you have done well this day. You could not have done so without such treason, but you had an opportunity and you seized it. Do not expect another one.”

“Are you leaving your Mach’nel behind as a victory gift?”

“They don’t have the engine power to flee, but they can destroy many more of your ships before they succumb. You may regard it as such if you like, but they will not surrender.”

“Abandon half of your ships and I will let you recover their crews and those onboard the Mach’nel before you leave.”

The Era’tran twitched its head violently.

“There will be no deals made between us. You are our enemy. We will not be lulled into thinking otherwise and provide you with another opportunity for treachery.”

“Hey, you’re the ones that came here to kill us. We didn’t go knocking on your door.”

“No, you did not. We’ve discovered you prior to your preparations being complete…and we will not allow them to come to pass. We know of your Hadarak. Grow as many more as you are able, but it will not be enough. We will return shortly, and when we do we will annihilate you and all of your abominations. You have fought well here, and it is a pity that your sponsor has brought this upon you, for you would have made respectable Zen’zat, but there can be no consolidation between us. In addition to what you are, your victory here has sealed your fate. Should we meet again, all I can offer you is a swift death.”

“You’ll have to earn it.”

“We will.”

With that the Era’tran’s comm cut out and the surviving V’kit’no’sat fleet began making microjumps towards the star, though some ships had to combine into linked pairs and be towed out. That appeared to leave Roger with only the Mach’nel to deal with, but he knew better than to take the V’kit’no’sat at their word. He sent a chunk of his ships after them, not to engage but to shadow them closely enough that they couldn’t attack another world or facility with impunity. If they tried his ships would engage and delay them until the main group could catch up, but that wasn’t to happen.

The V’kit’no’sat headed directly for the star then to a shorter jumpline than the one they’d come in on, probably choosing it due to the reduced engine power many of their ships were forced to deal with. When they jumped out Roger sent a warning to every system along their expected path, but he didn’t chase after them. He recalled the pursuit fleet back to his main group, for they still had the sitting Mach’nel to deal with and it had already drifted back towards the ring of orbital stations and was blasting into them as one last gesture of defiance.

It had to be destroyed, but Roger was going to need everything he had available to reduce the losses he was going to take…and there was no time to call in additional summons. Of the few enroute only another Ultima and two Shivas had arrived. The others he had summoned were still creeping in from their deep space holding stations and he couldn’t wait for them. He needed to take the Mach’nel out now and get after the limping V’kit’no’sat fleet before it left their territory.

5

“Let’s go, let’s go!” Trevor yelled to the pilots in the lounge as he ran in. “Troops on the ground!”

Irene Darrington jumped up off the couch where she was glued to the holographic battlemap next to several hundred other pilots watching the battles over their heads take place. All of them moved instantly, not fully understanding what they were needed for but ready to get into the fight rather than waiting to get shot from orbit when the shields over them eventually went down. Fortunately their base in Antarctica wasn’t in the attack corridor, but they weren’t more than 70 miles away from the edge of the breached shield.

Irene ran with the others to the hangar, already fully dressed for combat given the situation save for her torso armor. That was waiting for her next to her gunship on a nearby table, which she grabbed and slapped on her chest as he headed for the ladder to the cockpit.

The armor formed around her, connecting to what she already wore around her waist and extending up into a helmet that she immediately took back down, with the material forming a bulge behind her neck and leaving her face exposed to the air as she climbed up the catwalk-like stairs and dove into the wide cockpit of the gunship while the other pilots jumped into mostly skeets and an assortment of other craft.

Irene slid into the seat, which was a full model as opposed to the pommel that the skeets carried. She could even have fit two more people in the cock pit with her if needed, but Irene was a veteran pilot that had learned long ago to master the insane firepower that this ship carried. It wasn’t the most agile craft and required escorts against enemy fighters, but give it a target to annihilate and it could lay down more damage than a full squadron of skeets.

The ship was five times bigger and essentially a thick frisbee with boxy edges, originating from a design that had been modified many times over the years as opposed to the skeets which had remained basically the same, but inside the ship the holographic displays were identical. The cockpit disappeared and Irene’s eyes were seeing the hangar and outline of the gunship as she connected to the mental interface. When that happened the very efficient holographic displays were overridden and her mind linked directly to the gunship, with its sensors becoming her senses and her being able to see everything around it in all directions simultaneously…which at this moment showed skeets and other gunships around her lifting off the deck and drifting towards the distant hangar doors.

Irene followed them out in the flow, then popped into the air above the Antarctic cityscape as the fighters accelerated up to altitude and formed up by squadrons. Hers was comprised of two gunships and 8 escorting skeets, but the others were a mix of craft that got even more mashed up as they were joined by more aerial fighters coming up from other bases spread across Antarctica.

“Listen up,” their Archon commander said over the comm to all of the fighters coming out Irene’s base. “Enemy ground troop deployment is scattered and originating from the crashed ships. Nothing got down intact that we could see, but we’ve got survivors in the area to evacuate and enemy troops roaming around trying to kill everything they can while more are crawling out of their wrecked ships. Proceed on course and prepare to attack surface targets on the crashed ships. If they have any anti-air batteries operational we have to take them out first, then we can start pounding the Viks.”

Irene blew out a slow breath, not liking the idea of going up against naval-caliber guns, but they had no choice. The enemy warships were huge and now cratering the cityscape to the southeast with the smoke plumes even now visible on the horizon. As they gradually got closer she was able to see what looked like mountains sticking up out of the landscape in various places, but they weren’t natural topography. They were the parts of the gigantic V’kit’no’sat ships that had fallen to ground into what had unfortunately been a populated area.

“All those people underneath,” she said on her squadron comm.

“Yeah,” Makkron agreed. “Never had a chance.”

“Battlemap says those things aren’t completely dead, but I’m seeing no shields,” Heather added. “And look at those…”

Irene heard her cut off the instant they all received organizational orders. Much like the naval warships in the fleet, the fighters were also capable of being directed from afar and the identifier of the one giving them orders was a ViLord that was not part of the aerial core. She was still in orbit, but everyone immediately readjusted onto the various headings she supplied, splitting up the mass of fighters and sending Irene’s squadron along with two others down towards the ground where they began flying at dizzying speed between the tallest of the city spires towards the rising V’kit’no’sat ship debris.

When they got within 12 miles, targeting data popped up along with orders to slow their speed by half. The rest of the fighters in the overall group pushed on ahead, then Irene’s squadron was released to pursue their target…which was the troops spilling out of the largest ship/mountain on the horizon.

She watched the others as they engaged weapons batteries on the hulks, seeing immediate casualties as several fighters were batted out of the sky as they swarmed individual weapons, taking them out on a single pass. Irene hoped those pilots’ armored cocoons had held up, but even as she watched in mind’s eye a pair of skeets fell out of the sky and impacted the angled side of the V’kit’no’sat hull, careening down it into the city debris. Then she noted several beams firing on weapons batteries that she backtracked to mech units already in the area.

That was good, because aerial cover wasn’t going to do enough against ground troops if they could get out into the cityscape and use the buildings for cover…though for her target that wasn’t going to be an issue.

“Damn he’s big,” Heather said as their primary target shifted from a group of smaller bipeds to a single huge brontosaurus pushing out of a wall segment in the crashed ship and walking into the Star Force city.

“They are dinosaurs,” Irene said in amazement as the miles clicked off fast and they were nearly in visual range, using the battlemap data to ‘see’ their target before they came up on it. Orders from the controlling Archon determined their approach path along with a timer and Irene adjusted accordingly as the other two squadrons broke off and moved to their own attack runs.

“At least they’re not wearing arm…” Jarren said, almost getting the last word out before thin lines running across the long-necked dinosaur suddenly exploded out and covered the huge body from head to tail in brilliant green battle plates. “Son of a bitch.”

A moment later two points on the thing’s body started shooting into nearby buildings…then the first attack came in the form of a squadron strafing it from the northeast just as Irene’s squadron turned into view. They lit it up with a cascade of weaponsfire as they flew past, but what the targeting computer identified as an ‘Oso’lon’ had energy shields protecting it and they didn’t go down.

Irene got a proximity warning as a perimeter radius was set up around their target as a no-fly zone. For some reason she wasn’t to get her gunship within 600 meters of it, and even beyond that, high speed approaches were being called for as she noticed a star of mechs racing their way through the city about 3 minutes out as a scattering of people could be seen running away from the crash zones on the streets.

When Irene came around on their attack run she kept her speed up while gaining some altitude…at which point return fire from the Oso’lon hit the skeet beside her. It didn’t go down, but lost most of its shields and had to peel up to avoid getting shot again. Irene unloaded all four of her maulers and a string of missiles into the target then pulled up before the 600 meter line, flying hard to stick to the track the Archon had given her, but she didn’t make it.

For some reason there was a tug on her ship and Irene couldn’t hold the turn, smacking into a nearby building and bouncing off it, fortunately, but blowing out her shields and crunching the entire right side of the gunship. One of her maulers was knocked offline in addition to a Keema beam, and half the missile launchers were now jammed.

Irene recovered before she hit another building then fought to get back with her squadron as they circled around for another long pass.

“What the hell was that?” she demanded, seeing the next squadron coming through also having navigational trouble.

“Some type of grapple weapon,” her squadron leader advised. “It’s why we have the ‘no fly’ zone. Get too close and they’ll pull you to ground.”

“How?”

“No clue. Can you still fly that thing?”

“Yeah. Just lost some firepower.”

“Saw that. We’ll come in a little higher this time…” he said as they suddenly saw another Oso’lon crawling out of the debris.

“Wonderful. Now there’s two of them,” Heather pointed out as the second one deployed its armor to cover a huge gash in its dark green skin that was leaking enormous amounts of what looked like purple blood.

“One’s injured,” Jarren pointed out.

“Let’s add to it,” Irene said, miffed about already taking damage as they approached, but then noticed one of the crushed buildings nearby as the two Oso’lon start to move…with pieces of it taking to the air and flying towards them the size of boulders.

She took immediate evasive action, but her and four others had to abort their attack run entirely, though the others got through. Whatever damage they did was soaked up by the V’kit’no’sat’s shields, making Irene wonder what the hell was going on. How tough were these things, and since when they could go Jedi and force throw rocks?”

“Seriously, what the fuck is going on?”

“Don’t know, just stick to the plan and trust the Archons,” Heather suggested as they turned around to come back at them from a different direction but still down in the buildings enough to give them some cover, for the two Oso’lon were throwing up a lot of anti-air fire above the buildings as Irene got a sudden redirect. She hit the brakes and coasted to a stop as the other fighters mostly continued on, though two slowed nearby her but went different ways as new surface contacts were being highlighted.

Irene took her gunship down almost onto a street and followed the tracking prompt until she could see a Zen’zat running amongst a group of Humans and shooting them up every chance he got. Gritting her teeth and making sure her aim was good, Irene put a few Keema shots into the pavement near him, causing the enemy infantry to juke to the side and not shoot the two people directly ahead. After that he was too close to others for her to fire, so she pushed ahead and got right up on top of him…but it was still no good, there were too many civilians fleeing for their lives and getting caught out.

This guy was so fast he could bounce from one group to another in the blink of an eye, but Irene risked a shot in between two and clipped him in the leg with the anti-infantry weapon, but he didn’t go down. He barely stumbled at all as he continued to run forward and punched a woman so hard in the back his hand came out her chest, then he tossed the body aside and darted inside a building where Irene couldn’t shoot him.

“Mother fucker,” she swore, swinging around so she could aim at the building entrance. If he came back out she was going to nail him, and if not she could at least buy those people closest to her a bit of a head start…then she got another redirect and flew around a few blocks to find another Zen’zat out in the open.

This one she nailed with a mauler shot. He went down on impact, but started to get back up as he limped to the side heading for a doorway.

“No you don’t,” she said, peppering two Keema lances across his path…with the Zen’zat’s body doing a nice Darth Maul impression and severing at the waist with his torso and legs rolling off in different directions.

“One down,” she noted to herself as the Archon kept her gunship moving through the streets killing/chasing various Zen’zat until a much larger contact came into place overtop the downed V’kit’no’sat ship. The Corvette-class drone took out a few operational weapons batteries on top, then eased over to where the two Oso’lon were stubbornly refusing to go down.

Irene watched with keen interest as the naval weapons rained down on their shields…which held up for far too long, during which they fired back in what seemed to be a fair contest for a few moments, then the Oso’lon took off running at surprising speed. The first one head butted a Shadow Cat-class mech out of its way and got around to the far side of a building that blocked the corvette’s fire from above.

The second headed a different direction, and it was towards it that Irene was sent on an individual strafing run. When she got within range the corvette was back to firing a few shots at it, but not many of the weapons batteries had good lines of sight on the giant dinosaur that still refused to go down even as its shields failed in a few places.

Irene hoped she’d hit one of those spots as she received an order to unload all of her remaining missiles on it…which weren’t that many given the damage she’d taken earlier. When the pilot did so she added the three maulers when power allowed and hit the Oso’lon from the left flank as it ran across a street opening, essentially ambushing it from close range while staying outside the ‘no fly’ zone.

But that’s when things began to go wrong, for her ship was tugged again…towards the intersection as the Oso’lon stopped, turned, and began running towards her.

Irene applied as much power as she could, shooting her ship up between the buildings and reaching for clean air, but the big thing was too fast and the closer it got the firmer the hold on her ship became. Soon she couldn’t gain any altitude and actually was pulled back down in front of it, gently crashing into the road all the while her engines were on full to try and get her airborne again.

Multiple weapon shots nailed her ship, breaking through its robust shields and then quickly blasting apart her hull. Irene lost all weapons and flying capability, becoming the pilot of a paperweight with a few sensors still working along with her battlemap connection so she could see the Oso’lon run up to and step on her gunship…crushing it even flatter than it had been with multiple steps as it walked over top and ran onward, leaving Irene safe in the protective cocoon and feeling like an idiot for getting caught despite the fact that she’d respected the ‘no fly’ zone.

6

Roger brought the fleet into range of the Mach’nel, accelerating hard to diminish the time spent with it outranging them, then slamming on the brakes to bring the drones in close as the controlling ships stayed far out of the fray. He saw that limited shields had been reestablished over parts of the Mach’nel, but some areas were still unprotected and those were centered around the area where the hull had holes in it.

He knew he had to target those areas and the Mach’nel knew it had to defend them…with the massive ship moving in close to an evacuated Star Force station and pressing its weak side up against it to block incoming fire.

“Nice move,” he said as he ordered his ships to focus fire on a few weapons batteries that were exposed. Each one was redundantly shielded, but if he could start picking away the Mach’nel’s weaponry it would diminish the number of ships he’d lose…plus the Mach’nel had just given his ships something to hide behind as well, with him sending out orders to cycle lightly damaged ships behind the station when able, though those being pulverized by the Tar’vem’jic didn’t qualify.

Roger kept the Ultimas back near his command ship but had the Shivas in the fight to help soak up damage from the secondary weapons. They did nothing but provide big targets to the Tar’vem’jic, but he needed them in there to extend the longevity of the smaller ships, for the V’kit’no’sat gunners seemed to prefer shooting the biggest threat they could find.

Roger saw one Var’ko battery go out after an insane amount of pounding through its tiny, redundant shields. Each time it fired it had to lower them briefly, exposing only a few meter gap in the coverage to get the energy weapon released, but hit them with enough firepower and on occasion something would get back through the opposite way. Roger didn’t think that had happened here, but the coordinated firepower was enough to rip those dedicated shields away and melt the edges of the Yeg’gor armor crater in which the weapon had sat.

One less threat to his ships, but there were thousands of weapons spread over the Mach’nel and hammering through the armor to get at the interior and rip away their power sources was not a good option. As it was, Roger wasn’t even going to hammer away on their intact shields, instead focusing firepower and plucking the few weapons exposed by previous damage…then he ordered his fleet to open fire on the abandoned station.

The unshielded construct held up well to the firepower, for it was armored too, but nothing compared to the protection the Mach’nel had. Roger cut through several sections deliberately while having his ships shoot others for distraction purposes only. Debris was flying everywhere as the Mach’nel kept close and used the delay to continue picking off drones left and right, but what they didn’t see were the channels being cut through the station that several of Roger’s smallest drones, Cutter-class, were sneaking their way through.

Then before they realized what was happening the ‘safe’ side of the station exploded in a few key points, keeping most of it intact but opening up those conduits to allow the cutters to pass through the narrow gap between station and Mach’nel…and into the craters in its hull.

Each of the football field-sized ships disappeared inside the breaches in the armor and traveled inside through the gutted areas of the ship, blasting away at blocking debris and pushing their way through what was the equivalent of an 8 foot high snow wall. It was slow going, but it was just a matter of eating away at the internal structure of the ship until they got to key systems…though there was hundreds of miles of ship to push through.

But Roger had them and he knew it. He ran as many cutters up and into the ship as he could, then he set one at each entry point to act as a relay to get signals through the dense Yeg’gor armor while he withdrew the drone fleet. Several ships were lost on the pullout, but without the engine power to pursue the Mach’nel was now helpless to shoot anything other than the nearby evacuated stations as the tiny technological termites inside it continued chewing out tunnels through deck after deck heading for key systems that Star Force knew the location of thanks to the pyramid database, so the cutters wouldn’t be wasting any time aimlessly roaming about.

Roger opened a comm to the Mach’nel as he watched it disconnect from the wrecked station and finish blasting it into pieces before beginning to shoot others as it drifted helpless against the internal naval attack…which was one disadvantage of building a ship that damn big.

“Your fleet has abandoned you to die here, but I am offering you a chance to surrender with whatever crew you have left. If you do not my ships will continue to destroy yours from the inside out, but unlike you we are not committed to wiping out every last one of you…and just so you know, those stations you’re blowing up have already been evacuated.”

It didn’t take long for a holographic image of a J’gar to appear before Roger, with the long-necked behemoth visible from below water with its two large sea wing fins splayed out to the side and its four tentacle-like legs drifting below, all of which had weaponized tips similar to the Hjar’at’s Saroto’kanse’vam, those these soft versions were loosely referred to as Ulu’dart, and the J’gar had three different kinds on its body, making it extremely lethal within the water.

“Why would we surrender?”

“So you don’t die,” Roger said pithily.

“Better a combat death than what you would have in store for us. We will not submit nor surrender this vessel to you, but before you claim it through other means let us know the truth about our betrayers. Wait until the others are gone and you have destroyed our long range communications, but at least give us the knowledge of who has beaten us.”

“We did,” Roger said plainly. “And it’s your arrogance that is keeping you from seeing that.”

“We locked out the planetary defense station’s weapons. Only we or the Oso’lon could unlock them. Which of us was it?” the J’gar asked, curiously not excusing his own race from possible guilt.

“You came here to kill us all, correct?”

“We did.”

“Then why should I care what you want?”

“Why do you offer surrender?”

“Because we’re not the ones in the wrong and I don’t like killing those who are helpless.”

The purple bioluminescent patches along the J’gar’s spine flared at the word ‘helpless.’

“You should not even exist.”

“But we do, and not because of a sponsor. But because the V’kit’no’sat left our ancestors behind on this planet to die. Why, I do not know. There are no records of what transpired. We are here, and out of the chaos that this world was we have rebuilt it with the knowledge you unwittingly left behind. This is our world now, and this empire is our territory. You relinquished claim to it when you left. Go back to your empire and leave us to ours.”

“If you believe that you can defy us, it is you who are arrogant. Tell me, where did you acquire these altered Hadarak?”

“Public records say all I’m going to say, but I can assure you they predate the V’kit’no’sat.”

“And how many do you think you will require to defeat us?”

“We didn’t acquire them to launch an invasion. We acquired them to free them from their imprisonment…and to stop one from a rampage,” Roger added, “but bottom line is we don’t use people. We unite people. And now those Uriti are our friends. I don’t suggest you go and introduce yourself anytime soon.”

“The knowledge to alter Hadarak is beyond the V’kit’no’sat. Where did you get it?”

“We haven’t altered any.”

“Do not think you can mislead me. Your path is obvious now. You will need an armada of them to topple us, thus you must produce more even if you have not yet. If we are to die, tell us so we can know who to curse with our last breath.”

“It doesn’t have to be your last breath. I’m giving you the chance to live.”

“And what would that life look like?”

“I told your buddies they could take you with them in exchange for abandoning half their ships. Apparently they value them more than you.”

“And what deal would you offer us alone?”

Roger rubbed his chin. “That’s a good question. I could tell you that the Oso’lon are behind this and let you go back and cause all hell…but it just isn’t true, so I won’t. We built all this, regardless of whether you can admit it or not.”

“I could if it weren’t for certain aspects that are beyond the records left here. You have gotten outside help from someone.”

“Look, we can continue this conversation forever if you like, but you don’t have an unlimited amount of time here. I know you’re fishing for information but I’m not going to tell you anything you could transmit to the departing fleet.”

“Then you admit to holding something back.”

“Yeah, I do. Good luck guessing it.”

“The traitors will be routed out, one way or another.”

“And what if they’re your superiors?”

“Is that why you are offering us surrender? If so, speak it plainly now.”

“We haven’t had any dealings with the V’kit’no’sat. I’m offering you a chance to live, warrior to warrior…even if you are a giant fish…thing.”

“Come onboard yourself and we will see who is the superior warrior, Zen’zat.”

“Archon,” Roger corrected, “but if your Zen’zat onboard want to surrender, we’ll take them.”

“We will not give you prisoners so easily.”

“So why are we talking then?”

“I had hoped you would be naïve enough to give us more time, but no matter. Your ships cannot destroy the Mach’nel in time,” the J’gar said as the ship began to move slightly faster than Roger assumed it could in towards the planet. “If we are to die, then we die in the water.”

The comm cut off and Roger got a very bad feeling in his gut as he saw their line of movement. Their weapons were still shooting the surrounding stations, including the Tar’vem’jic, but they were on a direct route to the Pacific Ocean.

“Like hell you are,” Roger said, calling his fleet into action and blocking formations for the Ultimas that went racing out to catch up to them. He checked the internal progress of the aptly named cutters inside the Mach’nel, but they weren’t close enough to the remaining gravity drives. He was going to have to move the ship from the outside and there wasn’t much time to make an intercept before it hit the planetary shields and either crumpled on them or…

Just then he saw the Tar’vem’jic switch targets from the orbital stations to the planet, firing on the shielding over the Pacific Ocean and beginning to weaken a section of it prior to the Mach’nel ramming it…but not at kamikaze speed. That much mass was going to be hard to stop, but even if half of it crunched on impact the other half would survive as it crashed down into the ocean. It was too big to become submerged, but it would crush the cities on the sea floor and create such a huge tidal wave that it would have repercussions far from the impact site.

As bad as that was, he knew that if they could get to the ocean the J’gar were going to wreak havoc down there. As large as the Star Force aquatics fleet was, they didn’t have anything to match a J’gar…which made the Elarioni look like bugs in comparison. They were going to go down fighting, and if they could get to the water they would have a significant advantage. Not enough to survive, but enough to kill a lot of people and wreck a lot of equipment before they were eventually taken down.

Roger watched in mind’s eye as the big dot that was the Mach’nel got closer and closer to the planet, accelerating as it went and not bothering to slow down. He calculated that it wouldn’t until it was only a few hundred miles away, then it’d bleed off just enough energy to keep it from destroying itself but retaining enough to punch through the planetary shields. That impact would slow it considerably, but if enough momentum was held coming through…

The trailblazer stopped thinking through the ramifications, for there was no way to know for sure what would happen and it was all moot anyway. He had to stop that ship before it hit the shield and he was thankful he still had some Ultimas nearby to pull on.

When they got into range they targeted only the gravity drives still functional, cutting out their power but leaving so much inertial momentum remaining that they weren’t going to stop it from impact…then in a desperate maneuver Roger lightly rammed half his fleet into the port side of the egg-shaped monster and began pushing with all of their gravity drives in a delicately balanced effort that took his Sav-enhanced mind’s full attention with him having to readjust constantly to keep the ships from crushing themselves and to start to redirect the Mach’nel into a decaying orbit.

At first there wasn’t much movement, but Roger quickly got the stresses under control and upped the gravity drives to the drone hulls’ breaking points as the rest of his ships covered for the Ultimas and blasted away at another section of the Mach’nel’s shields. When that thin barrier finally dropped he sent more drones to make contact with the hull there and add to his maneuvering options…all the while the Mach’nel’s weapons were shooting at whatever drones they could and the Tar’vem’jic was hammering away at the Ultimas.

Roger was going to deal with it shortly, but first he had to get the enemy ship off its collision course with the planet. The numbers were on his side now, but he couldn’t keep losing Ultimas. If the Mach’nel got even one gravity drive back he’d lose this tug of war.

As they angled away from a direct line to the planet they passed within range of several Sentinels that Roger ordered to strike at the Tar’vem’jic. It was still protected by a shield and the long range shots weren’t pinpoint accurate, but eventually they got past the primary shields and were making a few hits against the weapon’s last defense as Roger finally got the damn ship turned enough, missing the atmosphere by a mere 80 miles as the lateral movement kept increasing and the momentarily contained Mach’nel began inching up in altitude while racing through the sky appearing bigger than the moon to those below on the surface looking up.

With the Ultimas holding the Mach’nel in a neutral coast, Roger redirected his hull damaged drones and whatever Sentinels were coming in and out of range to taking out the Tar’vem’jic while the rest physically blocked for the Ultimas with the trailblazer seeing their number ticking down ominously. At the same time the cutters inside destroyed power conduits and generators, blacking out tiny bits of the Mach’nel’s hull and creating safe zones for the drones to move into…with Roger repositioning some of the Ultimas there while maintaining their IDF cones over the huge gravity drives that were essentially spinning their wheels with no gravity effect to push against.

Getting through the Tar’vem’jic’s shields took longer than the other batteries on the ship, due to the fact that it was obviously the primary target and it contained 28 different shield layers, all of which were dropping and raising with precision each time it fired and destroyed another drone. Eventually with no primary shields to cover it and a lot of concentrated fire, Roger’s fleet broke through and put it out of commission, leaving the rest of the weaponry to contend with, but having taken out the main threat to the Ultimas.

Roger breathed a huge sigh of relief when that weapon went down, but he didn’t flinch from the work that followed. The J’gar didn’t contact him again and he didn’t bother to repeat his offer of surrender. If they had a change of mind he’d consider it, but he wasn’t going to bend over backwards to save the people who had come here to kill them. If the J’gar wanted to go out in combat, then that’s what he was going to give them.

As the cutters dug deeper and deeper inside the ship they created pathways like ants digging through the dirt while drones outside chewed on the Yeg’gor armor around the openings, expanding them so larger drones could fit in. Slowly more and more entered the ship while the external defenses were plucked around certain areas, then Roger didn’t even bother taking out the others, knowing not to waste the drones on them as his little army of ants began to snowball inside.

It took another 18 hours of internal chewing before the Mach’nel was truly dead, both in terms of crew and equipment, leaving it in a close orbit around earth and giving the planet’s sky a second, oblong moon to look at while Roger began to organize boarding parties using resources and personnel on Earth. He was going to look for survivors and take prisoners if possible, but he needed to get his people inside and gain as much intel as they could on V’kit’no’sat tech updates and their history past the point where Earth had been abandoned…plus any other secrets they could stumble across.

That said, Roger put it all together and left the internal exploration to others while he raced to get his drone fleet loaded up into jumpships and over to the exiting jumpline the fleeing V’kit’no’sat fleet had taken. He had to get after them and hopefully catch up and kill some of their ships before they could flee Star Force territory. It was clear now that they were out for blood, and letting them regroup with another fleet would only be to Star Force’s disadvantage…not to mention the possibility of that still sizeable fleet hitting a lesser defended target on the way out.

Roger had already sent word ahead, but he needed to stay on their heels to make sure they left at the minimum. As for the other trailblazers, he wished he could go down to Earth and help them, for while the V’kit’no’sat fleeing the crashed ships had successfully been destroyed, they were starting to get reports of Zen’zat saboteurs far from the impact point and moving through the undercity where mechs and aerial craft couldn’t go.

They were going to have to hunt them down on foot, and given some of the reports of how easily they were blowing through security forces, Roger knew they were going to need him and as many other high ranking Archons as they could get to take these guys down quickly, for they’d already destroyed one shield generator complex and a couple of planetary defense batteries...not to mention killing thousands of people along the way.

7

June 13, 3602

Solar System

Earth

Kaalo ran through the Star Force undercity at the head of a group of 8 Zen’zat, all in Brat’mar service, while the others were split up into similar groups and moving through adjacent regions so not all of the 236 surviving Zen’zat would be in the same spot at the same time and make for a tempting target for a pinpoint orbital strike or explosive attack. That said, they were all within half a mile or so of each other and moving with coordination as they approached another shield generator, knowing it was going to be better defended than their previous targets, for Star Force was beginning to anticipate their attacks and reinforce the most important facilities.

But this time the Zen’zat were coming in as low as possible in the infrastructure and forcing the defenders to fight them there in what would be a bad approach normally, for it constricted the Zen’zat’s movements, but close quarters fighting was to their advantage and going in where the enemy expected you was not wise. Kaalo and the other elite Zen’zat leading this attack knew that they were going to die on this planet, but they intended to do the maximum amount of damage prior to that, so they couldn’t get sloppy.

Kaalo’s group came up to a blast door that had been shut across the corridor, stopping them in their tracks and forcing them to go through it. He hated the delay, but allowing the enemy to control their movements by what doors they dropped in their path would have been a mistake, so he and the other 8 Zen’zat started firing into the wall frame outside the door in order to burn through to the key mechanical components that they could see with their Pefbar. Their combined fired took a couple minutes to burn through, then only a few seconds to junk the locking mechanism, freeing the door and allowing two of the Zen’zat to pull it aside with their ample muscle strength…then the 9 of them were through and running again as they approached the first of the emitter chambers where they intended to do their damage.

Odds were Star Force would be able to repair most or all of it before another V’kit’no’sat fleet got here, so the Zen’zat were trying to score as many hits as they could. Unfortunately they didn’t have the explosives needed to do a lot of damage to multiple targets and the frustrating design of the Star Force infrastructure resisted any attempts to get it to overload. That left them as more than vandals now, but they were still able to kill a fair number of people that hadn’t been evacuated out of their path…and those they’d make sure that they couldn’t be revived.

What Kaalo was waiting for was the more elite troops to get to them, and striking at these targets…even if they would be repaired…was a way of drawing them out. At least that’s what Kaalo was looking forward to, though the other Zen’zat had higher ambitions regarding the infrastructure. He wasn’t going to object to that, though now that they were down here he didn’t see a way of doing enough damage to matter in the long term and no one knew of a second fleet nearby to call on for aid, though the forces eliminating the Li’vorkrachnika were the closest. If they could mount enough ships in a short enough amount of time then the damage they were doing would be very important, but that was a slim hope now.

What Kaalo wanted was Rio, but when they encountered enemy infantry ahead he wasn’t so lucky. It was more of their weaker troops with a few Archons sprinkled in. They were carrying heavier weapons and utilizing barricades to delay the Zen’zat while throwing down damage…a decent tactic…but it didn’t stop them as they simply charged ahead, using their Lachka to disrupt the aim of the troops enough for them to get up to the barricades and physically dislodge them.

The defenders retreated back to another set, all the while trying to wear down the Zen’zat’s shields but Kaalo didn’t care. They took the brunt of the attacks up until he spotted explosives hidden behind the next set. He called a halt to their advance, then all 9 of the Zen’zat used their Lachka to pick up one of the barricades and throw it into the explosives, dislodging them from the wall but not detonating them. The Zen’zat then picked up the explosives themselves and eviscerated the components from afar.

Still they didn’t explode, but when thoroughly trashed the Zen’zat moved forward and past the shredded devices, moving up to the last section of barricades and breaking through with the cowardly Star Force troops retreating and giving them access to the emitter area…inside of which was a huge field of equipment rising multiple stories high and connected by catwalks. The Zen’zat were coming in on the lowest level and had solid floor beneath them, with two other Zen’zat teams already here but out of sight. This emitter was 6 miles wide and 4 long with plenty of equipment to trash. It was a pity they could only destroy a small fraction of it, but by now they knew where the soft spots were with Kaalo’s team headed to the nearest capacitor.

No more hidden explosives were found here, for good reason, though Kaalo would have torn this entire place up in order to get at them if he was the defenders. Apparently they weren’t so inclined to come after them just yet, and he hoped that meant higher level troops were nearby and inbound.

When they crossed through an intersection in the emitter ‘city’ they got shot from the flank by the troops that had just been running from them…but this time there were no barricades set up to slow them down and the Zen’zat went after them, sprinting so fast the white-armored troops and their scattering of Archons couldn’t get away this time. Kaalo was going to kill these then head back to the capacitor and continue doing so with as many infantry as they sent his way.

They’d made a mistake getting this close and they were about to pay for it, but as the Star Force troops fired on him while running backwards they crossed another intersection that Kaalo thought might hold an ambush…but there were no minds on either side so he didn’t worry about it until he was close to engaging and flicked on his Pefbar.

He had two strides to ready himself as a Zen’zat-sized body flew out from the left and rammed him. Kaalo managed to duck down and flip the black/gold armored individual over his head and into the far wall a meter past the intersection, but the collision also threw him to the side as well, with another identically armored ‘Knight’ coming in and tackling him.

He’d been aware of the larger Star Force troops, but those had always worn bright white armor. A part of his mind that was free even as he grappled with and easily broke through the headlock attempted on him wondered if they weren’t a higher ranking, for these were stronger than the others he’d faced, but the Jumat blast that followed succinctly ended that line of thought.

Kaalo found himself slammed into the wall, off of which he pushed and punched both Knights in sequence, delivering Dre’mo’don blasts on the end of each as he saw the other Zen’zat fighting with what looked like at least a dozen of these Knights as the retreating troops held their ground and began sniping where able.

Kaalo grabbed one of the Knights and hauled him into the intersection where he kicked another behind the turn and out of the firing zone. The Zen’zat punched the one he held across the width of the corridor where another Zen’zat hit him in the back and knocked him to the ground…only to be blown off his feet by another Jumat blast.

Kaalo wobbled as a Fornax blast hit him…then suddenly he was on the ground with his helmet getting punched by a series of furious blows that were draining far too much shield energy.

The Zen’zat tried to pry the Knight off, but he had to use three different moves to do it, then when he threw him over his head and down the corridor another Knight jumped on top of him. Kaalo used a Lachka wall to knock him askew before he landed, but a Lachka field from behind pulled Kaalo backwards on his feet and off balance before he surged his Rentar and broke it. He let himself fall backwards into a roll that he used to get to his feet…where he saw the other Knight standing there waiting for him. Unlike the others he wore totally black armor without any of their gold marks, and as frustrated as Kaalo already was by these Knights with Archon powers, this one pulled out a cylinder from a slot on his back that extended into a long, black stick much like Rio had used the last time they met.

Then the Knight had the gall to wave Kaalo forward even as everyone else behind them was fighting each other furiously with bodies flying into walls left and right as these Knights were showing themselves to be an even match for the Zen’zat.

Kaalo didn’t bother to respond other than to run three steps ahead then bring both arms up and fire a double Dre’mo’don blast into the Black Knight, but a bioshield briefly popped up and absorbed both of them as the sword tip flashed around in a twirl and came up from low, batting one of Kaalo’s arms away as he continued to fire blasts until he was within striking range…then the Zen’zat punched into the chest plate with his free arm only to have the Black Knight’s hand grab him by the wrist so he couldn’t recoil.

The equally large man twisted backwards and pulled Kaalo with him as he pooled and released a quick Jumat blast that threw the Zen’zat across the corridor and into the wall…where he hit a split second before that black sword whipped around and slashed across Kaalo’s head, knocking him to the side with a hint of disorientation. A fist followed and he went to the ground, suddenly feeling his face numb up.

Not knowing what was happening, he rolled away and disengaged for a few strides, forcing the Black Knight to follow him and give Kaalo a chance to think…which was when he realized his shields had popped on his helmet with that sword slash. The previous pummeling must have done it, for the rest of his shields were reforming but the matrix over his helmet wasn’t. Typically they all snapped on and off at the same time, but in case of massive overload they’d disconnect so not to drop the entire matrix through inefficient transfer power.

Kaalo didn’t need to run through the specifics of what was happening. All he needed to know was the Black Knight was exclusively targeting his head in order to break through the shields there and deliver some type of stun charge.

He didn’t have time to think beyond that as Kaalo took the next sword slash on his right arm to keep it off his head while simultaneously putting another shot from his left into his attacker’s chest. Then what he’d feared previously happened as his attacker dropped an Ubven field on top of him, freezing him and that annoying sword in place.

The Black Knight let it go, suspended in the air by the same field, as his was free to move forward. Kaalo pulsed his Rentar, knowing that would help eat through the Lachka field restrains faster but the field was so dense he was going to be vulnerable for a moment and the Black Knight took advantage of it by beating him in the head again with multiple punches. When his fledgling shields there failed, each subsequent punch delivered a numbing blast that left Kaalo nearly unconscious when the Ubven field finally dissipated.

The Zen’zat fell to the ground as his armor began sucking away the stun energy, but he was so disoriented that all he could do was throw up a Lachka wall and bioshield over top himself in a hasty defense, the former of which the Black Knight used his Rentar to get through, then his fists to pound into the bioshield until it finally snapped.

Kaalo managed to kick up into his side and throw the Black Knight off him before he could land another punch, then knowing that he had to get some distance to recharge his shields he took off running down the corridor opposite the other Zen’zat, firing back on the Black Knight as he did so…but his counterpart was too fast for him to backtrack against, forcing Kaalo to stop firing and run at top speed to evade him.

Seeing him in his Pefbar he realized this Black Knight was faster than he expected, but not as fast as him…but he did reach out and try to trip Kaalo with his Lachka. The Zen’zat stumbled for a step before a Rentar wash over his legs stopped it from happening again, but a Fornax blast flew into him at that same moment. He stumbled into the wall as he threw his own Fornax blast back, forcing himself to keep running.

His pursuer didn’t relent, and as Kaalo got further and further away from the other fight he sensed another group of Zen’zat ahead and ran towards them. They were from the Oso’lon and their leader was even more powerful than Kaalo…plus they’d outnumber this Black Knight if he could get him to follow.

The Jumat blast that hit him in the back complicated that, as did the Lachka field throw directly in front of him. Flinching against the Jumat and trying to stay on his feet as he was propelled forward, Kaalo didn’t have time to turn on his Rentar and he smashed into the invisible wall, bouncing backward and allowing the Black Knight to catch up.

Angry beyond belief, Kaalo turned and swung without thinking, catching his opponent slightly off guard in the leg and spinning him to the ground with the hit. Kaalo took the opportunity and jumped on top of him, trying to get him into a grapple hold as the other Zen’zat were racing to his position in response to his mental summons.

The Black Knight was strong, but not as strong as Kaalo. He couldn’t work his way free with muscle strength alone and the Zen’zat was prepared for when the next Jumat blast came. It knocked him up half a meter, but his grip held firm and he landed back on the Black Knight again…but the warrior had managed to get a knee up into his torso, and from it he was able to, after a few seconds of rapid maneuvers, kick Kaalo off him.

Dre’mo’don blasts came down the hallway and hit the Black Knight’s shields from the approaching Zen’zat, prompting him to run into Kaalo and try to get by him. Holding his ground, Kaalo set himself for another Jumat blast only to get pulled from behind with Lachka field that he quickly dissipated…then a Fornax blast to the face followed by a Jumat disrupted him enough that the Black Knight was able to punch his helmet again, twisting his neck to the side even as Kaalo fired at pointblank range with his left Dre’mo’don.

The next thing Kaalo saw was the ground and the Black Knight sprinting away from him as more Dre’mo’don filled the air and took down his shield…then he was moving too fast to target and disappeared around a corner.

Kaalo got to his feet and began to pursue slow enough for the 12 Zen’zat behind him to catch up, then they all made their way towards the location of Kaalo’s Zen’zat that he’d gotten peeled away from…and of whom there were only 5 remaining as he reached out to do a mental check, for 3 of their icons on his sensors were not moving.

8

Taylor-1007 bounced off a wall, propelling herself further down the airless corridor on the partially destroyed Brat’mar ship until she passed into a working gravity field and fell to the floor awkwardly…but that didn’t matter. The ViLord picked herself up and walked forward as the members of her boarding party behind her made more gentle landings. The group moved through damaged corridors scanning ahead with their Ikrid and picking up some minds, confirming that there were survivors onboard.

Taylor wasn’t here for them though, and when her team eventually got to an emergency force field they passed through into atmosphere and immediately got the smell of burnt flesh, for not far ahead there was half of a Brat’mar lying next to a huge bulkhead that had fallen down through the ceiling, pinning it to the ground with the other half of its body on the far side. There was no mind within it and Taylor’s team bypassed the two pieces of fresh corpse as they moved onward and scanning furiously. The Na’shor was a huge ship, but thanks to the schematics in the pyramid they knew there were only a few places available to look for the prisoners that had been taken onboard it at the Ribbon.

Most of those places had been destroyed in the battle, but two should have been intact within the debris. The first prison area they came across was empty, both of minds and bodies, but a Brat’mar that had not yet been injured was approaching them from another of the huge corridors though not yet in view.

“Not today, people,” Taylor said, pointing them to a Zen’zat access point in the wall. A few members of her mostly Archon team ran over to it and with some prying got the warped door open. The team filed inside, but as Taylor was the last one in and the Brat’mar came into view for a second she almost ran into the debris just inside the frame, having to duck down and go right…with the left side branch having been completely blocked off.

Taking up position at the back of the line, Taylor led the others through what access ways were viable and out through the larger ones as needed…all the time with the Brat’mar trying to follow. Eventually they got to the other prison area, finding that battle damage had destroyed half of it, but fortunately also blocked the Brat’mar from getting close. The Archons were able to find ways to get through the debris, but what they found inside made several of them gag as they fought not to throw up inside their helmets.

There were 14 Human prisoners here…spread out into 70 pieces. Every one of them had both arms and legs torn off, leaving their helpless torsos on the ground to bleed out. Taylor wasn’t sensing any minds remaining here, but two of the bodies were still warm as she switched to infrared on her HUD. That meant those had died last and that this barbarism hadn’t occurred too long ago.

“Gordon,” she said, pointing to one of the limbless torsos. “Try him.”

The Archon responded by jumping across the field of body parts until he got up next to the one Taylor had tagged. He pulled out a regenerator from his pack, a V’kit’no’sat model, not one of the less powerful Star Force knockoffs, and placed it on the man’s head. He wore a white uniform with silver stripes over the shoulders that ended where the limbs had been ripped off, indicating he was an Archon Acolyte.

Taylor didn’t expect for the Kich’a’kat to respond, but she was going to try anyway. When it lay dormant over top the body she pointed to the other one with ranger markings and Gordon moved to him.

All of her team flinched when the regenerator activated and sunk in its tendrils to the body. It took a long time, but eventually a mental signature returned and Taylor ran up beside the survivor.

“We keep him unconscious,” she said as the torn arm and leg sockets began to seal over, though with bone fragments still sticking out here and there. Gordon pulled another device out of his pack and applied it to the ranger’s head, insuring that he wouldn’t feel or sense anything until they got him back to a medical station where they could regrow his lost body parts. Right now all the Regenerator could do was patch him up enough to keep him alive, and when it finally disconnected he was little more than a living piece of cargo.

“Can we reattach his limbs?” Gordon wondered.

“He’s not walking out of here even if we can. You and Brian carry him out and be ready to throw a Rentar field over him, otherwise someone could twist his neck off from the other side of a wall.”

“You going after that Brat’mar?”

“I’d like to, but it’s too risky. I’m more worried about Zen’zat,” she said as Gordon pulled an envirosuit out of his pack and began putting the limbless Archon into it so he could survive the trip through the airless sections of wreckage. “Get him out.”

“Keep them off us.”

“We will,” she promised, then began giving members of her team individual waypoints as she organized a skirmisher perimeter around the moving cargo, making sure they had enough lead to detect either Brat’mar or Zen’zat that might be closing on them.

The big one kept hounding them, and when it had figured out they were heading back the way they came it went to block their path, hoping to force them into a fight as one Zen’zat mind eventually joined it.

“Damn it.”

“We have to fight them,” a mage pointed out.

“We’re not losing anyone on a rescue mission.”

“What choice do we have?”

“When you’re Clan Saber, that’s obvious,” she said, motioning them back a ways to a specific room that appeared mostly intact. The ViLord had them barricade themselves inside with as much debris as they could pry loose from nearby, but the Zen’zat wasn’t coming in after them. It was staying with the Brat’mar…then another Brat’mar mind popped into her mental range, though this one was screaming with pain and probably injured.

Taylor sent out a battlemeld ping to two of the other Archons, then used their Neritu to boost her own range. She sensed a few more minds out there, all of which were moving in their direction. Given that their ship was dead in space, the only fight they had left was with the boarders and it seemed they were eager to engage.

Hear me, V’kit’no’sat, she said telepathically, putting enough power behind it that hopefully everyone on the ship would hear her even if she couldn’t sense their position. You have this one chance to live. Surrender now and you will not be killed or tortured. You will be taken prisoner as we have done with others throughout our history. You have 1 minute to respond, after which we will kill you. Either way, make your choice and live with it.

Taylor didn’t want to take them prisoner after witnessing what they’d done to the Human prisoners, but to be fair you couldn’t judge the entire crew against what could have been the actions of just one individual…though right now she really wanted to.

She watched the time tick down with no response coming, either telepathically or over comms. When a minute elapsed she was glad. They’d been given a chance to surrender, and that was all these bastards were going to get.

“Requesting pinpoint bombardment,” she said to the Archon in control of the recovery fleet who was standing in a nexus onboard a jumpship not too far away. “We have recovered one prisoner but are cut off from our entry route by surviving crew. They have refused to surrender, so please blow away the rest of the ship that we’re not standing in.”

“How secure are you?” Varn-1633 asked.

“We have a room to ourselves and in no danger of decompression. The prisoner is buttoned up, but he has no limbs. They tore them off everyone and we were lucky the regenerator brought him back. He needs to get to a medical bay ASAP.”

“And you want me to blow you an entry path for a dropship?”

“Yes. I know it can be done.”

“Standby. This is going to take some planning. How critical is he?”

“Unconscious and alive. We’ve got the regenerator on his body in case he dips again, but so far it hasn’t reactivated. I think we’ve got a little time, but don’t push it.”

“Link up your armor and bioshields when I give the word…and cross your fingers.”

“It’ll work, just shoot straight and have our dropship standing by at a safe range.”

“Estimate 6 minutes.”

“Copy that,” Taylor said, having let everyone else in on that comm. “Put him in the center then huddle up. Lock grip points to each other and the floor. Check that…make it the floor and wall. Move to that corner.”

The team quickly repositioned and began laying down their own armor suits as a secondary wall against which they placed the single envirosuit, then another layer of Archons and Knights went over it, with two of their physical shields covering the outside of their little nook as they began locking each other in place to form as solid of a mass as they could.

“Fleet is ready. Give the word when you want us to begin.”

Taylor sent a 30 second countdown to the jumpship as well as the rest of her team so they all knew when the firestorm would be incoming. When the timer reached 12 seconds she extended a battlemeld prompt to the 19 individuals that were capable of sharing it, knowing that was going to be a lot of headache to manage, but they might need their combined bioshields.

Their minds interlinked and the weight of all those connections dropped onto Taylor like a load of bricks, but she and the others held up and created a massive bioshield around the group far stronger than 19 individual bioshields would have been. They held the turtle-like position even as the effort began to get tedious…but the countdown reached 0 quick enough and dull thuds started to be heard around them coming from a distance.

Taylor and the others focused on nothing but maintaining their Cerden as the explosions got louder and the air suddenly got sucked out of the room. The group stayed put, attached to the wall and floor through their armor’s grip points, then blasts of light so bright their HUDs had to block them out began showing through the doorway as the rumbles elevated to the level of an earthquake…eventually snapping the floor beneath them and sending it spinning.

The group held on to their wall nook and each other as the firestorm continued without the quakes, for their bit of ship had been blown apart from the rest. Taylor lost track of time mentally as she strained to maintain the bioshield link along with the rest of the others…with one of the padawans breaking first. That reduced the battlemeld to 18, making it a touch easier, and the rest of them were able to maintain the Cerden up until Varn called back.

“Looks like you guys are still in one piece. We’ve got some road plowing to do to get to you, but the dropship is on its way and should get to you within 15 minutes at max.”

“Thank you,” Taylor said as they released their battlemeld links but not their physical grips on one another and the room that now had a nasty gash across the ceiling that was showing a mix of debris and stars beyond as they continued to spin at a rate of about 4 rotations per minute.

Taylor double checked the oxygen levels of her team, seeing that they all had at least 40 minutes remaining thanks to the backup tanks they’d been carrying for the boarding phase, and the envirosuit had also been so equipped. So long as there wasn’t a long delay, they were going to make it out.

“Status of the Viks on the ship?”

“There’s no ship left, Taylor,” he told her, with the Archon belatedly adjusting her battlemap so she could pick up the sensor feeds from the ships outside and saw that the Na’shor was gratifyingly now in tiny pieces. He must have had all the nearby drones firing on it rather than the surgical strike she’d had in mind.

“Good. Those guys deserved to die.”

“Any injuries?”

“No, we’re all good…and our friend is hanging on for now. Hurry it up though.”

“There he is,” Kaalo said to the Zen’zat fighting beside him as a trio of Archons came running into the fight leading many others. “That’s their Rio.”

“We take him together,” Garso said. “We need to peel him off. Tako, Nave.”

“Understood,” the Oso’lon Zen’zat said as they pulled back from their positions sniping enemy troops behind the melee lines and came running up to join the two elite Zen’zat.

“Take him right,” Garso said, then the four of them were running towards the approaching Archons with a dozen or so Zen’zat ahead of them already beginning to exchange weaponsfire. Garso put a shot into a set of black/gold armor that was lying on the ground and trying to get back up, as did Kaalo, but the pair didn’t stick around to finish him off. They had a bigger target to take down.

The Zen’zat ahead of them got blown apart by a Jumat blast, but that only helped to clear the path for the sprinting pair as they shot through the gap and went directly for Rio…with Garso sending his own Jumat blast into the Archon beside their target. Both of the Zen’zat got hit by a Fornax field, but expecting it they were able to work their way through and up to Rio with both of them pulling at him with their Lachka.

He broke free of it as the Fornax field continued to persist, but Garso got within grappling range only to be knocked aside by the Archon with the doublebladed stick. Kaalo, however, was able to follow up and grab Rio by the wrist…then drag him to the right into a gap in the emitter equipment where he spun in place and threw the Archon down the side corridor.

Tako and Nave dove in and tackled other Archons as Garso followed Kaalo after Rio, with the stronger Zen’zat telepathically telling Kaalo to duck, over which he threw another Jumat blast that knocked Rio even further down the corridor and away from the others.

Rio saw what was happening and decided to draw the pair off, running for a few steps then started to fly down the hallway so they would chase him, but a mixed assault of Lachka and Fornax slowed him enough that Garso was able to catch up to him…just as Rio threw a Jumat blast back into his face.

The Zen’zat had been expecting that and let it happen, using himself as a pivot point as he grabbed Kaalo with his Lachka and threw the other Zen’zat forward into Rio.

Kaalo grabbed hold of him and dragged the Archon to the ground, then it took several Jumat blasts to knock him off, at which time Garso had caught up and began punching into Rio’s bioshield so fast it made Kaalo’s speed look slow.

An attempt at a Lachka wall pull was blocked by Rio’s Rentar, then the Archon fired his bulky arm weapon at close range, hitting Garso as the Zen’zat merely returned fire with both of his weapons. They traded energy blasts for a couple of seconds, then Rio pulled back again, flying down the hall as the two Zen’zat sprinted after him.

But when the Garso tried another Lachka wall Rio reversed direction and flew right into the Zen’zat’s chest, catching him momentarily off guard, but Kaalo turned and punched Rio into the sidewall, keeping him from slipping past them as the two Zen’zat spun and began firing down on him.

Rio dropped his Ubven field and essentially froze them in place, though the energy blasts continued to rain down until he scooted out from under them, running back the way they’d come as Sara and Ethan sprinted towards him.

“We have to take these quick,” Ethan said as he and Sara reached out with a battlemeld prompt. “There are too many strong Zen’zat back there.”

“This is our old friend and his stronger brother,” Rio cautioned.

“We can take them,” Sara said as the Zen’zat sprinted towards them. “As a trio.”

“The new one has Jumat.”

“Don’t care,” Sara said icily. “They’re going down.”

“Let’s do it,” Ethan agreed, with all three trailblazers linking together and throwing a Jumatran blast into the two Zen’zat and knocking them back more than a dozen meters with the smaller Humans sprinting after them and Sara pulling out her last death stick as the other two fired their weapons…Rio his mauler gauntlet and Ethan a heavy pistol.

Then Rio ran up an invisible stairway of Lachka steps using their battlemeld Qwe’kal until he was overtop the Zen’zat heads as a distraction, with the stronger one using his Jumat to blast Rio into the ceiling as Ethan threw Sara forward and she jammed her death stick into the Zen’zat’s chest.

9

“Steady!” the medtech yelled as the ranger woke violently, jerking upright and flailing on the bed in the medbay. “Steady! You’re safe, you’re safe!”

The ranger, breathing heavily, looked around frantically as he balled his fists…then he looked down at his arms and legs as a horrific expression crossed his already pained face.

“We regenerated your lost limbs,” the medtech said as a few others stood nearby. “You’re safe now.”

The ranger slid his legs over the edge of the table and stood up as he constantly clenched and unclenched his fists. He walked two steps then collapsed to the floor, but not out of weakness. He let himself fall to his knees as he continued to look at his hands and one of the medtechs came up and gently grabbed his shoulders.

“It’s over. You’re safe.”

“They…” he said, his voice breaking horribly as so many emotions swirled through him. “They ripped us apart. We couldn’t…we couldn’t stop them.”

“You’re safe now. A rescue team pulled you off their damaged ship.”

“Damaged?”

“There was a fight over Earth. We won.”

“What about the other prisoners?”

The medtech shook his head, but the ranger couldn’t see it from where he stood halfway beside and behind the man.

“You’re the only survivor they brought back.”

The medtech regretted saying that immediately as the ranger let out a scream of pain and anger that sent chills through everyone in the room, then he stood up, turned, and punched down into the medical bed so hard that everyone could hear the snap of the bone in his hand…in addition to the huge dent he put in the frame.

The ranger didn’t stop there though, for he punched with both arms several times, pummeling the bed until it broke in half and he continued to drive it down into the floor until his energy surge finally snapped and fell back to his knees with two bloody fists unclenching at his sides.

He didn’t say anything else and the medtechs gave him his space for several minutes before he finally sat back on the floor, pulled his knees up to his chest, and began to cry a river of silent tears.

The medtechs exchanged glances, not sure if they should try and heal his hands or just wait out this backlash. Meanwhile both tears and blood dripped onto the carpet while the Archon sat there trying to work through the horrors he’d just lived through.

Sara was knocked back against the wall, but before her feet could fall down to hit the floor Garso moved in and punched her in the chest, cracking an armor plate with an audible snap before she knocked him back half a foot with a hasty Jumat blast from her left hand. When her feet did hit the floor a knee from the Zen’zat knocked her back up into the air again…then a heavy punch from above drilled her down into the ground like a yoyo.

She threw up a Fornax field and tried to crawl away, but Garso got a foot on her arm as he staggered and pinned her in place, firing four shots into the Archon with another 3 missing before Sara jumped up and into the Zen’zat’s knees, knocking him off his feet and dumping him to the ground as she wrapped her arms around his legs.

As he fell Rio came in and fired his mauler down into the shieldless armor on the Zenza’s wide chest, melting an already damaged spot enough that a bit got through to his skin, the pain of which resulted in Rio being blasted back by a Jumat orb that nearly knocked Sara off his legs, though a quick kick finished the job, allowing Garso to get back on his feet. Rio shot him again with the mauler, but a weak bioshield caught most of it, leaving the rest to get through and hit a raised arm.

Ethan came flying into view, but not under his own power. Following him, Kaalo redirected towards Sara as Garso did the same. She balled up with her own bioshield as both Zen’zat shot her, then tried to knock them back with a Jumat blast. She succeeded with Kaalo but barely managed to move Garso. That Zen’zat got up on her with a couple more steps even as he threw a Lachka wall back at Rio, who was taking the opportunity to land a couple more mauler hits into the Zen’zat’s back.

Garso chose to take them in exchange for focusing on the most damaged of the Archons. He attacked her with a Fornax blast, Lachka field, and even a small Jumat blast to allow him to get into grapple range, then he nearly ripped her right arm off as he pulled it back and tore the pistol out of her hand. Meanwhile Kaalo dove back in and hammered her exposed chest as the other Zen’zat held her in place.

Ethan and Rio reacted instantly, and after only a moment of damage dealing the Zen’zat had to turn their attention to them…but when they released Sara she dropped to the ground in a heap, unmoving and with a small hole in her chest armor where the punches and Dre’mo’don blasts had finally got through.

The two trailblazers felt the damage to Sara then her part of the battlemeld link dropped out, leaving only the two of them against the Zen’zat…but the more skilled of the duo was hurt himself, with multiple holes in both his chest and back armor. Ethan and Rio made the split second decision to go after him, but not together. Ethan moved towards the other Zen’zat and pushed him back with a series of psionics that led up to a tackle/shove that got both of them away from Rio and Garso.

The Archon’s shields took three more Dre’mo’don blasts, with the third dropping them again and doing a bit of damage, but Rio threw up a bioshield that caught the fourth…then he was in close range to the larger Zen’zat, punching him in the gut then pulling back both hands slightly as Garso tried to wrap him up in a grapple hold, but the Jumat energy pooling in Rio’s palms was released at just the right moment and it blew the larger man back out of arms reach.

Rio followed it with two more mauler shots that the Zen’zat took as he sprinted towards the Archon, who backpedaled a step only to be knocked askew by the Zen’zat’s own Jumat blast…weak as it was now from fatigue. It did succeed in off balancing Rio enough that Garso got to him and grabbed his wrist that held the mauler. Rio fired it into his chest, scoring another damaging hit as a bit of the energy hit a hole, but the Zen’zat held on and twisted it to the side underneath his armpit where the next shot missed.

Garso held hit there, pinned, as he brought his other arm around and, instead of shooting Rio in the head or torso, shot the weapon multiple times as Rio tried to kick and pry himself loose…but the Zen’zat was too strong. Flailing around trying to get a breakaway and throwing every psionic at him that he could, Rio finally was able to slip his arm free and get clear, leaving the Zen’zat staggering a bit and not chasing after him.

Rio raised his arm up to fire the mauler again, but half the discharge that resulted only finished the destruction of the weapon with an internal explosion that popped out debris amidst a blue flame. The Zen’zat looked at him and took his time walking forward, knowing that the Archon’s primary damage threat to him was now gone.

Rio disconnected the mauler, dropping the junk to the ground and lightening up his arm considerably. He pulled Sara’s pistol over to him from where it had been knocked to the ground, but a Rentar blast from Garso dropped it halfway there. Rio ran for it and the Zen’zat responded in kind, but at the last moment Rio abandoned his pursuit of it and dove headfirst into Garso, hitting him in the pelvis and driving him back as he hammered his knees from behind trying to crumple his legs.

It didn’t work as well as intended, and the Zen’zat brought down a double fisted overhead blow onto Rio’s back that smashed the Archon flat to the ground…then he was kicked into the wall with the Zen’zat following a split second later ready to deliver another heavy punch. Rather than trying to dodge it Rio let him come, putting up as much of a bioshield as he could and diminishing the impact almost entirely, but the Dre’mo’don blast that came in next hit his armor and nearly melted through in an already damaged spot that he knew the Zen’zat was aiming for.

Rio did something stupid next, and rather than trying to peel the Zen’zat off him went in even closer, getting inside his firing range but allowing Garso to wrap him up in another grapple that was to the Zen’zat’s advantage given the strength and size difference between the two. And what was even more stupid was the fact that Rio held onto him, locking their torsos against one another and leaving the Archon looking at Garso’s chin through his faceplate.

“That was unwise,” the Zen’zat said as he started squeezing Rio so hard his damaged armor plates began to flex under the strain.

“Was it?” Rio asked as his right hand was also being crushed in between both men’s torsos…but it was palm out and not accidentally covering the largest hole in the Zen’zat’s armor. Rio had walked into the crushing trap in order to deliver the killing blow as the armor over his right palm struggled to retract under the pressure, then the skin of his palm was bloodied against the ragged edge of the hole as the orifice in his hand split apart slightly.

Holding onto the Zen’zat’s back so he couldn’t escape, Rio locked onto him with as much strength as he could muster along with a partial Ubven drop, then used his Choratrik to send a stream of plasma through the hole in Garso’s armor and straight into the Zen’zat’s chest.

The Zen’zat released his hold on Rio instantly, but the Archon held tight as the Ubven field kept the larger opponent from flipping him around or bucking him off in any other wild flails as the plasma stream continued to flow, burning through his ribs, lung, and eventually all the way through to the backside armor.

Rio released the attack a moment later as the Ubven quickly dissipated, then he kicked the Zen’zat over as if he was felling a tree as he turned and ran towards where Ethan was getting his ass kicked by Kaalo as he stalled for time.

Sara’s pistol flew into Rio’s now fully armored hand and he fired a pair of shots into the Zen’zat as the trailblazer yanked Ethan back his way via a Bataf conduit, seeing his peer’s armor broken and melted in multiple spots, but without any major holes in it.

He’s mine, Rio said telepathically while instructing Ethan to play limited support from now on via numerous tactics that they communicated back and forth to each other through the battlemeld. It was also clear that Ethan was wearing out and couldn’t stand toe to toe with this Zen’zat anymore, but he didn’t have to. He’d taken the hits so Rio could finish off the other one. Now it was time to double team and finish this guy, though Rio was going to have to carry the bulk of the fight…and that suited him just fine.

With a bit of a push from Ethan, Rio flew forward and impacted with Kaalo as the Zen’zat threw several Dre’mo’don blasts their way, deciding to make like a turret and just blanket the two enemies with weaponsfire. That was a fair tactic considering Rio’s primary weapon was toast and most of their auxiliaries were empty or destroyed, but pulling on what little strength Ethan had, the pair put up a bioshield ahead of Rio that let him get close enough to go hand to hand without taking a lot of damage up to that point.

Kaalo responded in kind, punching and kicking in a flurry of exchanges that Rio couldn’t match. He had to fight defensively and keep giving up a step here or there, but that was the plan as he brought him back closer and closer to Ethan.

When the Zen’zat got within the predetermined range Ethan sprinted forward, running past their opponent as he pulled Sara’s pistol off the ground where Rio had dropped it and towards his hand. As expected the Zen’zat blocked the weapon grab with his Rentar…but that was just a feint on the part of the Archons, for when Ethan ran past he dragged a Trielo orb into the Zen’zat.

The psionic was invisible, and unlike the Lew energy ribbon that stretched between two individuals, the Trielo was a single orb that floated on another such ribbon…meaning that they had to aim the collision precisely in addition to charging it thoroughly beforehand. But when Ethan ran past and dragged that ribbon through the Zen’zat at precisely the right location a knot of stun energy was delivered into his body, almost entirely bypassing his armor, and making Kaalo punch drunk rather than dropping him unconscious.

But for Rio that distinction didn’t matter, for he suddenly had the advantage in the hand to hand fight and started driving him back as the Zen’zat struggled just to defend himself. Ethan reversed directions and pulled Sara’s pistol to him, shooting Kaalo in the back several times before he awkwardly twirled around to use his arms to block some shots as his armor tried to soak away the stun energy and return his body to normal.

Before that could happen Rio flew up a meter into the air and did a spin kick into the Zen’zat’s head that sent him into the wall so disoriented he fell on impact, then Ethan stood over him pouring shots into his armor and opening up a wound on his back that shocked the Zen’zat into a mad dash. He rammed into Rio and dragged him to the ground, then straddled the Archon’s torso punching him in the face and chest repeatedly while throwing Dre’mo’don blasts after each hit.

Rio was caught and tried to wiggle free, then both he and Ethan combined what little strength they had and put a bioshield over Rio’s head while letting the rest of his armor absorb the shots as it melted with each. The trailblazer readied another Jumat blast to knock him off, but waited a split second as Ethan just unloaded into Kaalo’s back with the Zen’zat not even seeming to care. Rio could even feel his rage spilling out through his telepathy as he pounded Rio relentlessly.

Had Ethan not been there Rio would have been in trouble, not knowing if he could have peeled him off or not, but just before he was going to have to resort to that in order to keep his chest armor from being penetrated the Zen’zat threw his last punch/shot and tipped forward, falling onto Rio…but without any muscle behind him the trailblazer easily rolled him to the side and extricated himself from the heavy body that was smoking from the hole Ethan had shot through his armor and eventually his heart.

“That was close,” Ethan said as he ran past Rio and over to where Sara was still laying on the ground, but they could both feel her mind still there.

Rio looked down at his chest armor, feeling the residual heat as nearly all of it had been melted away, leaving him with a very thin protective layer that wouldn’t hold up to more than a couple Dre’mo’don shots.

Go, Sara said telepathically while she was still laying on the ground with Ethan now kneeling over her. I’m healing. Just make sure these two are dead, then go help the others.

“Rio?”

“I got them,” the trailblazer said, stepping over to the first Zen’zat while removing his left glove. He knelt down and put another stream of plasma through the hole in the armor while touching a bit of the gore inside. It took him a moment to make a connection, from which he confirmed the Zen’zat was dead and not coming back on his own merits.

Rio got up and ran over to where Kaalo was laying as Ethan took off back in the direction of the main fight that was still ongoing. He rolled the Zen’zat over and saw the piece of work Ethan had done to his back, then touched inside the cavity to connect to what was left of that Zen’zat as well. He could have tried to heal him, but with literally no heart remaining it would have been a tall order to save the Zen’zat…not that Ethan even thought about trying, but it meant that there was no way this one was going to get back up and potentially hurt Sara.

“Told you I’d kill you with friends,” Rio said to the still smoking corpse as he didn’t waste any time and took off running past Sara and back towards the fight where he could feel hundreds of minds involved, though a few less than there had been before the trio of trailblazers had split off to take these two down.

As he approached he got a battlemeld prompt from Ethan and two other ViLords, linking up with them and realizing from their senses that another very powerful set of Zen’zat were still in play, but they hadn’t paired up with each other and were instead working with their own escorts as Vermaire was tangling with one of them.

The quartet of Archons decided to let him play with his new friend while they went after the closest badass they could find, knowing that both trailblazers had weakened armor and fatigued psionics, and that it was going to take a team effort to take the rest of these guys down, but what Rio quickly realized was the fact that the Arc Knights could stand up against the Zen’zat well enough on their own and especially in groups, but if they took the brunt of the attack then the Archons could kill the Zen’zat much easier.

Muscle and mass did count for a lot, and the strategies flowing through the battlemeld and telepathy between all those involved allowed for latecomers like Rio to learn very fast how to effectively fight these guys…and having a backup secret psionic that the V’kit’no’sat had probably never seen before didn’t hurt either.

With his quartet they made their way past a sparring Zen’zat and Arc Knight and helped him kill his opponent, then Rio conscripted the big guy into their battlemeld, making it a 5-way and bringing him up to speed on the tactics they wanted to use…after which the Zen’zat took the lead and the group pushed their way through the widespread brawl, throwing a little help in here and there as they went hunting for the biggest threats left in the fight.

10

When Rio’s group got back into the fight they used a combination of telepathy and battlemap to identify where the strongest Zen’zat were and went after arguable the strongest first. Both trailblazers had partial shields back when they came across a trio of Zen’zat and a pile of Star Force bodies as the enemy added another Arc Knight to their count, but a Jumatran from Rio’s group knocked all three down as their Arc Knight ran forward and dove onto the one in the middle, pinning him to the ground for a couple of extra seconds and giving the others time to get up to them.

No one had much left in the way of weaponry, but reinforcements were arriving constantly and those Regulars that were no match for the Zen’zat were passing weapons to those fighting while establishing and strengthening a very wide perimeter around the combat, blocking off corridors and ringing the Zen’zat in. If one tried to flee they’d have to push through a wall of weaponsfire, but the Commandos, Knights, and lower ranking Archons didn’t close in, wisely allowing those with the high skills to handle the fight and, honestly, so they didn’t get in the way.

But some of their weapons eventually got passed up to Rio’s group, with the two ViLords having taken fresh rifles that they used to attack one of the three Zen’zat exclusively while Ethan and Rio dove past the trio on the sides dragging a Lew conduit through them and hitting the heads of the two standing up. Both of them wobbled as the mental disruption took place, then the trailblazers warned the Knight as they used their Hapra and emitted such a strong combined Fornax field that it caught all six of them in it.

Had the Knight participated he would have been immune, but he was too busy throwing punches and wresting with the Zen’zat on the ground and got hit by it too. All four of them dropped twitching for a moment, but then the Arc Knight was tossed aside as a wobbly Zen’zat rose up and shot Rio with both Dre’mo’don’s.

He’s got Snu, Ethan commented as the trailblazer threw a weak Jumat into the Zen’zat, knocking his arms askew and causing a few shots to miss Rio as they both scrambled out of the way as the two ViLords continued pouring rifle shots into the Zen’zat on the left.

The standing Zen’zat reached down and picked up the Arc Knight by the leg, throwing him back into the line of fire towards the ViLords, who ceased their shots until their line of sight cleared, but the Zen’zat followed the flying body and sprinted towards them. He weathered a few more shots with his bioshield, then when he was only a step away he threw his own Jumat blast out either side of his body, knocking both Archons away from him and into the walls. He turned and attacked the one on the left, delivering body blows so fast that he broke through the ViLord’s shields in less than two seconds.

The armor damage that followed was targeted to melted points from previous fights and the Zen’zat managed to get two shots through into his chest before he turned and punched Rio out of the air as he flew towards him. The ViLord dropped to the ground as the other shot him at close range, then the Zen’zat took after her, spinning around twice in a familiar twirl that would have ended with a wicked cross if Rio hadn’t throw him off with a Jumat blast that led to a fist in the wall, denting it as the ViLord scrambled out of the way.

Two more Archons and an Arc Knight came running down the corridor towards them, but a Zen’zat jumped into the middle Archon from a side corridor and knocked him out of view. The other Archon went to help but the Arc Knight continued forward and headed straight for the monster Zen’zat that was shooting Rio as the trailblazer dove into his legs, catching a kick to the face and holding on as he flew backwards and dragged it out from under the Zen’zat.

To his credit the Zen’zat hopped forward, staying on his feet long enough to pound through Rio’s shields and land a good hit to his helmet before the Arc Knight came in and tackled him as he entered their battlemeld, replacing the downed ViLord and bringing them back up to 5.

Between him, the Arc Knight, and the ViLord that was shooting the Zen’zat at pointblank range, the three quickly summoned up a Trielo as Rio and the Arc Knight tried to hold him down. The invisible stun orb floated above and between them, then when the Zen’zat kicked Rio off and threw the Arc Knight to the side he stood up right into it, catching it on his right arm and having the limb go nearly dead.

Rio flew back a couple meters and grabbed his wrist even as the Zen’zat shot the ViLord and got through her shields, then the trailblazer dragged the numb limb back down the corridor and spun him around several times, eventually throwing him back towards the other two and through a Lew conduit that drove a disabling balance spike into his brain, causing him to stumble and fall.

The ViLord continued to shoot him in the chest as the Arc Knight dove onto the Zen’zat’s head and left arm, pinning both to the ground while his right was just beginning to regain feeling as the rifle shots finally got through his armor and hit flesh.

A Lachka hold tore the rifle out of the ViLord’s arms and stopped the damage incoming, but Rio suddenly appeared and landed on the Zen’zat’s legs, half pinning them to the ground with another weak Ubven drop that also caught the Arc Knight, but like before he went for the penetrated points in the armor and placed a naked hand there, sending a steam of bioplasma through.

A few seconds later and the Zen’zat stopped thrashing, but he didn’t have time to relish the victory for Ethan and the other Arc Knight had been buying them time and his peer was now lying on the ground with a hole in his back.

Rio pulled his body back towards him as the three now free fighters took after the two damaged Zen’zat. The trailblazer took a knee over Ethan and pressed a hand down onto his wound as the other two bought him a few seconds. While his battlemeld link had broken, Ethan was unconscious but alive and Rio wanted to keep him that way, surging some flash healing to help stop the bleeding before he let him go and flew forward several meters into the fight that didn’t last long.

Damaged as they all were, the 4v2 was just too much for these weaker Zen’zat to manage. They managed to finish off the first Arc Knight before the ViLord’s rifle last hit both of them, then Rio was busy reviving the Arc Knight as the ViLord suddenly sat down beside him. Rio didn’t ask why, for the battlemeld link told him all he needed. She’d been carrying a bad wound for the last few minutes and fighting through it, but the Archon had to start self-healing now before she lost too much blood and passed out.

Once the Arc Knight revived, Rio spent just enough time to get him stabilized but still unconscious, then he took off down the corridor running past Ethan while telepathically checking on him and heading for the remaining fights still going down.

Sara slowly stood up, trying to suppress the pain in her chest where she now had a deep hole. Fortunately her right breast had soaked up some of the damage, but her lung had been hit and she was finding it a bit hard to breath. The trailblazer, between her Sesspik, Uzti, and Haemra, had gotten the worst of the damage patched up enough that she was able to walk, but the motion twisted her body just enough to really dig into the wound that she didn’t have enough biomass to fully heal and she didn’t feel like sucking away muscle and other tissue from the rest of her body to partially fill it back in.

She cannibalized enough fat tissue and the bit of muscle necessary to contain her injury, but that was it. Looking around at the dead Zen’zat, she probed them with Ikrid and Pefbar to make sure they were out of the fight, then she began walking towards where she felt a group of minds a few hundred meters away and out of sight behind the various emitter equipment that stood like buildings around them…some of which had been damaged in the fight, but that was nothing compared to the carnage of bodies.

Limping forward due to a melted bit of her right knee that had locked up, Sara followed the last bits of battle as the remaining Zen’zat were outnumbered and getting overrun. She made sure not to get too close, but when the last of them fell she went ahead and limped on into view of the group.

Zen’zat were laying dead everywhere, but so were just as many Archons and Arc Knights. Some were just injured like she’d been, but as many of the walking ones were running around to try and heal/revive the fallen while a few others were putting additional shots into the Zen’zat bodies to make sure they didn’t get back up.

Sara walked through everyone, ready to try and help if absolutely necessary, but she was in no condition to focus on someone else’s wound with hers still paining her badly. Soon though additional troops arrived in the form of Regulars that helped police the Zen’zat bodies and carry off the most badly wounded, then some additional medics finally arrived, one of which came up to Sara and stared at her chest wide-eyed.

“We need to get you to a med bay now,” he insisted. “I swear, I don’t know how you guys can walk these off.”

“Later,” Sara said with an appreciative smile. “I assume we’re all done here?”

“I hope so,” the medic said, glancing to his left. “You called us in.”

“Not me,” she said, pointing to her head that no longer held her helmet, but a lot of it was visible crunched up behind her head in too large a mass to be normal. “My comm is out.”

“I was told the area was clear of hostiles.”

“I thought so, just wanted to check,” she said as her armor began to split apart. Sara yelped as it did so, rubbing into her chest wound with jagged edges that cut her thinly regrown skin and started it bleeding again as the trailblazer stepped out of her broken armor and left behind the mechanical limp as her burnt white uniform underneath began getting a bit redder than it already was.

“Damn,” the medic said, pulling out a Star Force regenerator from his pack, but Sara held up a hand.

“I don’t have the biomass left…and I don’t want it cannibalizing anything else. I’ll manage.”

“Let me get you some foam then,” he said, pulling out a small canister.

Sara nodded and he sprayed it into her wound, filling it up and applying the same numbing/healing agent as a patch would, but because of the cavity such a flat item wouldn’t be as effective. When he pulled out a patch later to try and put it over top Sara stopped him, with a sign of relief on her face as the numbing effect began to kick in.

“Thank you, that’ll do.”

“You’re not coming to a med bay, are you?”

“I will soon, right now I have things to do. Attend to the others.”

“I think they’re all covered, but I’ll roam and check,” he said, taking a step away from her then turning back in admiration. “Glad you guys are on our side.”

Sara let him go without another word, then without the hindrance of her armor she walked slowly but smoothly through the battleground as the Zen’zat bodies were being picked up and removed. An army of techs replaced them as they began cleaning up all the blood and gore while others took to the damage done to the emitters, passing her by with a myriad of odd looks but none of them interrupted her as she moved about watching the last of the wounded walk or be carried off.

Eventually she came across Rio and saw Ethan laying on a hover plank as two medics pulled him along with a Star Force regenerator attached to his chest.

“How bad?” she asked as Rio left them and headed towards her, though he was still wearing his armor that had a few small holes in it, but not as big as the one Sara had suffered.

“Bad, but he’s out of danger now. How are you still walking?” he asked, looking at and into the hole in her chest using his Pefbar to see through the foam poking out in a way that looked like the tip of an ice cream cone.

“Last man standing,” she insisted. “How many did we lose?”

“18 unrevivable, another 46 hurt so bad they can’t walk out. If we didn’t have numbers on them we would have got our asses kicked even worse.”

“We did plenty of damage of our own,” Sara insisted. “Now I can understand why the psionics are such a threat to them. Most of those Zen’zat outranked us.”

“Some by a lot,” Rio agreed. “Our friend from the Ribbon wasn’t the strongest.”

“Glad we got him. Are we all done?”

“Teams are still searching the area to make sure some of them didn’t split off, but all indications are that this was the last of them. You need to get to a med bay.”

“Later. Did Vermaire make it?”

“Yeah, and he took out two of the badasses…with help.”

“Figures. Was he hurt?”

“He walked it off, same as you.”

“We need the security cam footage analyzed and genetic samples taken from the Zen’zat. If there’s been any upgrades we need to know, and potentially steal. As much as we’ve been preparing for this, they fought harder than I expected.”

“I expected them to be more cautious with equal opponents, but I was wrong. When they get pushed they push back harder. Their dominance hasn’t made them soft. If not for battlemeld they would have wrecked us.”

“They killed enough as is,” Sara said, referencing not only those involved in the battle here but the deaths the Zen’zat had racked up amongst the civilians and security forces they’d blown through to get this far into the Antarctic cityscape. “We’ve got a huge backline problem if they send units of this caliber in.”

“I think these were the best they had. They were going for an infiltration of the pyramid.”

“Agreed. What the hell were they thinking?”

“Maybe they thought we wouldn’t fire through our own city.”

“That was stupid of them…but we’ll take it. I don’t expect any gifts like that in the future. How long do you think we have?”

“If Roger can’t destroy their fleet, maybe 6 months. If he can, I think they’d send a scout to check out what’s going on,” Rio hoped. “We might get a couple years that way.”

“I bet they get at least one ship back.”

“I never count Roger out, but I wouldn’t put credits on him getting them all either. You think they’ll come straight back here or hit our perimeter systems?”

“Maybe both, but they’re not ignoring Earth. We beat them here, so this is where they will come first to undo their failure. Their collective ego won’t allow for anything else.”

“I’m still worried about Morgan.”

“Don’t be. She’ll be ambushing them as they transit here.”

“Point, but her worlds are new and can’t match the defenses here…and they know what it takes to get through our planetary shields. They’re going to come back prepared.”

“I know,” Sara said, wincing a little as she flexed her chest, testing the level of numbness. “What’s our next move?”

Rio thought through that for a second, but no matter what ingenious ambushes they set up or how many summons they pulled down it wasn’t going to matter. Even if they destroyed the next assault fleet, and the next, and the next, the V’kit’no’sat would keep sending more from their nearly infinite empire until Earth and the rest of Star Force wasn’t just defeated, but completely erased from existence.

There would be no surrender, no mercy, no negotiation. As they’d expected all along, the V’kit’no’sat were completely unyielding and there would be nothing that deterred them from eliminating the Zen’zat ‘abominations’ that existed in defiance of their edict. They’d even said as much directly, confirming long held assumptions and Puff’s prediction, with the combat here attesting to the fact that even when outnumbered, outmaneuvered, and outgunned they were not going to surrender. They were going to fight to the last and take as many enemies with them as they could, even if negotiation would actually save their own people to fight another day.

They were totally intransigent, and in light of that there was only one thing Star Force could do. They’d known it would come to this, and even as fiery and determined as Sara was, Rio could see in her eyes that she’d already come to the same conclusion.

“Begin the evacuation.”

Mass Effect 'Hold the Line' Speech

www.aerkijyr.com

***Note from the Author***

The Origin Series has come to the end…but it is only the beginning of the Star Force franchise. The backstory covering the creation and origin of Star Force is now complete. The time period it covers is what I refer to as Phase 1. Phase 2 is the V’kit’no’sat War that follows, and the first entry into that phase will be three novels known as the Wayward Trilogy.

The first book is titled Lost Destiny and will be released May 1, 2016. The Pre-order link is below.

Star Force: Lost Destiny

Table of Contents

- Star Force: Rajamal (SF97) (Star Force Origin Series) by Aer-Ki Jyr

- Star Force: Shiva (SF98) (Star Force Origin Series) by Aer-Ki Jyr

- Star Force: Kaalo (SF99) (Star Force Origin Series) by Aer-Ki Jyr

- Star Force: Intransigent (SF100) (Star Force Origin Series) by Aer-Ki Jyr