1

December 13, 4834

Seyjan System (Bozse Region)

Ninatro

Lina Rando walked back from the service counter in the Liquids Emporium carrying a tall, skinny tube filled with a starburster over to one of the many small tables in the privately owned drinks café located along the main promenade in the fourth largest city on the planet filled with a mix of Humans, Calavari, and Dojsin. Another 18% of the population was a mix of basically everything originating from several Axius planets in the system, but Ninatro was technically a Dojsin planet.

They were one of the first races annexed from The Nexus after the initial Rim Region, with the Bozse Region sitting on the border of the Devastation Zone on the spinward side. There was a good chunk of lawless systems between them and the official Devastation Zone where Star Force hadn’t chosen to expand into, but Bozse was the only other region close to the destroyed systems and was seen as next on the conquest list for the V’kit’no’sat along with the Rim Region.

Lina sat down, her exposed breasts bobbing a bit within the two rings of her corset, drawing a few fleeting glances from the other Humans in the Emporium, but they didn’t linger. Her outfit was gaudy, but nothing too uncommon, making her stand out enough to draw momentary attention, but just as quickly be lost to thought…which was her intention. Drawing looks then being dismissed was a good way to hide in public, and her tight red corset that transitioned into loose, flowing white material that covered her arms had everything on her upper body from neck to waist concealed save for her breasts, accenting her living accoutrements in a nice holiday theme that a fair number of others in public were reciprocating in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

That top, coupled with her miniskirt and tight, candy cane-stripped boots that came up above her knees, certainly made her eye candy for the Human men, but the other races didn’t seem to care too much, though her color coordination drew some approving looks from them. Her hair was even dolled up to match, having been grow out all the way down to her butt in a medical station two days ago and weaved together in a brain that reached to lower back with a strand of white, green, and red hair twirled together then bobbed off with a red orb on the end.

Even her exposed nipples had been genetically altered, one so that it was colored green, the other red, though it wasn’t a look the Arc Commando usually went for. Occasionally she’d walk around completely topless with a pair of loose shorts on, but oddly that didn’t draw as much attention as being half clothed with her breasts exposed. The framing was somehow more eye-catching than just her natural skin, and really she didn’t mind. It was a nice style to have, though she preferred a full uniform top or nothing at all.

Lina was only 836 years old, but other Arc Commandos had told her that back in Star Force’s earliest days girls showing their nipples in public had been taboo…but not for the guys. That made no sense to her, for both guys and girls had nipples. It was the same body part, so why should one have to be hidden and one ok to reveal? She’d been even more flabbergasted when the elders told her that women would expose their breasts but cover their nipples, which made even less sense. Guys didn’t have breasts, but they did have nipples. Why not hide what they didn’t have and show what they did?

But taboos were like that. They existed for no reason and were reinforced by public pressure. A ‘do as your told and don’t think about it’ approach that Star Force had gotten rid of long ago. They had rules, of course, but ever rule had a reason…like wearing underwear in public areas such as this.

Bras didn’t count, because the reason for the underwear minimum was to catch loose body fluids. Her breasts weren’t producing any milk so no worries there, but nudity hadn’t been banned in Star Force for as long as she could remember, with several Human males within view on the crowded promenade wearing full body suits that were entirely see-through.

Lina glanced at them as they passed, seeing their hairless crotches compressed within the suits and enjoying the view, for guys that were not physically fit usually didn’t go for the clear clothing. Most of the Dojsin didn’t either, but on occasion you’d see one of the lanky bipeds with their apple-sized reproductive orbs revealed. It wasn’t a turn on for Lina, but it was rare enough to draw attention anyway. There were so many non-Human races within Star Force that she didn’t think most people knew what all parts they had.

But Lina wasn’t here to gawk, rather she was here on business as she sucked out of a straw the starburster that contained the maximum legal concentration of caffeine allowed in vendor drinks. Star Force versions usually contained no caffeine at all, which was why a lot of people favored the starburster and others that they could only acquire with credits from work, making places like this a hangout for the more motivated citizens while the lazies concentrated in areas where some Star Force outlets offered free food and drinks.

Lina drank her starburster slowly, needing to hold this position for a while. She was hoping to catch a Rylenian passing through here, but the Arc Commando didn’t want to be obvious about it…hence her festive garb that attracted a couple of male passersby to sit down and chat with her, which she welcomed. It helped enhance her cover, and her telepathic skills were good enough that she could talk with a person in front of her while mentally scanning others in the area.

And the conversation made her drink last longer, extending her stay long enough for three Rylenians to come and go, but the fourth one that arrived and sat down at a table without a drink was the one she wanted.

She shifted her mood to one of elitist offishness, discouraging males from more than a quick flirt and keeping them at enough of a chilly distance that they didn’t try to sit down and chat her up. She couldn’t handle the distraction now, for she was heavily digging into the Rylenian’s mind. It wasn’t one that she was too familiar with, and Lina was having some trouble making sense of it, but it was obvious that this one was waiting for a contact, so she had some time.

Eventually the four legged, feathered ‘totem pole’ was joined at his table by a Bavu. The two made some casual conversation that Lina knew was just for cover, for it was more pointless than usual chit chat, then the Bavu got up and went to the counter, coming back with a pair of drinks that were not palpable for Humans. When he gave the Rylenian his drink, the Rylenian slipped him a data chip. It was subtle and easily missed, but with Lina in both their minds they practically advertised the transaction before it happened.

The two sat and talked a bit more, then the Rylenian excused himself and shuffled off, leaving the large, bald-headed Bavu alone at the table.

Lina waited until the contact was well away, then she got up and headed back to the counter with her now empty drink. She passed behind the Bavu and gently touched the back of his neck with her fingertips and the small wire protruding out from her baggy right sleeve cuff.

“Hey baby,” she said, feeling her fingertips go numb as the stun charge bled back through the Bavu’s skin and into hers, but she still had the rest of her hand functioning as she got an affectionate grip on the back of his neck and swung around beside him, leaning down to give his big head a kiss as she tipped his head back and kept his body from falling out of his chair.

She rubbed her face against his as she got his body positioned appropriately, then after some decent acting said her flirty farewell, leaving him sitting upright in his chair with a muscle hold command jammed into his mind. His three eyes were fixed and unblinking, but otherwise he looked normal as Lina got herself another starburster and headed back to her original seat, patting the Bavu on the head as she went by and rejoined the sea-like crowds, losing herself again while keeping an eye on the Bavu’s table.

She sent a telepathic ping to the security team nearby, and a few minutes later two uniformed officers arrived and nonchalantly picked up the Bavu, one under each arm, and carried him out of the Emporium…but Lina had the datachip in her hand, not needing to scan it to know its contents.

It would be valuable data from mid-level Star Force officials, acquired through a variety of means, some of which included bribery, and was being passed through a number of intermediaries that Lina had been tracking for over two years. The Bavu was new to her, which was why she’d had him picked up rather than the Rylenian.

Leaving him free might draw in some additional contacts, for this spy network operated in cells knowing that Star Force could read their minds if captured. The few true traitors within Star Force had been dealt with already, and those that had been unwilling dupes were now clued in to the threat and the security breaches sealed, but there was no way of knowing how many more there were.

Nothing too vital had been known to be stolen yet, but they were still getting information that was not available to the public and funneling it to outside parties. Lina had guessed where it was going, but the arrival of the Bavu was her first link back to the V’kit’no’sat, for they were a race from coreward of the Devastation Zone that was a known associate of their enemy.

Bavu traveled everywhere, so their appearance here wasn’t too unusual, and it made for good cover for V’kit’no’sat spies. The fact that the Rylenian was handing over data to one told her that it was going through probably its last intermediary, and with luck the interrogation of the Bavu would tell security where the V’kit’no’sat handoff would be taking place.

It was progress, but rooting out this spy network was extremely hard given how many trillions of people were roaming around Star Force territory that weren’t part of the empire. Planets like this one were free access to outsiders, despite the looming threat of V’kit’no’sat invasion. Star Force was simply too much of a communal nexus for travelers to ignore, and while Star Force handled it all well, there were too many people and too few Archons and Mavericks to effectively sift through them all.

That was one reason why the Arc Commandos had been created. Their combat skills were a prerequisite, but their specialty was going where others would not. Seeing the cracks in the empire and knowing how to move through them and hunt others who were doing the same. As valuable as Lina was on the battlefield, her work identifying and eliminating these information breaches was more important, and if she could spare an Archon the duty and let them go to the battlefield, so much the better for Star Force.

Her job done for the moment, Lina lingered in the Emporium liberally sucking on the drink now that she didn’t have to stretch her stay here. Her mood altered to ‘I want to be alone’ to discourage more than momentary flirting as she waited out any potential surveillance of the location. The odds of that were rare, but she liked to be thorough and leaving immediately would give away her involvement in the arrest.

Lina was also scanning minds, looking for odd reactions but finding nothing out of the ordinary. Security taking someone away was rare but not unheard of, so the reactions of mild shock were expected. Others didn’t care so long as it didn’t involve them, and Lina couldn’t pick up any other contacts in the area. A pity, for if she had that would be another thread to follow in what was such a complex web that there were an estimated 200,000 or more known spies throughout the Bozse and Rim Regions.

This was no small operation, and she and the others hunting them needed to find them all…or at least eliminate their sources of information. If they wanted to just roam around listening to the public news feeds they were welcome to, but they were finding ways to worm into stuff that was restricted to Star Force workers only, giving the enemy or other interested parties a more complete look at how Star Force operated than they cared to let their opposition know about.

Lina was halfway through the second starburster when the privately owned news channel with an anchor wearing a similar ‘bare breast’ tunic to Lina’s was pre-empted by the main Star Force news network with a priority override. There was breaking news concerning a mission to the Core that Lina hadn’t known about that had the V’kit’no’sat allowing Star Force to pass through with several Uriti so they could make contact with the Hadarak.

Lina’s red and green eyebrows raised in shock. She’d never heard of any joint efforts between the two empires before. Rather, the V’kit’no’sat were continually trying to eradicate Star Force in any way they could, but as she continued to listen along with virtually everyone else on the planet as the activity across the entire promenade suddenly ground to a halt with everyone finding the nearest display screen, the fully clothed Star Force news anchor revealed that due to the Core mission and the information sharing on the Hadarak that resulted from it, a temporary truce between Star Force and the V’kit’no’sat was now in effect and would last 243 years.

Lina knew why that number was what it was, even though no one else did. It was a V’kit’no’sat ‘Sarma’ and not some random amount of years. That small fact aside, the idea of a truce immediately drew skepticism from her, though apparently not from everyone else, for a huge roar of approval swept the promenade that was tepid compared to the emotional surge was she picking up telepathically.

It was so deafening that she had to shut down her general Ikrid scan, but the sound of cheering in the multiple racial forms continued for minutes on end even as the news anchor cautioned that the agreement was contingent on the V’kit’no’sat honoring the deal and there was no way to know whether they would or not.

But to the citizenry it didn’t matter. For this moment, at least, the war was over and they didn’t have to worry about the next attack landing on their head.

To Lina it meant a great deal more, and if true would give Star Force some badly needed breathing room to rebuild their fleets and strengthen their border defenses. What she couldn’t understand was why the V’kit’no’sat would allow them this.

The news anchor went on to explain that, saying the information on the Hadarak was valuable enough to them to be worth the pause in the war…which the anchor insisted would resume after the 243 year period. The war was not over, only paused, but the people didn’t seem to care one bit. Most of them had been born after the war started and they had never known anything other than defeat after defeat after defeat…but now there was going to be no more fighting, for a while, but to them it probably seemed like forever.

A Calavari beside her bent over and kissed Lina on the forehead, then clapped her on both shoulders with his big hands and picked her up out of her chair like a rag doll.

“Did you hear that!” his low, booming voice asked in clear enthusiasm. “The fighting is over!”

“I heard,” she said with a cheery smile, letting him manhandle her in his glee, though her smaller frame was quite capable of kicking his ass even without her psionics if needed. “But they’ll be coming back later.”

“Not for 243 years! That’s a lifetime!”

“For some,” she said, with him finally letting her down to her feet with her head level with his chest.

“You don’t seem happy, Human. Why not?”

“We won’t be safe until the V’kit’no’sat are all dead. If they agreed to this, it has to help them in some way.”

“If it didn’t help us, the trailblazers wouldn’t have agree to it…would they?” he argued, knowing he had a good point and smiling broadly with it.

“True,” she admitted.

“So be happy. This is good for us.”

“You’re right,” she said, stepping up on a chair and giving him a friendly kiss on his big lips. “It is good.”

“Then dance!” he said, starting to clobber the floor with his heavy feet in rhythm with the other people around them that were slowly all syncing up. She didn’t know where it had started, but soon the entire promenade was dancing in place and singing a number of different songs.

Lina laughed, deciding to go along with it and stepping up on top of the table so she was finally standing taller than the Calavari along with several other Humans and smaller races that were up on the other tables. She started dancing with them, throwing in a lot of old school moves the other Arc Commandos had taught her, and quickly became the center of attention within the Emporium as everyone else starting to match their movements to hers.

Lina knew this wasn’t the end of the war, but it was huge news…and the Calavari was right. If the trailblazers had agreed to it, then it was a good thing. How good was unclear, but it meant the border colonies wouldn’t be getting attacked in the near future. How long that would last, who knew, but for now they were technically at peace.

Lina knew the distinction in that, but the crowd didn’t and their enthusiasm was infectious. Given that she didn’t have anywhere else to be at the moment and security would be handling the Bavu interrogation, she decided to stay and dance on the table top, throwing gestures to the others and getting many back as they all celebrated.

For now, at least, the war was over. How long that would last…no one knew, nor cared about at this point. The perpetual dread hanging over Star Force was now lifted, with uncertain hope replacing it.

But at this point, even uncertain hope was a victory beyond all victories, and that wasn’t lost on the Arc Commando who began enjoying herself thoroughly through the multiple-hours long spontaneous celebration that soon spread across all of Star Force territory. Making it, arguably, the largest dance party in galactic history.

2

February 19, 4840

Alamo System (Uriti Preserve)

Warden 8 Station

Riley-038 stood in an observation deck onboard the Star Force-only station as fleets of visiting ships watched at a closer, but still safe distance as the carrier vessel from the Knights of Quenar arrived. The trailblazer wasn’t needed for any immediate operations, for the Wranglers were handling them as usual, but now that the V’kit’no’sat war had been paused and most of his peers had moved away from the Devastation Zone to the far Rim where Star Force’s other wars were still ongoing, he was one of the few that had remained to patrol the region, as well as to keep an eye on the all-important Uriti.

Riley had been the natural choice, for he’d been involved with the Uriti from the beginning and had the closest relationship with them after the Wranglers. When the 5 that had visited and fought the Hadarak returned, the others did not take the news well. Most of them were in denial, for they hadn’t been directly attacked themselves and only had the memories of the others to share. They couldn’t comprehend that their kin could turn on them, and now that Riley knew that they were in fact a Hadarak/minion hybrid he could understand that.

While living beings, minions existed as pieces within a hive mind. They were individuals, but they didn’t see themselves as such and the idea of one turning on another was, from their point of view, impossible. It would be like Riley’s right hand attacking his left, and was such a foreign concept that the Uriti here almost accused the others of lying…except they couldn’t do that either, for the Uriti never lied.

The past 5 years had been rough for them, coming to grips with the fact that they were not only alone but hated by those that should have been their allies. How the Hadarak would react to them now was unknown, for the one they’d encountered had left confused as well, but the Uriti knew they wouldn’t be coming out to them anytime soon and with the truce between Star Force and the V’kit’no’sat they also knew they wouldn’t be fighting them for a while.

That meant all they had was their training and the promise of a few field trips to the nearest black holes in Star Force territory. It wasn’t much, but they clung to it even in their despair as the years passed, but the dynamic between the Uriti was not the same as it had been before. They were hurt, and even while Bahamut’s injuries had healed, he especially was broken emotionally. The very foundation of what it meant to be a Uriti was gone, and that had rocked all of them to the core.

Fortunately the KoQ were continuing to hunt for the remaining Uriti hidden across the galaxy and had found another 4 years ago. Acquiring it and transporting it around the Core to avoid the V’kit’no’sat had taken all 4 of those years, with it finally arriving today, and the Wranglers feeding Riley information from all 73 of them that had been gathered together for the occasion. The sheer destructive power of that ‘herd’ was mind boggling, but Riley wasn’t worried. Star Force and the Uriti were on good terms, and frankly, they were the only family the Uriti had in addition to each other.

Powerful as they were, they were not a threat even without the emergency overrides each of the Uriti were subservient to. Riley was glad they had those as backup, but hadn’t needed to use them even once since the Hadarak contact mission. The observing races here, however, were not so confident…which left them trying to get ‘close’ while staying far away at the same time.

Star Force had drawn a line to make it easy for them, but you could see the various ships moving around that line constantly repositioning, and when one of the Uriti drifted closer to it half of the ships would pull back while the other half held position. Fear was a constant here, and as a certain Sith Lord had said long ago, Fear attracts the fearful.

Riley hadn’t understood that tenet for a long time, but now it was obvious. Those who were afraid often ran away, but others wanted to get close to the fear without getting too close. They either wanted the rush of adrenaline, or perhaps the feeling of being so close to such great power. Then again, maybe they were just stupid, but whatever their motivation they were here, by the thousands of ships, to witness the combined Uriti herd as it welcomed its newest member.

And it wasn’t just for today. Ever since news of the V’kit’no’sat truce had begun to seep out across the galaxy new ships had been arriving in the Preserve to take a look at the beasts that had scared the V’kit’no’sat into withdrawal. Riley knew that wasn’t entirely true, but it didn’t matter. No one stood up against the V’kit’no’sat and lived, yet the massive empire had agreed to a 243 year truce with Star Force…who possessed these living monsters that were more powerful than anything the V’kit’no’sat wielded, their Mach’nel included.

Riley knew this was just the beginning, for even after 5 years word of the truce was still reaching new systems and would continue to do so across the galaxy for decades to come. And anyone who had ever heard of the V’kit’no’sat would be curious about those who had successfully stood up to them, with the key to their defiance being the Uriti in the Preserve…so this was the focal point of curiosity and diplomacy, as it had been for a long time, but now it was literally exploding with activity as ships moved about the Devastation Zone freely without having to worry about being attacked by the V’kit’no’sat.

New trade routes were already opening up, redrawing the map with regards to Star Force’s neighbors as if roads were being added where none had been before. The closest black hole routes had seen traffic increase over 100 fold, and the best routes between those endpoints and here were now being packed with ship traffic and even some entrepreneurs setting up shop on worlds that technically Star Force still owned, even if they were abandoned.

Riley had dealt with several of them personally, driving off a few but striking deals with others to sanction their presence as they took advantage of all the traffic passing through. Davis had made the decision not to recolonize the Devastation Zone other than Sol, and instead use the available resources to harden the current border, increase the industry on already inhabited worlds, and to make a much larger push into former Nexus territory.

Riley hated that, but the Director’s logic was sound. 243 years was a long time, but not even close to what they needed to rebuild the Devastation Zone. It was enough time to recolonize a lot of it, but making it war ready in less than three centuries was not doable. What had been destroyed there had taken millennia to build, and Star Force wasn’t going to make the mistake of overreaching only to see system after system destroyed for the second time.

No. Star Force intended to hold the line firmly when the truce ended, and that meant building more shield generators on top of those that already existed. Not starting from scratch on dead worlds.

Sol was the only exception, and the trailblazers expected it would be the first system hit when the war restarted, so they weren’t going to allow a civilian population. It was going to end up being a war zone, so they were planning for such, making Earth, Mars, and Titan essentially battle fields in the making while they repaired and refurbished the other planetoids for industrial output but skimped on the defenses that they knew wouldn’t last more than minutes against the size of a fleet they expected the V’kit’no’sat to bring back with them.

Morgan was there now, taking up permanent residence and overseeing the building while several High Admirals were out patrolling the Devastation Zone. The rank had just been commissioned for 18 of the most experienced Admirals that had truly outdone themselves during the war. Liam had suggested the upgrade, tasking them with select duties that Archons would normally deal with.

High Admirals were also given priority naval command over all Archons save for the trailblazers. They’d been doing such things during the war as needed, but now official command was given to them even with Archons in their fleets. Those Archons could override the High Admirals if needed, but they were no longer looked to first for decision making. The High Admirals had higher naval rankings than them anyways, but the fleets the High Admirals now commanded would always have Archons in them just to cover the unforeseen problems that might pop up. Other than that, they were second string to the High Admirals.

So right now there were 4 High Admirals with fleets out patrolling the Devastation Zone while smaller Archon units were dealing with the races and organizations that intended to colonize the empty systems. Sweeping them up and kicking them out was a waste of a trailblazer’s time, so Riley and Morgan left that to others unless something huge happened. The other 98 trailblazers were assigned elsewhere within Star Force territory while Kara’s Clan Ghostblade had disappeared beyond the known borders, out exploring new territory and doing some priority tasks for Davis that even Riley didn’t know about.

He had information on what all the trailblazers were doing to some degree, but most of what was going on he would only know after the fact if he dug into the records. Star Force was so large at this point that no one knew what all was going on and Riley and his peers relied on each other to take care of their piece of the puzzle, along with Davis and the Monarchs. Trust was the only thing that kept their empire together, otherwise it would have fractured by now without another means of unification.

The V’kit’no’sat, whose empire was far larger than Star Force’s, did not operate on trust as much as the Human-led empire did. Theirs was a much more complicated puzzle that kept their races partially separate but beholden to the others. Killing those who didn’t obey also offered an intimidation factor to force results or remove those that were not conducive to the goals of the empire, but Star Force couldn’t and wouldn’t use such measures.

The Monarchs and the Archons were the key to maintaining the unity of the empire, but the larger the empire grew, both in territory and people, the harder it was to maintain control over. More Monarchs were being added, as were Archons, but there was only so much any one of them could do, making Davis’s job continually harder…for he had to oversee everything.

Riley had a personal relationship with him, as did all the trailblazers, and he’d insisted that was key going forward…which was why Riley and the other trailblazers were now returning to taking on apprentices so they could build personal relationships with the newer additions. Being an Archon meant a lot of common ground with every other Archon, but a personal connection was needed amongst the ultra high leadership.

All of the High Admirals had served directly under the trailblazers, so personal connections already existed there, just as almost every Monarch had served as a Clan Marquis and had a personal relationship to at least one trailblazer. Now Riley had taken on an apprentice, a Piccolo-level Archon named Bisa-10006, who was slightly more innovative than other Archons and was being groomed for semi-trailblazer duties above and beyond combat.

She was with him now, and traveled everywhere he went in the Devastation Zone, but this was the first time she’d been present when a new Uriti arrived. Seeing the arrival was one thing, which anyone could review later, but feeling the Uriti’s emotions as both Archons were now was something entirely different and Bisa was clearly getting overwhelmed with all 73 of them in her head simultaneously, even if in a muted state.

“Focus on one now,” he suggested as the carrier vessel opened and the sedate Uriti drifted out while the ship slowly reversed course. “Try Bahamut.”

“That’s better,” she said, now with only one Uriti in her head, though that was still too much to take without the dampeners. “How do the Wranglers deal with this?”

“The more familiar the minds are, the easier they are to process. Even with minds of this magnitude.”

“I can’t make out much, even from just Bahamut.”

“It takes time. Their mental language isn’t based off vocal communications, so it can get a bit wonky.”

“I’ll say,” she said with a huff, having to constantly keep resetting her mental stance as Bahamut’s emotions kept blowing her virtual ‘fuse’ and overwhelming her with information.

“There he is,” Riley said as the 74th mind began to poke into existence as three of the Uriti rushed up to the 28 mile long, 4-hulled banana and began raking it with telepathic electricity to undo the sedative as fast as possible.

The Uriti was a single piece at the front and back, but those pieces split into four segments that arched out and around an empty central space before recombining into the back piece. A ship could fly inside the Uriti and out again if it wanted, making this another odd design the Chixzon had come up with, and based off the Ancients’ combat data that empty space served multiple purposes…one of which was a charging chamber for a death star-like weapon.

The Wranglers would work out what it could or couldn’t do over time and training, but right now it was the Uriti that were making first contact while Star Force simply observed, and for the first time since the Hadarak mission the Uriti were hopeful and happy. They’d gone to the Hadarak expecting to find new brothers and sisters, instead finding enemies, but now they had found a new sibling and the palpable depression that had been consuming them was lifting, and Riley could tell that all they needed was some good news to latch onto in order to start really healing.

The new Uriti, which Riley had named ‘Green Lantern,’ woke up to a situation he had never encountered before…that being other Uriti around him. Up until today he had been the only one in existence, as far as he knew, with the only contact he had was the intermittent orders from the Chixzon.

The reaction was not underestimated, and the other Uriti were also seeing it again through Green Lantern’s eyes, reminding them of where they had been before Star Force brought them together, and that memory seemed to be the breaking point to cleanse them of their depression. They’d come so far since then, rescued from a life of solitude just as Green Lantern was now…as well as realizing just how much he had to learn.

They knew it was their responsibility to teach him more than it was Star Force’s, and Riley was thankful for that. Teaching the first few Uriti had been a very slow process, but once they had some veterans to Star Force training to talk Uriti to Uriti with the newcomers the learning curve had become far less steep. Even now Riley could feel the Uriti reaching out to the newest member of their family, thanks to the fact that they were allowing the Wranglers to eavesdrop, and ‘hearing’ his exciting, yet groggy reaction to the realization that he wasn’t alone in the galaxy.

Riley glanced to his left, seeing a few tears welling up in Bisa’s eyes.

“Yet one more reason to hate the Chixzon,” the trailblazer commented. “Uriti are built to act as a group, both as a Hadarak and as a minion. Keeping them isolated is a light, persistent torment that this one is now being released from for the first time.”

“He is so big,” she said, still crying a few silent tears.

“They are less advanced than us, yet they are more advanced. Remember that over the years as you become familiar with their minds, or you’ll constantly be misjudging them.”

“I’ve never felt any mind even remotely like this.”

“Neither have I. And it’s why they refer to us as the ‘little people.’”

“That I can understand.”

“I still can’t fully understand them, and neither can the Wranglers. Who knows what they think of us, which is why we have to focus on actions rather than words. Show them what we want, not tell them.”

“Lucky for us we know how to talk training.”

“Damn right, girl. That’s a language that all races speak…or will learn to speak. We all like to get more powerful.”

“And the Hadarak?”

“Training takes time, so if they shoot us on sight that’s not really an option.”

“You really think they’re coming for us all the way out here?”

“I don’t know, but we have to have a plan in place if they do. We’ll see them coming well ahead of their arrival, but if and when they get here, they’re going to be very hard to kill even with the Uriti’s help.”

“You’re talking the planet-sized ones the Rit’ko’sor reported?”

“Think of how much weaponsfire something a thousand miles wide can soak up. We can run and stay ahead of them, our planets can’t. We have to be ready long before we see the first one coming.”

“And if they don’t come?”

“Anything that can kill a Hadarak will probably be useful against the V’kit’no’sat.”

“The spaceball program?”

“We have to fight through the minions to even get in position to use it, and their tentacles mean a really big ship to get out of their range.”

“What else have we got in the works?”

“Not much yet. Have any ideas?”

“Working on it,” she said honestly, and Riley knew that challenge would bug her as it did other Archons. One of them would come up with something eventually, he hoped. Fighting planet-sized people was something new for Star Force, and if the V’kit’no’sat weren’t very good at it after all these years, he expected it would be a very hard challenge to conquer…but that wasn’t going to deter the Archons from working the problem. “How long before the Uriti get that big?”

“Hard to say. Maybe a million years. They don’t grow as fast as the Hadarak, though we’re speeding up the process.”

“How?”

“Making sure they eat their Wheaties.”

“Wheaties?”

“Food. We give them specific food, faster than they could harvest it themselves, but the speed training we’re doing with them is fighting the bloated growth the Hadarak have.”

“I thought the Hadarak were faster than untrained Uriti.”

“That has to do with the tinkering the Chixzon did. More kill power for less speed,” he said as a green spark lit on the front prong of the new Uriti for a second, then dispersed just as soon in an energy cloud…which Riley took to be it just stretching after such a long nap.

“Did any of them get pissed when woken up?”

“No. They were all overly thrilled to realize they had brothers. Looks like this one is no exception.”

“I can feel him now. His mind is…more chaotic than the others.”

“Lack of a herd to align with. That will change rapidly.”

“Any leads on the next one?”

“Leads yes, confirmation no. The Knights of Quenar aren’t going to stop looking until they find them all.”

“I’m still surprised they’re giving them to us.”

“Mutual advantage. I don’t trust them, but we can work with them.”

“What’s their long term plan?”

“Hard to say. I’m not worried about them in the near future.”

“Think they’re gonna try and steal our control structure?”

“They would if they could, as would many others. They’re not getting it though.”

“Are we sure of that?”

“We’ve got backups just in case, but I’m pretty sure they can’t figure it out on their own.”

“Backups?”

Riley pointed out the fake windows at the herd of Uriti. “We don’t control them anymore, though we can if needed. We’ve made friends. And that’s the best backup available.”

“So…I hear you’re the only Archon to have ever petted one?”

“True,” he said with a smile. “First and probably the last. If we ever have to sedate one again, then we’ll have royally screwed up.”

3

February 19, 4840

Yavarris System (Totana Region Capitol)

Nexchi

Davis leapt from one pedestal-like box to another, firing a shot from his stun pistol against a floating target sphere that clipped the upper right corner, but it was still enough to count as a hit. He landed awkwardly on the edge of the next pedestal but stuck it, redirecting to his right as he ran across a short bridge to a bit of wall that he then slid behind face up as he shot another target high above his head.

As soon as he did a flurry of stun shots flew over the wall that was now covering him, forcing him to spin around and crawl another 15 meters before he got out of the trap and into a tube-like slide that sent him down through several twirls before ending in a drop-off into freefall.

Davis sprayed shots as he fell at the nearby target sphere, managing to get a hit that triggered a force field to form beneath him. He hit feet first then collapsed onto his butt, sliding to the side rather than falling into the disqualification pit, and allowing him to continue on the challenge course. He made it another two minutes before getting tagged on a two inch wide bridge he had to cross, cursing himself for stupidly trying to walk across it rather than crawling as his legs gave way and he fell into another disqualification pit.

The chamber’s lighting changed to red and a bad tone sounded, then it all reverted to normal as he limped his way to the exit with his right leg still too numb to move. The level 34 Striker hopped on his other leg over to a wall that held shelves with destunning serum and grabbed one of the tiny vials. A quick jab into his leg sent a wash of pins and needles through it, then they too disappeared and he regained full use of his limb.

Standing normally again, Davis swiped the sweat off his forehead and flicked it to the ground in frustration. He’d gotten farther than he ever had before, but he was an Archon and disliked failing as much as the others. The key to passing these challenges was grinding out the attempts and learning from the failures, as he had been doing on this course for nearly 3 months. But unlike the other Archons, he wasn’t full time. He was also a Monarch, and in addition to that he was the creator and head of the entire Star Force civilization. Archon training was a secondary priority for him, and right now he really wished he had all day to work on this challenge course, but that was time he didn’t have.

He’d spent two hours training this morning, and even with his Inas psionic that allowed him to work longer and sleep less, he couldn’t devote even half a day to his personal training. Too many things had to be done, and now more than ever since the pause in the V’kit’no’sat war.

Others would have said this was the perfect opportunity for Davis to squeeze another hour in per day, now that the pressure was off, but he knew otherwise. Two hours was, in fact, pushing it, for he had more to do now than during the war. With limited resources flowing directly into drone replacement, that left what he had to work with small and focused…but now that there wasn’t a territory and resource depletion on the coreward front he literally had so many building opportunities and projects and people to rescue that he hated spending any hours on training.

As Davis left the Archon sanctum on Nexchi his mind flipped from Archon mode to Monarch, the frustration of the challenge now behind him and a focus on the work he needed to get done. His mind began working the problems as soon as he hit the shower, and by the time he got back to his tower-top office with a view of the tropical ocean beyond he was running logistical numbers on the fly before he even had a chance to telepathically activate his clear desk and bring it alive with holographic data screens of the ongoing expansion into what had previously been The Nexus.

The map looked like a shotgun had been taken to it, with the weak areas now abandoned or lost as the main Nexus races held onto the systems they valued the most. Gone was their widespread territory that they had once held dominion over, now replaced with a spiderweb of trade routes and the systems along them that were worth protecting.

The core of The Nexus was still intact, but it was no longer the monolithic power beyond Star Force’s rimward border and many opportunistic races and organizations were going crazy in the power gaps. The Nexus didn’t care any longer what happened in those areas they had all but officially forfeited, focusing on their own survival and not losing more of what they still held, and most of those responsible races left unprotected were screaming for Star Force’s help.

They had been for centuries, and a lot of the closer ones had been loosely annexed, which Davis was now getting firmed up, but there were many, many others, some all the way out in the Cygnus galactic arm, that were requesting membership, assistance, or even just one of the Archons to help them try and survive.

And therein was a big problem with the former Nexus civilization. Too many of the smaller races relied on the Grid Point system commerce, and when they were cut off from it their collapse was imminent. Some had already been destroyed, both from invasion and others just from infrastructure collapse. Those in the latter category Davis was now sending out advisory staff to try and help stabilize through wisdom in better using what resources they had. For those races under attack it was another matter entirely, and there was less he could do.

Now that the war was on pause, part of the defense fleets that had been on the coreward border were now beyond the rim kicking the crap out of little bad guys that had the run of the place, but The Nexus’s former territory was so huge it was literally too much for Star Force to handle…but every planet saved mattered, and Davis knew this was the time to do the most good, not a time to kick back and relax…even if that relaxation came in the form of more Archon training.

All his Monarchs ran pieces of Star Force for him, tasked with making each piece self-sufficient and while he kept an eye on what they were doing he didn’t micromanage them. He had too much to do, and if they weren’t capable then he wouldn’t have made them Monarchs in the first place. What he was focusing on now was the exports each of those pieces were giving him access to.

Some of those were going to the border systems on the edge of the Devastation Zone, to strength them for when the war did resume. The bulk of the exports, however, were being fed into growth programs. The Bsidd, Kiritak, Kiritas, and Paladin were getting most of them, which in turn they would reciprocate with after they expanded their own production efforts. It was an investment that had to be made for the future, but it also meant less that could be sent to those in need beyond Star Force’s borders.

There was no way to save everyone, and the stream of refugees making their way to Star Force territory had increased tenfold since world of the truce with the V’kit’no’sat had spread rimward. Star Force was now the safest place to go, and both Axius and Beacon were using Kiritak labor to help them colonize new worlds fast enough to accommodate the influx of new population…all of which had to go through indoctrination. If they didn’t, and Davis just allowed them directly into the empire, they would destabilize it, bringing with them all their bad habits, war wounds, corrupt cultures…the refugees had to be contained and isolated until they assimilated, and right now those indoctrination colonizes were being overtaxed.

Current work orders would correct that shortly now that he had ample resources to divert to them. The Kiritak population was also exploding, or rather being allowed to explode, in order to meet the demand, but they had to be trained and that took time to get the level of expertise Star Force relied upon. Kiritak learned fast, but the more low level Kiritak there were the more they diluted the skill level of the overall workforce.

The Paladin, however, were born ready to work or fight, but often lacked the high level skills that the Kiritak developed over time. But right now Star Force was in a rush, with a time limit on their respite even if the V’kit’no’sat did not violate the truce…which they might. Davis expected they wouldn’t, but he couldn’t trust in that, which was why Morgan was building up Sol in order to draw the V’kit’no’sat’s attention away from the rest of Star Force like a lure. He fully expected to lose Earth again, but if forcing a fight there could buy a few more years for the rest of the empire then the expenditure would be worth it.

As for the Paladin, he was about to send out new orders for a massive expansion. Typically they had to build everything themselves, and were damn good at startup operations. They’d been holding together a lot of far flung regions with few resources and personnel that gradually grew over time, allowing Davis to send missions nearly anywhere he wanted to turn the tide in small situations, but that’s not what he needed now. He needed mass, and he needed it now.

How much to send them was the question, and he’d been running the numbers for the past 5 days. Resources would be flowing out to their prime territory where they did most of their building, but Davis needed something bold from them that would require their unique expertise and a massive population upgrade that could only be obtained in the necessary time by an influx of supplies. If they had to gather their own and slowly expand it wouldn’t work. He needed a line drawn in the sand yesterday…

Thrawn was on Csilla, the Paladin capitol, when Davis’s lengthy message arrived. Typically he received orders from one of the trailblazers known as the 2s, who had orchestrated the transition from Li’vorkrachnika to Paladin for his race, and he’d never had any direct link to Davis, but apparently the Director of the entire Star Force empire had something to say to him.

His red eyes glowed with deeper intensity as he summoned up the hologram of the Director in his unique uniform that only he and the Dukes wore along with a map of The Nexus.

“I have need of your service, Thrawn,” he said simply, much in the way Paul spoke but with a dryer tone. It wasn’t entirely formal, but it carried with it the gravitas of someone who was in command and knew it, allowing him to communicate in whatever manner he liked because his authority was completely unchallenged.

“We have limited time before the V’kit’no’sat return, and the key to our survival lies in how much of The Nexus we can successfully assimilate. I do not know how the V’kit’no’sat will counter the Uriti, but I do not expect them to come at us in a similar manner once the Sarma expires. They will have a strategy, let alone a weakness of ours to exploit. They will not surrender nor flee, so I expect we will lose more worlds. We must continue to outgrow their destruction, and the key to that lies in sweeping up those races in dire need now and allowing them time to grow and add to our combined strength.”

“But we cannot get to all of them in time and our foes know this. I want you to send a message to them by traveling far beyond our current borders and establishing a Paladin region where they think they are safe to misbehave. I need a line,” Davis said, drawing on the map via the Ikrid psionic Thrawn knew the Director possessed, “established on the old Nexus border reaching all the way up into Cygnus. I can send you resources at Csilla for you to use here, but you’ll have to make the journey out there on your own. I do not want this to be a startup operation. I need you in force out there now, which is why I am giving you enough supplies to triple your entire population within 10 years.”

Thrawn didn’t so much as blink when Davis said that, holding perfectly still and drinking in every detail from the map and the Director’s words, but internally his anxiousness exploded. This was far greater a task than he had ever been assigned, either personally or for the Paladin on the whole, and it even exceeded what he and the other Masterminds had been tasked with when part of the Li’vorkrachnika. In fact, the amount of territory Davis was asking him to take and hold, along such a long border, exceeded what the Li’vorkrachnika possessed prior to making contact with Star Force.

But these worlds would be fresh, not built up over millennia as the Li’vorkrachnika ones had been. Still, this was a monumental task that the Director was directly assigning him…though with some help.

“Megan will be going with you, but she will be the only non-Paladin. Between the two of you I expect you will find a way to do the improbable, for there are many threats along this corridor that could defeat you in your infancy. You must survive and spread fast. This is not to be a safe operation and I am taking into account your ability to birth functional individuals. This operation is all about speed. We must claim The Nexus’s original ‘western’ border,” Davis said, using the loose term for the spinward side of center, “and hold it. If we can, all those between you and us will think twice about their actions as we close in from two sides.”

“We have to functionally begin to fill the power vacuum The Nexus is leaving, but we also need to make a statement to the effect that we are taking over and scare opposition into not acting. We can save many lives through intimidation alone, as you well know, and I need you to build that intimidation force. Only the Paladin can expand this fast, and while you are not our strongest faction, in this regard you are superior and I am calling upon your capability now. Megan is heading towards you at present, but I wanted to explain this personally.”

Davis continued on for nearly three hours, going over a wealth of information that Thrawn absorbed diligently. By the end there was a fire inside of him burning so bright it would have eclipsed his glowing eyes. This was a task worthy of the Bsidd or Calavari, or even the Humans, but Davis was correct. Only the Paladin could expand faster than them and handle the conquest that the Director was ordering.

And Thrawn had so much experience in conquest, both from his work with Star Force and his personal experiences with the Li’vorkrachnika, combined with the genetic memory they had granted him from millennia of conquest before his birth, that he knew he was uniquely suited to this task and that Davis had correctly pegged him for it.

Until now Thrawn had been in Star Force’s debt, for saving him and a good amount of his people that had been left to die by the Templar. Not only had they been saved, but they’d been transformed and given a number of vital tasks, but they’d always been junior members of Star Force. That had been enough for Thrawn, who would do anything of merit that they asked, but this was different. This was peerdom that, honestly, he didn’t think he or the Paladin deserved.

But it was what he had always craved, and if Davis thought they were capable of it he was going to make sure he proved him correct. Davis needed this operation to exist in order to expand Star Force enough in order to survive the second round of the V’kit’no’sat war…and in that Thrawn held the key. Without the Paladin Star Force would not be able to do this, at least not fast enough, meaning the once former enemy of Star Force now held its fate in his claws.

He could sink Star Force here and now by failing this mission, either accidentally or intentionally, even with a trailblazer accompanying him…but that would not happen and he only thought of it now to fully accept the situation. He was no longer a servant doing what others could do. He held leverage over the Director and even the trailblazers. He held leverage over all of Star Force, for this mission was key to their long term survival, and in that it was a weakness.

A weakness that, if he had been an enemy, he could have exploited. Always had the trailblazers held the upper hand. Always had they been one step ahead of him. Now their limits were laid bare, and he could see the edge of Star Force’s dominance. He could see where they were weak, and how to destroy them. Davis had laid it out clearly, but even he didn’t see every crack and contingency. He was a genius, but as a master builder…not a destroyer.

Thrawn was both, and the unstoppable Star Force, finally, was beatable. Had he still been their enemy he would have finally had a way to beat them. Sabotage them here and the V’kit’no’sat would finish what they started. The Li’vorkrachnika would be avenged, having won out in the long run.

Thrawn absorbed that with a cruel smile on his scaly face. He controlled Star Force’s fate, and the irony was gratuitous.

Which was why he now had the chance to pay Star Force back for what they’d done for him and the Paladin. He’d take their weakness and armor over it so much that no one would be able to exploit it. He would turn his full power and skills to shoring up this flank so the Monarchs and Archons could work their magic elsewhere.

Davis was right in contacting him and explaining the situation in detail, for in making him a peer the Director had just made him more powerful…and his loyalty to Star Force was even stronger than his blind devotion to the Li’vorkrachnika had been. He was no threat to Star Force, he was a threat to Star Force’s enemies, and they were about to learn what that truly meant.

Bottom line, Thrawn and the Paladin had Star Force’s back, literally, and in their soon to be self-imposed exile would enable the empire to expand enough to survive any level of V’kit’no’sat attack…which the Director expected to be far greater after the Sarma ended than before.

In fact, he expected them to throw everything they had at Star Force.

4

February 26, 4840

Bugali System (Hov Region)

Torrent

Arch Duke Dante didn’t travel much. His headquarters on Torrent served as the center of the Monarch’s web that had fingers throughout 12 of the 15 Regions in Star Force territory, not counting the Devastation Zone, which now included Earth once again, though Dante had nothing there. Unlike most Monarchs who oversaw either a single planet or a region, he oversaw a race...and a powerful race at that. The Calavari were one of the founding pillars in the Star Force empire, and they’d been hit hard during the destruction of the ADZ, for their primary territory was just adjacent to it and had all been wiped out.

Every single system, conquered and destroyed, but this wasn’t the first time that had happened to the Calavari. They’d suffered nearly the same fate at the hands of the lizards and the Nestafar, with Star Force having saved enough of them to rebuild within the ADZ and eventually return to reclaim their former territory.

That wasn’t going to happen now, for the Devastation Zone was off limits to Dante per Davis’s orders. The war against the V’kit’no’sat was not over, merely paused, and they didn’t have enough time to rebuild and harden their former systems in time even if the V’kit’no’sat kept their word…and there was no guarantee they would.

Dante hadn’t been with the Calavari in the very beginning, but he’d been at the helm of their greater expansion within their previous region, their staggering losses and retreat during the evacuation of the greater ADZ region, and then oversaw their continuous contributions to the war front as the border kept creeping further and further rimward.

The Calavari made up a significant portion of the Clans that were the tip of the arrow regarding the forces that actively fought the V’kit’no’sat, but were primarily pilots and commandos. Calavari, especially, were seen as the anti-Zen’zat due to the fact that they were of similar size and had two extra arms that gave them an advantage in hand to hand combat despite their lack of psionics. The few Calavari that had become Mavericks were said to be the stuff of Zen’zat nightmares, but most of this war was not in the hands of the army…it was mostly about the navy.

There the Calavari were decent, but not dominant. They were second line in the naval war and had seen a lot of fighting, bolstered by numerous Archons that increased their fleets’ power greatly, but their combat scores in the naval division were not amongst the top 10 factions within Star Force, though they had a great number of ships to compensate for that.

As a faction, the Calavari had to field significant forces in all 5 divisions of the Star Force military and have enough of an internal supply network to sustain itself and aid others. In essence they had to be their own empire within an empire, and since the evacuation of the ADZ the Arch Duke had focused on rebuilding the Calavari in the Hov Region that was on the far ‘east’ side of Star Force territory, sharing a border with The Nexus and a bit of unclaimed territory that neither Star Force, The Nexus, nor the V’kit’no’sat had touched, though there were many indigenous races there.

Due to its status as a pillar of Star Force, there were Calavari systems spread through 11 other regions and run by lesser Monarchs that reported to Dante, but the bulk of his powerbase was here and the Calavari were responsible for the protection of this flank of Star Force territory, ensuring that the V’kit’no’sat did not pass through them, or around them, to hit the more vulnerable regions further rimward. They’d tried on a few occasions, but after getting hammered hard they hadn’t bothered to try anymore.

Dante knew that was more due to the fact that they liked hammering the front lines and the ships they’d sent to flank were more of an exploratory probing force looking for a weakness to exploit. The Calavari had nixed that idea quickly, but the Arch Duke always knew the main fighting would eventually reach the Hov region and he knew the Calavari would make them pay a high price to take their worlds again…but he never doubted that it would happen.

Now that had changed. They had a respite to recover and build, with his focus being on hardening the Hov Region as much as possible, but he had many other duties as well, including being the primary contact on this border for races making diplomatic entreaties with Star Force because of his reputation for not moving around. Even Davis no longer held a single position as he once had on Earth, but moved from system to system as needed, as did the other 7 Arch Dukes.

But not Dante. He preferred to operate out of a position of strength, and Torrent was now the most heavily defended system in known Star Force territory. Technically Shangri-La was tops, but its existence was still myth within Star Force and those individuals having been born there that were allowed to leave were bound by secrecy as to their origin point. In fact, there was another system in the Pavana Region named ‘Shangri-La’ so that any references to the real one would be attributed to it and no one would look for another.

That had seemed to hold, though most individuals coming out from the real Shangri-La were Archons or high level techs and were not thought to be a security threat. Civilians were not allowed to leave, so to date it seemed their trump card was still safely in the hole and yet to be played, but beyond it Dante’s Bugali System was the strongest in the empire and the Hov Region was the second behind only the Rim Region where most of the fighting and border strengthening had been occurring.

He’d been sending supplies there for centuries to help slow the V’kit’no’sat’s approach, but now those exports were reduced by 40% and Dante could use 15 of those percents for his own purposes while the other 25 were being sent elsewhere in the empire at Davis’s direction. The Director was so busy that Dante still didn’t know how he handled the workload, knowing that he could never replace the Director but was now confident in his deserving of the Arch Duke rank.

Hov was important, and while he had other Calavari worlds to oversee afar, he was using his faction to solidify his piece of the ‘eastern’ border as a fixed point. Star Force was not expanding beyond it as they were further to the Rim, and as a result a lot of Nexus traffic was flowing to them seeking refuge.

That meant that Hov also sported a lot of Axius and Beacon colonies, which were not under his command, but Bugali was shared with them. Dante was defacto commander of the system, and even though Axius wasn’t part of the Calavari, in this system he operated the four colonies here much the same way that some of the Dukes oversaw Calavari planets in other regions where they shared systems.

So the Axius colonies here had two masters, and in addition to those four planets there were 8 more that were fully Calavari worlds plus another 22 smaller ones and 83 moons that held partial colonies for specific purposes. Those were not heavily defended, but the 12 fully inhabited planets were each a fortress in and of themselves. If and when the V’kit’no’sat ever got here they’d have to essentially fight 12 different wars to conquer the system, and Dante had such a large defense fleet made up of a mix of starships and system ships that any one assault would be hard pressed to succeed.

If Dante could hold this system it would have an effect on the entire region, and even though Torrent had never seen a single V’kit’no’sat ship in orbit, the strength of its defenses and the fact that it was the Calavari’s new capitol and Dante’s seat of power attracted the bulk of outside attention. To deal with that he’d created a super-sized Babylon-class station in null stellar orbit on its own track between the 5th and 6th planets. That kept most of the non-Star Force traffic out of his orbit, and he had a Baron permanently assigned to the station along with a contingent of rotating Archons to keep him from having to deal with it and get distracted with everyone coming to meet with him.

Every now and then Baron Fimma would send one of the more important visitors to Torrent to meet with the Arch Duke, and today was one of these days.

A race that Dante had only faintly heard about in rumors had traveled here in a small convoy of 10 ships and were specifically asking to negotiate with the Arch Duke. They identified themselves as the ‘Zeeross’, which Dante briefly considered humorous until he saw the weapons readout supplied to him by the Archons in the system.

This was not a low level race, but rather one that appeared to have technological parity with Star Force…and they were here to talk about the V’kit’no’sat.

Dante cleared his schedule for today, other than for his personal workouts that didn’t take more than half an hour, and invited them down to the surface of Torrent after making the appropriate arrangements with the Archons. He had a special audience chamber the size of a convention center built in its own structure and away from his command center for just this reason. Dante met the Zeeross there, quickly seeing that they were bipeds nearly 16 feet tall and wearing breathing gear.

The part of their bodies that were visible were colored deep gray and they four long fingers that looked more like the ‘claw’ from old school toy vending machines than a Human hand. Each of their fingers was over a foot long, but their feet were just the opposite. They looked heavy and wide, almost like pedestals, and he could hear each heavy footfall as six of them walked across the open plaza beneath the open air ceiling protected from the current rain by an energy shield.

“Arch Duke,” one of the Zeeross said through a mechanical translator in English. “Thank you for granting us an audience to make our request.”

“What request is that?” he said, having to tip his head back to look the Zeeross in its goggle-covered eyes as an invisible shield separated the two of them. He had a few Knights and Archons flanking him just in case it failed, but so long as the Zeeross didn’t pass over the two inch rise in the floor marking its position, the shield might as well have not existed as far as any of them could tell.

Dante could, if he flipped on his Pefbar, but right now he didn’t have it running and he wondered if the Zeeross had any psionics of their own. So far the Archons weren’t picking anything up, and the moment they did they’d been instructed to inform him.

“Long have we hidden beyond V’kit’no’sat territory, knowing that if we revealed ourselves that war would come. The V’kit’no’sat do not abide peers, and while we have the ability to fight them, we do not possess their numbers. Our territory is small in comparison, and when allies of ours have been attacked we have been unable to aid them for fear of drawing the V’kit’no’sat’s wrath. We despise the V’kit’no’sat, but we are wise enough to know that we cannot challenge them. You are the first we know of to survive their wrath this long, and no one has ever negotiated a truce with them. How did you manage this?”

“They valued information on the Hadarak more than our destruction and bartered for what they could not obtain themselves. We fully expect they will be back in far greater numbers to destroy us after the truce expires.”

“This information. What significance was it?”

“They wished to know their primary enemy, and they had never been able to communicate with them. We were, through the Uriti, and they wanted any and all information we gathered on the Hadarak. Apparently they were satisfied with the exchange, for they have upheld their end of the truce so far.”

“We know they fight these Hadarak, but are they making no progress against them? How close are they to victory?”

“Far from it. The Hadarak are superior to them, and they must continually fight them or they will expand outward. They are fighting a never-ending war and seek to find a way to end the stalemate.”

“Never-ending? Why have the Hadarak not destroyed the V’kit’no’sat if they are superior?”

“They appear to not regard the V’kit’no’sat as a worthy threat, merely a border skirmish for their younger members to deal with. The true power of the Hadarak lies dormant in the core of the galaxy, and if the V’kit’no’sat ever fight their way that far in they will most likely be overwhelmed. They wish all knowledge they can obtain on the Hadarak, for compared to them we are nothing.”

“Very interesting,” the Veeross said, the pause in his words citing either confusion or contemplation. Dante didn’t want to try reading his mind before the Archons let him know if he was telepathic or not, so he was handling this conversation the old fashioned way. “Do you expect to survive when the truce has ended?”

“That greatly depends on how much of their fleet they send. They cannot abandon the fight with the Hadarak without accepting losses, so it remains uncertain how much they are willing to devote to our destruction. We anticipate they will make a major attempt to end us, but we will have the benefit of two centuries of preparation. We figure we have a chance for survival.”

“Because of your Uriti?”

“They are a major factor, but not sufficient in and of themselves. The Uriti are alterations of Hadarak, and the V’kit’no’sat have a vast amount of experience killing Hadarak.”

“Yet the Uriti are superior?”

“They are, but they are also younger and therefore smaller than most Hadarak. Given time they will grow, but the V’kit’no’sat would be foolish to allow us that time. They must kill us immediately after the truce ends, otherwise both the Uriti and Star Force will continue to grow stronger.”

“We are here to explore the possibility of aiding you in that fight,” the Zeeross said bluntly. “We know we cannot beat them alone, and you are the only civilization we know of that has defied them and survived. If there is a way they can be beaten, we would like to help make that happen.”

“That would be a massive gamble on your part,” Dante cautioned.

“It would be, which is why we are not here to pledge our loyalty, but to explore our options. If victory is not possible we will not intervene. If it is, we want to make sure of their downfall. We owe it to our former allies that are no longer living.”

“If we are to have that discussion, I need to know who I am negotiating with first.”

The Zeeross raised a long, gangly arm and a huge holographic map appeared just short of touching the invisible shield. Dante immediately recognized the Orion galactic arm and saw Star Force territory crudely marked on it. Far to the anti-spinward side there was a travel route that backtracked a little more rimward but almost an 8th of the way around the galactic oval, meaning they had come far from here and were neighbors with an entirely different section of the V’kit’no’sat empire.

That holographic map rose higher and a new one appeared below detailing the Zeeross territory and the hundreds of systems that they possessed…far less than Star Force, but they were just points on a map with no way of telling how dense those systems were.

“Our territory,” the Zeeross said simply. “We understand an equilibrium of knowledge must be established before negotiations can begin. We will answer whatever questions you ask, and hope that you will do the same…”

5

January 3, 4841

Ennit System (Dagran Region)

Vis

“You ready?” Master Medtech Vortison asked.

Aaron-010 sighed. “Yeah.”

“We don’t have to do this.”

“I do, actually,” the trailblazer said, walking inside the medical station and putting his hands on the connection sphere. “I just don’t like going backwards on anything.”

“Those who blaze trails don’t always pick the right one initially,” Vortison offered, bringing up a slew of holographic controls in front of him and selecting the procedure he’d been tinkering with for years. “Others benefit from your troubleshooting.”

“You’re not the one getting a chunk of your brain removed,” Aaron calmly bit back.

“A small chunk,” Vortison said, referencing his Ensek tissue. The basic tier 1 psionic was something that every Archon and Zen’zat possessed, allowing them to bounce telepathic messages along even if they couldn’t understand them. It was separate from their Ikrid tissue, which gave them their telepathy, and had its own transmitter that Aaron had worked for years to increase the range and volume traffic rate of.

As of now he could receive messages from over 100 other Archons and bounce them further across the landscape, even farther than his Ikrid range, but the applications for such a psionic were limited. Comm technology was superior in most cases, and Aaron could essentially accomplish the same technique using his Ikrid now that it was sufficiently advanced. The V’kit’no’sat had given the Zen’zat the ability so that even the newest of them could function as a relay to stay within telepathic connection of all their troops even if they were outside their own Ikrid range.

Star Force didn’t fight like that, relying instead on their battlemap technology and suffering the isolation when it didn’t function. V’kit’no’sat expected to fight enemies that did not have telepathy, and using it in such a manner was a significant asset. Star Force, however, had its primary enemy with most of the same psionics they did, so their priorities had to differ. Ensek could be used on the rim where the enemies were less advanced, but so long as the battlemap system was functioning it was little more than redundant.

Still, Aaron had spent so much time developing it and finding unique uses that the V’kit’no’sat probably hadn’t even envisioned that he hated to lose it, but if he kept it his Ikrid tissue couldn’t develop further and he needed that power upgrade far more than he needed Ensek.

“Whenever you’re ready,” Aaron said, feeling his hands go numb a moment before his mind blanked and he was rendered unconscious.

He woke in the same standing position as before, not knowing how much time had elapsed but feeling his brain numb and his access to his psionics beyond his reach. Vortison’s voice sounded funny too, but he could still hear him.

“I’m finished,” the medtech said, “but I’m keeping your psionics suppressed and going to release you slowly. Not sure how this is going to feel, so be warned.”

“Warned,” Aaron confirmed, his lips a little numb making the words come out odd…then they seemed to return to normal as his head began to get less foggy. His Ikrid was now touchable again, as was his Jumat and other psionics. He didn’t use any of them, but felt the reassuring presence of their ‘triggers’ save for one. His Ensek wasn’t only untouchable, but it was no longer there at all, making him feel like he’d had a hand chopped off.

It wasn’t painful, but it wasn’t pleasant either. His body had just been reduced in capability, and that left a very bad feeling inside the Archon.

“What’s wrong?” Vortison asked, seeing several status indicators spike along with the Archon’s anger.

“Adjusting,” Aaron said, releasing the sphere and taking a few steps outside the medical station before dropping to a knee and placing a hand on the ground for balance. “I can’t understand how I ever functioned without psionics.”

“You’ve integrated them into yourself, now they are you just as if you’d transferred into another body. You may have memories from a time without psionics, but all your customizations are now acclimated for them. You’re having withdrawal problems, aren’t you?”

“Minor. I keep reaching for the trigger that isn’t there and my subconscious mind keeps saying it is.”

“Active versus memory. It’ll take some time to recalibrate.”

Aaron stood up, his physical balance perfect but his telepathic aura was off enough that even Vortison could sense it with his limited Ikrid.

“I’m starting to wonder if I messed something up,” the medtech added.

“What’s my cranial pressure now?”

“Less than before, but there are also level 1 Ikrid cells where the Ensek tissue was. I left a little wiggle room so your brain could adjust, so you might pop up a few more…”

“Why not level 18 cells?”

“I’m sorry, but I need the data, you being the first this is happening to.”

“But you could have replicated my existing cells if you wanted?”

“Yes and no. I couldn’t enlarge your current Ikrid tissue due to the placement within your brain. I had to create a secondary tissue set in a different location.”

“So I have two Ikrids rather than just a bigger one?”

“I would have had to rework a lot of other tissues in order to make room to enlarge your current one. Didn’t want to mess with all of that and potentially damage you. Small steps and all.”

“You used my base psionic genetics?”

“Yes. I figured that would be the safest way. With the data I gather from you, I hope to be able to copy and paste existing Ikrid tissue to save others the training curve, but that is far more complicated than it sounds. I’ll probably only be able to get the others part way.”

“The regenerator creates weaker tissue,” Aaron said, taking a nearby chair and staring at the ceiling as he reworked his mind around the loss…and now second Ikrid cluster.”

“Not brand new ‘weaker,’ for it operates off of your current state to a degree. I wasn’t able to do even that here. Your new tissue is the same as a brand new Zen’zat, but it should add to your current capabilities once you learn to integrate the two.”

“I can feel it now. Two separate transmitters. That’s not what I expected.”

“Best I could do without fiddling beyond my understanding. Can I bother you to wear a monitor for the next year or so?”

“Sure,” he said, with Vortison pulling out a small circular ‘sticker’ that he placed on the left side of Aaron’s forehead. It was smaller than the older versions were, but functioned just the same…providing information straight to the nearest computer system recording his mental stats on a constant basis so the medtechs would have ample data to study so they could refine the procedure when the other trailblazers and Archons got to the same plateau Aaron had.

“Tell me,” Vortison said, picking up on something else even before the monitors connected.

“Feels like I got the wind knocked out of me, but I can’t put my finger on it.”

“Could be a Core issue. We don’t know how it’s connected to body tissue, but it’s been theorized that the loss of body parts reduces the Core as well…until it regenerates. We have no way to measure or view that, and I’m not seeing anything physiologically amiss, so you may be in uncharted waters.”

“I’m not the first person to have a chunk of their brain removed.”

“You might be the first that had it kindly removed. The trauma of medieval procedures would have overridden any subtle anomalies.”

“Are there records of those in the pyramid database?”

“Unfortunately yes.”

“I’ll work it out,” Aaron said confidently. “It’s affecting my mojo more than anything.”

“Well, at least now I have a psionic you don’t,” the medtech said with a smirk. “Do you think we should even be giving people Ensek now?”

“A fair question. I don’t want to make any decisions on that until I get a handle on this.”

“Wise. Have you tried to use it yet?”

“Still trying to figure out how to simulcast. I don’t feel a link between the two.”

“There isn’t. I can add one later, but that’ll take some carving that I didn’t want to submit you to if not absolutely necessary.”

“By carving you mean cell deletion?”

“Yeah. Didn’t want to tick you off by reducing your Ikrid even a tick.”

“Wise,” Aaron echoed. “I think I’ll be sticking around a while.”

“Stay as long as you like. My research facility isn’t going anywhere.”

“I’m gonna try and walk this off,” he said, standing up and heading for the door. “Thanks.”

Vortison let him go, not sure of his own handiwork here. Messing with the mind was tricky enough. Messing with a trailblazer’s was even more perilous given the high level psionics they possessed and how crammed those tissues were inside their skulls. He hoped he hadn’t screwed something up, but even if he didn’t it was going to take Aaron a while to get a handle on this…then Vortison would have to make adjustment after adjustment until they got a more reliable procedure ironed out.

The V’kit’no’sat had never tried anything like this, but then again they didn’t need to. Most of the Zen’zat didn’t have their brains full of psionics, plus their skulls were bigger. He imagined some of them had to have peaked out at some point, but there were no records of ever having removed psionic tissue to make room for more.

Then again, the V’kit’no’sat probably didn’t care if a Zen’zat peaked out or not. Regardless, Star Force was charting its own course here, which was both gratifying and terrifying at the same time. They’d been operating out of the V’kit’no’sat playbook on psionics for so long that Vortison was legitimately concerned he might have messed something up with Aaron, and only time was going to tell if that concern was warranted or not.

Davis couldn’t meet the Meintre representatives in his office, for the elephant-like race was too large to fit up his narrow access staircase. Instead he was meeting a pair of them, named Vaduo and Heerma, in their own embassy building on Nexchi. Though the planet wasn’t the official capitol of Star Force, which had always been considered Earth even when they didn’t possess it, it was the operational one at the moment because it was where Davis had currently set up shop. Because of that many major races had asked for permission to establish embassies there to keep a line of direct communication open with him.

He was selective about who he extended that privilege to, but the Meintre had been nothing but helpful ever since The Nexus had yanked their Grid Point away and given it to Star Force. They hadn’t blamed Davis for that, rather The Nexus itself, and they’d been quite grateful for Star Force giving them a safe harbor to relocate a large chunk of their population and industry while they were fighting wars back in their old territory that was now almost completely lost.

More recently they had helped repel a major V’kit’no’sat assault along with a few other Nexus allies, so Davis figured he owed them the courtesy of going to them in person rather than demanding a holographic transmission, for they’d requested the former. He had a suspicion what this might be about, but was mildly surprised about how fast they’d come to the decision that he knew they’d ultimately make.

“Thank you for coming, Director,” Vaduo said, flexing his 4 tentacle-like trunks in a gesture of gratitude. “We respectfully submit our request for membership within your empire.”

Davis raised an eyebrow. “Are you withdrawing from The Nexus?”

“Less withdrawing than admitting that they have all but abandoned us,” Heerma clarified. “Our only true links are our warships that they were using to defend other worlds than our own. We have felt an obligation to assist them because of what occurred in the distant past, but now we count our obligations fulfilled. The Nexus is withering, and we already have greater ties to Star Force. It is a logic transition to make.”

“Full membership will require a restructuring of your civilization. Wouldn’t you prefer a partial inclusion?”

“That has been the point of excessive debate within the Meintre, and we have decided that the turmoil it would cause in the near term would be worth the potential benefits in the long term. If you are willing to accept us, we are willing to remake our race in whatever manner you deem appropriate. You have a long record of deeds that is impeccable. You have our trust, and we respectfully request that we be allowed to add our strength to your empire, and in return enhance our race using your methods.”

“If you join with us, the V’kit’no’sat will destroy you if they are able,” Davis warned.

“They would do so anyway because we are your allies.”

“Possibly, but joining us assures your destruction if we lose the war.”

“You have demonstrated a strength that even the V’kit’no’sat must respect. You have demonstrated a wisdom that The Nexus lacks. And you have a truce that will allow time for the Meintre to integrate within Star Force and then prepare for a resumption of the war, which is why we are coming to you now with this request.”

“Your request is hereby accepted, with our thanks. The Meintre are most welcome to join Star Force.”

“We are greatly relieved,” Vaduo admitted.

“And honored,” Heerma added.

“Normally I would assign a trailblazer or a Monarch to oversee the Meintre’s annexation, but given the uniqueness of the situation and the current cessation of the V’kit’no’sat war, I will personally oversee your restructuring and allow the trailblazers to focus on fighting the plethora of smaller wars we are currently engaged in.”

Both Meintre exchanged glances, then knelt on the front pair of six legs in humility.

“You do us great honor, Director Davis, and we gladly accept your personal attention to your race,” Vaduo said in awe. “The wars you speak of. They are the result of The Nexus’s collapse?”

“Many are, yes. We are trying to push our influence into the unstable regions as much as possible, and there is a great deal of low level fighting required across a wide swath of systems. With the V’kit’no’sat we were fighting a few high level battles at a time. It’s a significant shift in the type of warfare, but the trailblazers are the best there are, which is why I often have them lead a new race into Star Force. Their adaptational abilities are part of why they were chosen to be the first Archons, and they have exceeded my initial expectations greatly.”

“Since we are no longer going to be assisting The Nexus with other combat, may we offer our immediate fleets in assistance of these wars?” Heerma asked.

“Securing your current territory is the highest priority,” Davis differed.

“You wish us to maintain our rimward systems? I assumed you would want us moving the rest of our people into Star Force territory.”

“No. This is not a retreat from The Nexus region. We are expanding out into The Nexus region as they collapse. We will reinforce what’s left of your territory and hold it, but I do want to establish a new Meintre system here. Your systems further rimward are too far away for me to work out of, and the same goes for those near Grid Point Stargate. We will build the first of the new Meintre in an empty system within Star Force territory while we stabilize the rest of your holdings. Do you find that acceptable?”

“We do,” Vaduo said eagerly, “and we are pleased. We do not like retreat, but have been forced to accept the logistical necessities of it in recent times.”

“No more. We will help you hold the line, my new brothers. And together we will grow our combined power and show The Nexus how they have squandered your strength. You have much untapped potential, and I will help you unlock it. The transition may be difficult, but this is not the first time we have helped a race through it.”

“We await your orders, Director.”

“Inform your people of my decision. I will select a system by the end of the day and assign a Kiritak unit to begin construction of Star Force infrastructure that will accommodate your size. Once it is minimally established we will begin bringing your people in and teaching them our techniques and technology. I’ll be there and oversee the transition once I can get the proper infrastructure in place to allow me to connect to the rest of the empire. Events will move swiftly, and I need your people to be willing to give maximum effort even if they do not fully understand what is happening.”

“You will have it.”

“Good,” the Star Force Director said with a smile. “Let’s get to work then.”

6

May 13, 4845

Pooovalla System (H’kar territory, Rim Region)

Ratchniva

Arch Duke Tevvaline was not happy. She was pleased with the truce and the time it allowed her to build without having to suffer losses, but the fact that Director Davis had banned any recolonization of the Devastation Zone was intolerable. Strategically wise, but intolerable, for she and Flynn-046 were responsible for the H’kar faction and almost the entire reconquest of H’kar territory that had been seized by the lizards had fallen to the V’kit’no’sat.

The outer H’kar region had been untouched, but was now just on the good side of the border and she’d been planning for its invasion for some time. Now that fight was being put on hold for, hopefully, another pair of centuries, but the actual capitol for the H’kar wasn’t Ratchniva. It was Karrach, their original homeworld. Ratchniva was the capitol the H’kar had created in Nexus territory when they’d lost the war to the lizards, and was now her base of operations since the H’kar had lost Karrach for a second time.

Davis not letting them reclaim it was intolerable. There were many H’kar still alive to this day that had previously lived there, and they’d learned the long history of the planet and how it was essential to the H’kar. More than anything it was a symbol of their legitimacy, and while Star Force didn’t put too much stock into symbols, for the H’kar this one mattered. So too did it matter for Tevvaline and Flynn, for there was nothing standing in their way now from reclaiming it aside from Davis’s order.

Earth was being recolonized, so why not Karrach? Many H’kar had been asking this question, and Flynn had given them his approval, but also his discontent with Davis’s order. He didn’t have to like it, nor did she or the H’kar, but the order was necessary. The V’kit’no’sat were going to be back and any colonies in the Devastation Zone would probably get hit first, so what was the point of rebuilding Karrach only to lose it a third time?

To Tevvaline it was a matter of pride, and even though they couldn’t recolonize Karrach that didn’t mean they couldn’t visit it. She’d cleared that with Davis and had gotten permission for an outpost there, but it was little more than a sightseeing hotel for H’kar wanting to go back to the homeworld. Resources couldn’t be wasted when there was so much more to do, but there were more than enough H’kar businessmen willing to fund the expedition that she and Davis had agreed to let it happen…and those businessmen were turning a tidy profit from all the tourism going there, so it was a win/win situation.

But those that went there only held resentment, though not at Star Force or Davis. They held resentment against the V’kit’no’sat, and the barren planet with plenty of ruins left over from the purging was a stark testament to what was coming back for them later. The H’kar were more aware of this than the other Star Force races and wanted to fortify their original homeworld and make their stand there…but those with a more strategic sense knew that resources would be better spent strengthening worlds that could already defend themselves rather than rebuilding Karrach from scratch.

It was on her to-do list though, and not being able to get at it because of an imaginary line on the map was intolerable.

But Tevvaline had other priorities to consume most of her time, namely border security. When the V’kit’no’sat came back there were only a few other Star Force systems between them and the Devastation Zone, so Davis’s orders had her beefing up the H’kar rather than focusing on exports to help with the rimward wars, though a significant portion of the H’kar battlefleets were out there fighting now under Flynn’s command while the Arch Duke was left here to build as fast as she and her exoskeleton-clad H’kar could.

The Pooovalla System was the key to the H’kar Outer Region’s industrial base, even more so than Grid Point Annsa. When the H’kar had fully joined Star Force the Royals that had ruled them were kicked out, nicely, and made citizens like all the rest as Flynn began to restructure their civilization. Tevvaline hadn’t joined him there until much later, being promoted from Javier-068’s Clan Super Soaker Marquis to Duke and assigned by Davis to help Flynn with the H’kar. She’d been in that same assignment ever since, rising to the rank of Arch Duke as the H’kar continued to grow into one of the foundational pillars of Star Force.

They certainly weren’t the flashiest faction. Walking about on four pointy legs with bifurcated arms that resembled claws and an exoskeleton that furthered the comparison to a crab. They were also rather gruff to speak to, not entertaining the practice of communication without a reason, which she rather liked. They were hard workers, though not as prodigious as the Kiritas. In combat they were average at best, but their exoskeletons added an extra layer of armor that meant they wouldn’t go down as easy in combat as a Human.

Their mobility was lacking in comparison, and Tevvaline thought of them as all around stable and reliable, without being exceptional. She’d helped Flynn armor over their weaknesses and had gotten their once lethargic race up to a 23% self-sufficiency rate overall with newer generations in the low 40s. That was far less than many other factions, but it gave her a core group of H’kar that would be around forever so long as they weren’t killed and over time their experience levels were rising to the point where they were becoming formidable.

None had become Mavericks, for that wasn’t well suited for their physiology, but there were currently more H’kar Monarchs than any other race aside from Humans, who still dominated those ranks. There were currently 11 H’kar Barons, all of which Davis had assigned outside of H’kar territory in a variety of projects, promising that they’d be returned to Tevvaline when and if they were upped to Count rank. Davis needed to see how well they handled planets that were not H’kar, and the fact that he had chosen 11 of them so far indicated that he was seeing good results.

How and why a person became a Monarch was still a mystery, for Davis selected all of them, but there were enough common threads to pick up on and the H’kar’s reliability seemed to make them more inclined to the task than other races. In fact, Tevvaline probably had some of the best Administrators in the empire, if taken as a whole, out of which she had no doubt that Davis would be selecting more Monarchs in coming years.

But because Davis never announced such things ahead of time, no one could actually audition to become a Monarch. That left her H’kar focused on building their faction without ulterior motives, and what they’d accomplished was truly impressive despite half their territory now lying demolished in the Devastation Zone.

Other races had had it worse. The Calavari, the Bsidd, Mainline, the Kiritas, the Kiritak, etc…all of whom had originated in the ADZ had all of their original territory taken away from them and had to rebuild in the Rim…but the H’kar had originated here, at least from their Nexus origins, so they had a lot of industrial output to fall back on and had made up a lot of ground on the other factions in comparison when they’d lost so much in the ADZ.

That was not how Tevvaline would have wanted it, but it had happened none the less, and now the H’kar stood as the 4thk largest faction population wise after the Bsidd, Kiritas/Kiritak, and the Paladin. Unlike those three, overpopulation with the H’kar wasn’t a huge problem, and the Arch Duke had been pressing their slower reproduction rate so she’d have the necessary hands available when they got additional resources. In fact, as of present, they were overpopulated with regards to the number of work assignments, so a great many of the younger ones were assigned training duties until something opened up.

That’s also why there was such a robust business class amongst the H’kar, for many did not want to wait through endless training to get to actual productivity. Now though, her population surge was paying off as she was able to redirect resources into many new projects that had workers waiting on them to be started…and workers with far more training than most of her veterans had ever received. That didn’t make the young ones better, but it did reduce the learning curve dramatically, and everywhere across H’kar territory they were building rapidly.

Here though, it was more about bringing in resources and using the already existing factories to create components that would be shipped out to other systems for assembly or direct use there. Expansion here, with only 4 planets and 18 moons, had largely been completed, and Flynn didn’t want to pack in too much population only to have to evacuate everyone again if this system fell to the V’kit’no’sat. Too much population would mean a lot of people wouldn’t make it out, so H’kar territory was full of colonized planets that weren’t too dense for just that reason.

What they had invested in were mobile factories located in orbit that could be moved once the warfront got too close. They couldn’t be moved fast, but unlike infrastructure on a planet these facilities could be repurposed rather than abandoned. It was a hard lesson learned after the destruction of half of H’kar territory, but the more they could diminish the industrial damage of losing systems, the longer the H’kar could survive as a fully functioning faction rather than being diminished into refugees supported by others.

The H’kar were far from being that, but they were the next ones on the target list for the V’kit’no’sat and the Arch Duke had to consider these things. That was why, even as a large chunk of their warfleets were off fighting in the Rim, there were a massive number of drones kept here, both for their warships and system defense models, all of which were shaped as elongated squares, as if a perfect cube had been stretched out into a rod. It was a variation on Mainline drone shape, and only a few races in Star Force got to field their own designs, with the H’kar being one of them.

It was a point of pride, and high above the planet Tevvaline was on she could see the clouds of those drones patiently waiting and defending the system. They were too far away to see the shape of up there, but every now and then another one would rise up from the surface shipyards and fly by her tower command center enroute to orbit…in fact they buzzed her tower on purpose as a mark of pride, giving her a chance for a quick visual confirmation even when she wasn’t actually in the building.

The H’kar were Star Force, but they were also their own slightly different version of it, highlighting the fact that this was indeed an empire rather than a monolithic civilization. Harmful differences between the races were eliminated, while beneficial ones were cultivated and enhanced. The Arch Duke thought of them as puzzle pieces, none two identical, but all fitting together to form the smooth picture of a proper civilization…and one that had no size limitations, unlike The Nexus that had grown too large without the necessary apparatus to sustain it.

She was proud of the H’kar faction, and aside from a few aides and Archons, she never really interacted with anyone that wasn’t H’kar. Some people would have found that lonely, but she didn’t. Tevvaline wasn’t H’kar herself, but she worked seamlessly with them to the point that sometimes she forgot she wasn’t.

And the H’kar didn’t resent her for being Human either. She was an Arch Duke, race not withstanding, and their Arch Duke, just as they saw Flynn as their trailblazer, and both were pushing the H’kar hard to make the most of this truce with the V’kit’no’sat before the war came back at them again…and probably with greater force than ever before. She doubted that Mak’to’ran would just shrug off the improvements Star Force was making in their defenses and send similar sized attack fleets after them unless he was stupid, and there wasn’t any real hope of that.

No, he had to send more or none at all, meaning this the war, when it resumed, was going to ratchet up to insane levels and the H’kar were going to take the brunt of it straight off.

But Tevvaline was not prepared for the V’kit’no’sat returning today, with the tell-tale alarm that had first informed her of their arrival in Star Force territory oh so long ago sounding throughout her command center where she was tinkering with production quotas at a table-top workstation along with half a dozen H’kar.

The sound drove a spike of fear through her the likes of which she’d never forget, but the holographic map quickly identified the source of the alarm…a single ship had decloaked in high orbit over the planet and was in the process of sending a transmission on repeat as it held position with the clouds of drones moving to intercept it.

“What they hell are they doing here?” she said aloud while mentally kicking Tennisonne for not having the damn Ghostbane sensor system working yet, for this stupid Rit’ko’sor ship had made it all the way here without being detected, and that bothered her to no end.

“The ship is stating it is here on a diplomatic mission, requesting to speak personally to either a trailblazer or a Monarch at a moment of their convenience.”

“Convenience?” she said with a sarcastic laugh. “Why the hell didn’t they just go to Earth?”

“The message does not say.”

Tevvaline bit her lip. “Ok fine. They want to talk, then I’ll talk to them. Tell Randal I need to be on a command ship up there. I don’t want them getting anywhere close to the planet,” she said, referencing the highest ranking Archon in the system as she stared at the image of the Domjo-class warship shaped like a flat ‘S’ along a vertical plane. The forward section had the hump on the top and it splayed out a bit, kind of like a cobra-hood, and the reverse side ‘tail’ was flatter and didn’t hold such a steep curve, ending in a bulge that contained half the ship’s weaponry.

“Terminator,” a H’kar said, referencing the name of one of the command ships in orbit.

The Arch Duke headed for the nearest door, walking at an annoyed pace in her signature uniform variant that had her right leg fully exposed but with a shoulder cape that came down to cover it, giving flashes of skin with each step only to be swallowed up by the cape again and again.

Tevvaline did not like this. Not at all. And something told her that their two century truce was about to be cut short in some way, shape, or form.

7

Tevvaline arrived in orbit via dropship, flying into the hangar onboard the waiting command ship Terminator that then took her further up the planetary orbit to the position where the single Rit’ko’sor ship was surrounded by a sea of Star Force drones and three other command ships, all of which were keeping a respectful distance back.

The Domjo sat there silently until the Arch Duke sent a comm prompt after she reached a private chamber just down the hallway from the bridge. Now that the Terminator had crept in closer than the rest of the defense fleet, they were only 200 miles apart and the bit of lag that would have resulted had she tried to communicate from the planet was gone…but that wasn’t enough for the Rit’ko’sor. They requested a secure channel directly to the Arch Duke, which she granted, sending them a tight beam transmission along with using a cypher code the Rit’ko’sor sent directly to her ship.

That meant no other Star Force ships, or anyone else trying to listen in, would be able to eavesdrop, and once those conditions were met a single Rit’ko’sor appeared in hologram before her and Randal-6994, who had come aboard just before she did.

“Arch Duke,” the Rit’ko’sor said in their race’s melodic cadence, but to the shock of both the Monarch and the Archon, it was speaking in English…which the V’kit’no’sat had never done before. “Archon. I will begin with informing you that this vessel does not belong to the V’kit’no’sat, nor do we speak for them. We only speak for ourselves, and we are not hostile to you.”

Tevvaline and Randal exchanged glances, with the Archon being the one to speak first.

“Are you defecting?”

“No. You misunderstand. When I said ‘we’ I was referring to more than just the crew of this Domjo. Are you aware of the Rit’ko’sor rejoined the V’kit’no’sat?”

“We are.”

“Those that did are traitors, and mostly our hatchlings. Many of the elders refused the reunification, so our race has split. The majority rejoined the V’kit’no’sat. Those of us that still hold our honor were forced to flee. We left our kin in peace, but when we next meet it shall be in battle, for the V’kit’no’sat do not tolerate splinter civilizations of any race in their empire. We are now hunted, and have been living beyond their borders in exile from both their territory and our refuge in the Hadarak zone. We hate the V’kit’no’sat. We are not V’kit’no’sat. And if they ever find us, they will try to kill us.”

Tevvaline whistled, quickly realizing how big this was. “So you coming here is outing your presence?”

“Inconsequential,” the Rit’ko’sor said evenly. “This ship can move, our worlds cannot, and it is those that we must conceal.”

“Why are you here?” Randal asked. “And why are you speaking our language?”

“We do not hold you with contempt. In truth, we have great respect for you and what you have accomplished. Learning your language was necessary so we could communicate with you as equals.”

“Thanks for that. What did you want to communicate?”

“How much do you know of our history? Our rebellion?”

“Much. We recovered files from the planetary defense station left behind on Terraxis after you destroyed it.”

“Then you know how the rebellion began, but not how it ended?”

“We have recovered some addition data from damaged V’kit’no’sat ships and interrogations. It was thought you were all destroyed.”

“We knew that we could not win,” the Rit’ko’sor said gravely, “but we would have our freedom either in life or in death. Breaking free of the V’kit’no’sat was necessary to regain our honor, but it cost us much. We knew we could not win, so we damaged them as much as possible while allowing a few of us to run and hide. They expected that we would flee to the Rim, and some of us did…unsuccessfully. They tracked down and destroyed all those Rit’ko’sor who sacrificed themselves as diversions while we evacuated key personnel into the Hadarak Zone. We do not regret our actions, and I tell you this so you understand that there is no longer any association between us and the Rit’ko’sor who rejoined the V’kit’no’sat. Those traitors are no longer our kin.”

“What do you mean by ‘regain your honor?’” the Arch Duke asked.

“We joined the V’kit’no’sat at the request of the Zak’de’ron. Do you know who they were?”

“Yes.”

“We betrayed them, to our shame, and then the Oso’lon and J’gar changed the nature of the V’kit’no’sat. The Rit’ko’sor were suppressed so we could never achieve parity, and we were often given assignments where they knew many of us would die, sparring their own. We all had sworn to fight the Hadarak, but they did so less and allowed the ‘unimportant’ races to fight more, thus strengthening their own power base while diminishing ours and forbidding us to increase reproduction to compensate. The Zak’de’ron had never treated us in such a manner, and we regret turning against them. It was a huge miscalculation that we have suffered greatly for.”

“And you felt you were regaining your honor by rebelling?”

“In manner, yes, but more so it was simple vengeance. We wanted to hurt them, and badly, but we knew we could not win. You, however, have something that we did not have. That no V’kit’no’sat race has ever had. You command the power of the Hadarak. You have withstood their purging attacks. You have forced them into a temporary truce. You have a fighting chance, but when they return they will be adamant about destroying all that you have built up during these years of peace. It is said that Mak’to’ran values knowledge of the Hadarak more than the lives of the V’kit’no’sat, but he is no fool. He will take from you everything you are gaining, and he will do so with a vengeance, for he can give you no more time than already allotted. You will grow too strong, so the death blow will come when the truce ends. You can count on that as assuredly as the stars burn.”

“We expected as much,” Randal agreed.

“Many races have been establishing diplomatic contact or requesting membership since the revelation of the truce, correct?”

“Yes. Our standing in the galaxy has increased greatly,” Tevvaline answered.

“I assume you are using this to strengthen you civilization in preparation?”

“We’re working on many projects to increase our strength,” she said neutrally.

“It will not be enough for what is coming. I was one of the few that survived our rebellion against the V’kit’no’sat. I speak from experience. The more you anger them, the more powerful they become. They have treated you as inferiors previously, and that is the only reason you have survived. You will be given their full hatred now, and they will fall upon you with a vengeance you have not yet imagined.”

“Mak’to’ran offered us a place in the V’kit’no’sat,” Randal said, throwing that bit of information out on a gut feeling. “We refused.”

The Rit’ko’sor sneered. “He seeks control of the Uriti, nothing more. Had you not possessed them, he would not have bothered to speak with you at all. Killing you will not grant him that control, or do I misunderstand your control mechanism?”

“It cannot be replicated by the V’kit’no’sat,” the Archon said without giving away the secret of Nefron.

“Then he has more to gain from annexation than destruction. Why did you refuse?”

“The V’kit’no’sat have killed so many of our people that there is no possibility of us ever joining them. We’d rather die fighting than spit on the graves of our fallen brothers and sisters.”

“You do yourself honor spiting them, but you are still not aware of what is coming for you.”

“Are you here to educate us, then?” Tevvaline asked.

“I was sent here to do more than that. Our leaders have studied you closely, even before the truce, and they have determined that you annex without suppressing the races you acquire. Instead you enhance them, as the Zak’de’ron once did with us, except that you fully integrate. You take worthless races and find a purpose for them, so that your empire and that race benefits. You do so with such casual ease that we ask if you would entertain negotiations with us.”

“Are we not negotiating now?”

“I am simply establishing contact. We are wary to trust others, especially considering the betrayal of our former kin, but our leaders wish to entertain negotiations with you if you are willing.”

“Negotiations for what, exactly?”

“Some form of merger into your empire.”

Randal frowned. “You’re saying we’re going to be wiped out by the V’kit’no’sat, but you want to come out of hiding to join us in time so you can get your asses kicked too?”

“We never had a chance to win. You have a small one. If we can come to agreeable terms, those of us who saw nearly our entire race destroyed in our rebellion wish to continue what we started…even if it means our deaths. We have no wish to live as exiles. We would rather die fighting if there is something worth dying for, and some of us have never accepted our survival as sufficient. Our war with the V’kit’no’sat has never ended, and will not end until either we are dead or they are. You offer us a potential hope, so I ask if you will entertain negotiations with our leaders?”

“I can guarantee that much,” the Arch Duke said confidently. “But the ultimate decision on any merger will lie with Director Davis and the trailblazers. I honestly can’t say how they’re going to react.”

“I can,” Randal said, pointing a finger at the Rit’ko’sor’s hologram. “Your traitors never fought against us. The V’kit’no’sat kept them fighting the Hadarak or doing other things. They were never assigned with our destruction, so our blood has not been spilt by the Rit’ko’sor. The trailblazers will not hold a grudge against a race we have not fought.”

“Assuming this isn’t a massive ruse,” the Arch Duke added. “You are Rit’ko’sor, and Mak’to’ran has shown his interest in both our destruction and the Uriti. Planting spies and saboteurs amongst us would be an effective tactic, so while we will entertain negotiations, we will also be highly skeptical.”

“You would be foolish to do otherwise,” the Rit’ko’sor agreed. “All we ask now is that you allow negotiations to occur, and preferably in neutral territory so there is no possibility of our subterfuge. We will allow you to select a location, if you are willing.”

“An empty system within our borders?” the Arch Duke floated.

“Acceptable.”

“How soon can your leaders be here?”

“9 months.”

Tevvaline brought up a map and randomly chose an uninhabited system within the Menfo Region on the backside of Star Force territory, far away from the Devastation Zone and the V’kit’no’sat.

“Vinniak,” she said, sending the coordinates across the secure comm. “9 months from now.”

“Agreed. Please keep this rendezvous as secret as possible. The V’kit’no’sat most likely have many spies amongst your empire, and I do not wish to endanger our leaders or our worlds by allowing them to backtrack us. They do not know I am here now, so they cannot follow, but if they know of an upcoming rendezvous they could get in position to track us.”

“We will convey the information in person,” the Arch Duke promised. “It will not enter our databases.”

“Then my mission here is accomplished. With your permission we will depart the system.”

“Granted,” Randal said, mentally sending a stand down order to the bridge crew to relay out to the defense fleet.

And with that the impromptu conversation ended and the Rit’ko’sor ship began to slowly ease away from the planet as the drone swarms parted ahead of it.

“I did not see that coming,” Tevvaline admitted.

“I don’t think anyone did, but it explains a few things.”

“Such as?”

“Why the V’kit’no’sat didn’t trust the Rit’ko’sor enough to send them after us. They didn’t fully rejoin their empire, so they’re tainted with continual distrust on top of their previous ‘suppression.’ I think there’s a lot more to that story than we know, and a lot more than the V’kit’no’sat wanted to put into their general records. I’d like to be at that meeting, if it’s alright with you?”

“I’m staying here, so you can go inform Davis and the trailblazers personally, but keep this knowledge in mind only.”

“Does everyone know we have V’kit’no’sat spies?” he said, perturbed.

“Worried that might mean we have more than even we thought?”

“Yeah, I am. I’m also wondering if these Rit’ko’sor are on the level, or what the V’kit’no’sat will do if they are.”

“Cancel the truce?”

“They can do that whenever they want. We already delivered the Hadarak information.”

“No one knows what they said to us, right?” Tevvaline said with a devious smile.

“Just the two of us. Why?”

“If there are spies, and they saw a Rit’ko’sor ship appear there, what will they say?”

“We didn’t see any special markings on the hull,” Randal said, activating a nearby console to bring up the recorded sensor feeds to confirm that fact. “There’s no way to know that was a rebel ship…I’ve got an idea.”

“Go with it.”

Randal reactivated the comm, with the Rit’ko’sor ship still in range so there was only a twitch of lag as the hologram reappeared.

“What else do you require?” the Rit’ko’sor asked.

“I need you to stealth your ship and flee the system quickly. We will fire in your wake to give the impression that you weren’t supposed to be here. Is there a way to identify your ship as not belonging to the V’kit’no’sat?”

“Only the identification beacons, which we’ve disabled. You want observers to think we were a scout ship that you caught and drove off?”

“Better to give curious eyes a reason than to let them wonder.”

“Very well. We will hold a straight line trajectory so you can approximate our position. You may also fire a single shot into our shields, after which we will flee and stealth.”

“Negative. We don’t shoot ships in such a manner. That would draw more suspicion to our motives. We have discovered you here, now you are forced to leave while visible. You stealth against our orders so we fire on you. That fits with our protocols.”

“Noted. Are you ready?”

“Flee in 90 seconds. We will handle the rest.”

“We will comply,” the Rit’ko’sor said, disappearing again as Randal immediately headed for the bridge with the Arch Duke having to jog to keep up with him.

“Nice touch.”

“Quiet,” he warned, now that they were in the hallway leading to the bridge. They got there about 20 seconds later, with all eyes focused on the pair.

“The Rit’ko’sor are slowly leaving the system. If they so much as deviate from their current course, kick ‘em in the rear on the way out.”

“No kill shots?” the Terminator’s captain asked.

“We don’t want to end the truce, but they’re out of bounds and we’re not going to put up with shenanigans. Go back through sensor logs and see if anything of that ship appeared before we noticed them. We’ve got to find a way to pick these bastards up, or they’ll be snooping right under our noses the entire time.”

“Did you chew them out?”

“They won’t be coming back here again,” Randal said as he sat down in the vacant Admiral’s chair and mentally linked into the system. “Arrange the Arch Duke’s transport back to the surface. She’s done here.”

The Captain did as ordered, then right on schedule the Rit’ko’sor ship suddenly accelerated and disappeared from view.

Randal caught the firing commands before they could be executed, overriding them and giving the gunners firing points that were just behind the acceleration track that he knew would be unaltered. The gunners didn’t know what it would be, so they were just guessing, but with his revisions he made sure the red Ardent beams that leapt out would miss just behind the now invisible ship.

After a few seconds the weaponry fell silent, for the probability of hitting something invisible diminished greatly as it had more maneuvering possibilities. Randal sent a flurry of drones out after several of them, plus more in towards the star as he knew the Rit’ko’sor vessel’s track would be heading there.

“Keep them moving,” the Archon said, getting up from his chair. “I know we can’t catch them, but keep enough patrols moving so they know we’re not content to let them poke around where they want…and keep sensor scans at maximum. If we can even get a partial hit, I want it.”

“Unlikely, but we’ll keep trying,” the Captain promised. “Did they mouth off or apologize for being here?”

“Something else that you’ll hopefully find out later. Right now, mum’s the word.”

The Captain raised an eyebrow, but didn’t ask any more questions. “As you wish.”

“And two days from now I’m taking this ship on a vacation.”

“May I ask where?”

“Wherever Director Davis currently is. There’s something I have to talk to him about in person.”

“You don’t want to leave now?” the Captain asked, starting to catch on.

“Too obvious. We wait two days, then we go. And we’re going at max speed, so top off the fuel tanks before we leave.”

8

February 15, 4846

Vinniak System (Menfo Region)

Stellar Orbit

Randal was onboard the Nedrador, Director Davis’s personal command ship, when the Rit’ko’sor fleet began to arrive. They hadn’t known if they’d bring a single vessel under cloak or more, but the Rit’ko’sor were not making any attempt to hide their presence within Star Force territory and through the relay network they’d been tracking their fleet’s progress all the way here.

What the Rit’ko’sor did do was avoid uninhabited systems, but thankfully Star Force had gotten a decent amount of monitoring stations set up with relay links over the years to be able to spot their arrival. They’d dipped in and out of coverage, but their arrival today had been anticipated and the first of their S-shaped ships were arriving in deep stellar orbit, drawing an odd look from the Archon.

Based on their assumed speed, they shouldn’t have had to come out that close to the star. They could always choose to brake slower if they wanted to arrive that deep, but it wasn’t standard…and as sensor readings began to catch up he saw that these ships were not typical V’kit’no’sat design.

They were close, very close, but some had been modified slightly and Randal guessed that their engines had been reduced in power to make room for what were high powered transmitters. He assumed these ships were control ships for the Rit’ko’sor drone fleets they’d used to fight the Hadarak, but he’d never actually seen one before.

The rest of the 219 ship fleet were standard varieties, exiting the jumppoint in formation with the others along with a super-sized ship of similar shape that he knew to be a Mach’nel. It was a ‘new’ one as far as the V’kit’no’sat were concerned, ostensibly built from stolen information over the course of the Rit’ko’sor’s exile in the Hadarak zone, but until a handful of days ago Star Force didn’t even know they possessed one.

That made Star Force’s fleet of 26 Warship-class jumpships and two command ships heavily outgunned, but Randal doubted that they were here to fight. More likely they wanted to keep their leaders safe, along with enhancing their negotiating position by bringing with them a ship far superior to anything Star Force possessed.

The Rit’ko’sor hadn’t brought any of their drone ships, but Star Force’s were already deployed and spread out in a defensive arrangement and did not move as the Rit’ko’sor fleet emerged one by one from their jump and began to reposition. They came out to the nearby fleet within easy comm range then held position a few hundred miles off.

Randal was standing beside Davis in the command Nexus, but he wasn’t in view of the holo transmitter as Sara-012 and Davis linked up, with her image appearing as a tiny glowing statue on the Director’s right side as a much larger Rit’ko’sor appeared directly in front of him and rising up well above his head. Not quite life size, but it soon shrank as other Rit’ko’sor entered range and the viewing angle altered to accommodate them all.

There were 6 of them, most wearing partial robes that obscured their legs but let their tails swing free, but there was no mistaking their pale white skin that Star Force had never personally encountered. Most of the V’kit’no’sat races had taken part in the war against Star Force at some point, but not the Rit’ko’sor, and he’d always wondered how much of their rebellion had tainted their reunification…or maybe the fact that these separatists had taken their Mach’nel with them had something to do with that.

“Nice ship,” Sara commented. “Did you steal or build that one?”

“We stole the knowledge and built it after the war,” the Rit’ko’sor answered, also in English. “We did not let the traitors retain possession of it, though they tried.”

“Was there fighting?”

“No deaths occurred, but stun weapons had to be used. We did not part amicably, and now they are our enemy the same as the rest of the V’kit’no’sat. They have betrayed us.”

“How did the reunification occur?” Davis asked.

“The Era’tran were exploring the outer Core and discovered us. They did not report their findings, choosing to open a secret dialog. We knew our situation was untenable so we talked to them while prepping for evacuation. Our former hatchlings succumbed to the Era’tran’s entreaties, not knowing them as we do. They chose them over us.”

“How easy is it to explore the Core?” Davis pressed. “I was under the impression that Hadarak patrols were difficult to get by.”

“It is tricky where their minions are in massive numbers. Our stealth technology does not hide us from the Hadarak. Their gravitational sensors can pick up all but the smallest of ships at range, and even those closer. The minions also have weaker gravitational sensors that reinforce each other, so the larger the swarm the more accurate their detection capability. Getting past them requires fast movements, and fast movements increase detection for reasons that we cannot fully articulate. We cannot go where they are, but we can explore where there are few. Roaming Hadarak make navigation uncertain, and many ships have been lost when they are where they were not expected to be.”

“How far have you surveyed?”

“Farther than the V’kit’no’sat, though they now have most of our data. There are regions were every system contains their minions, and not by accident. They hold to the inner regions tightly, and only a few skimming missions have penetrated those lines.”

“Skimming?”

“Making slow jumps to exit far from the star, then skirting around the outer edges of the system to another distant jumppoint. The minions can move quickly, but if you arrive in a position they are not it is possible to evade them from afar, though you will not be allowed to remain long enough to gather extensive data.”

“They can detect mass that far away?”

“If a Hadarak is present, yes. Their navigational capability allows them to sense very distant stars, and closer objects who have a similar gravitational profile show up the same. We speculate that any movement of gravity silhouettes is an obvious giveaway, and by not moving we have been able to avoid ranged detection on occasion.”

“And why were the Era’tran looking?”

“They were operating on their own, without Itaru’s permission, trying to expand their knowledge of the Hadarak. Their discovery of us was accidental.”

“Is that common? Exploration without permission.”

“Before our rebellion, no. Afterwards I cannot speak to.”

“How many Rit’ko’sor do you speak for?”

“53 billion.”

“And how certain are you of their loyalty?”

“We have lived separate from them for more than a millennia. If there were traitors, they would have revealed us by now. We did not expect to contact you, for we did not expect you to be able to survive this long. There are no V’kit’no’sat plants among us with the intent of undermining you.”

“We will have to confirm that,” Sara pointed out.

“As expected. You possess formidable Ikrid, correct?”

“I do.”

“We will submit to mental verification, as many of us as you wish. We come before you with nothing to hide. We seek vengeance against the V’kit’no’sat. Nothing more.”

“Your name?” Davis asked.

“I am Jovca. With me are Nemti, Soval, Piv, Ranklo, and Tarck.”

“Tarck?” Sara asked, recognizing that name.

“I am Tarck,” another Rit’ko’sor on the far right side of the hologram said.

“I recognize your name from the V’kit’no’sat records. You were assumed killed during the first century of the rebellion.”

“Subterfuge for my relocation.”

“How did that occur?” Davis asked. “Who was chosen, and for what purpose?”

“None of us wanted to run, but we were chosen to do so,” Jovca explained. “We are warriors, and hiding while our brethren were killed in battle was the most distasteful thing we have ever been required to do. Now that we have a chance to fight back successfully, we do not wish to continue to lurk in the shadows. Our fight is with the V’kit’no’sat, to the death, and we are willing to assist you in our full capacity if you will allow us that role.”

“You obviously have a Mach’nel. What else can you offer?”

“We are more advanced than Zen’zat, and would be the premier race within Star Force if you accepted us, despite our low numbers. We can reproduce rapidly if allowed to, so that numerical disadvantage can diminish quickly.”

“Then you are requesting full membership?”

“We are asking more than that. You have been very successful while utilizing inferior races to build your empire. Even your own people do not possess psionics. Our inclusion would allow a significant advancement for your empire, as well as bringing with us our battle experience against the V’kit’no’sat. We know how to kill them in ways you do not. We know where they are vulnerable, for we have exploited those cracks in the past.”

“Will you submit to our leadership?”

“There will be no need for submission. You do not suppress the races in your empire. You enhance them. We offer you potential that you will make the most of. For that reason we will follow your orders and give you our eggs to do with as you wish.”

Davis raised an eyebrow. “Your eggs?”

“We know you use a maturia system for all races, and if we are to become part of Star Force our hatchlings must incorporate into that system. Those of us who are already living, we ask for special consideration. We want to fight, not assimilate. We do not expect to survive, but will fight for a future for our race that you will establish.”

“We also carry with us the taint of the V’kit’no’sat,” Nemti added. “If we are to remove it, our hatchlings must be Star Force trained. We will give you access to all we know of the V’kit’no’sat, but you must chart the path forward for our future kin. We are flawed, and that flaw must not be passed on.”

“What kind of flaw?” Sara asked.

“All of us were hatched as V’kit’no’sat. We know nothing of the Rit’ko’sor before their inclusion and elevation. We are rebels, consumed with vengeance. We have adapted to survive, but in a sense we are still of the V’kit’no’sat, and carry great power as a result, though in so being we are unable to differentiate from our origins.”

“Our fight with the V’kit’no’sat is a personal one,” Tarck explained. “We were unable to finish it in our own war, now we ask to help finish it in yours.”

“We are not set up to defeat the V’kit’no’sat in the manner you suggest,” the trailblazer pointed out. “Holding a defensive line is our best hope.”

“Insufficient. They will come at you with intent to destroy and not rest until that is achieved. The only way you will be free of them is to fully destroy them, but it is wise to fight on your own planets initially. A preemptive invasion of their territory would be disastrous until their fleets are diminished to the point where they cannot reinforce systems.”

“You are assuming a strength that we do not currently possess,” Davis said bluntly.

“Not as of yet, but time is your ally,” Jovca explained. “Your Uriti grow stronger by the day, and the current truce will allow you to fortify your holdings prior to a resumption of the war. We have come to you now so that you can make the most of this period with our inclusion, if you allow it.”

“And what if your inclusion negates the truce?” Sara asked.

“It is a calculation you have to make. As I understand it, you have no leverage to force the continuation of the truce, correct?”

“True,” Davis admitted. “We only have Mak’to’ran’s word.”

“Then you must calculate whether or not he will hold to it.”

“What is your estimation?”

“I believe they do not yet know how to counter your Uriti and are using this truce as a means of protection against you from invading their systems. Otherwise they would have no reason to honor it.”

“Would Mak’to’ran offer his word with intent not to honor it?”

“On the face of it, no, but give sufficient need for alteration of the deal and the V’kit’no’sat will not honor their word. I know little of Mak’to’ran himself, but the utmost priority of the V’kit’no’sat is dominance. If they feel that revoking the truce would hurt their dominance they will hold to it. If they feel honoring the truce would hurt their dominance, then they will violate it. I cannot say for certain that they will not invade you today, even without our inclusion. There are no guarantees.”

“You said you wished to negotiate. If you are giving us your eggs, what is there that you wish to negotiate?”

“For those that currently exist. We do not wish to be diminished. And if possible, we wish to be upgraded.”

“Additional psionics?”

“That and more.”

“What’s stopped you from doing so on your own?”

“You possess most psionics in your genome, we do not, and the information we stole from the V’kit’no’sat was not sufficient enough for us to engineer the psionics. We also know that you operate ‘mechs’ that allow you to fight the larger V’kit’no’sat directly, even with races as small as one of your hands. This has never been attempted within the V’kit’no’sat, though we have done research into drone usage against the Hadarak. The Hadarak cannot jam communications, the V’kit’no’sat can, so utilizing your technological methods will be superior to us attempting to craft our own without experience.”

“You also have many different races,” Tarck added, “that add combat options that we alone do not possess. We wish to help you craft our race into the primary weapon you possess, with the rest of your empire filling in the balance.”

“Why do you think you’re that valuable?” Sara asked.

All the Rit’ko’sor looked at her as if she was stupid, but Jovca eventually answered her.

“We have been greatly enhanced from what we used to be, as all V’kit’no’sat were. Zen’zat were also advanced, but they were never our equal, and none of the races in Star Force are your equal. Thus we are defaultly the superior with regards to biology.”

“Then why have we been able to survive?”

“You make better use out of your potential than the V’kit’no’sat do, which is why we want you to enhance us with your methodology and training.”

“That will be problematic,” Davis admitted. “You are fully telepathic, with the ability to take control of other races’ minds at will. Our experience with the Protovic taught us where the line has to be drawn, and no civilians can possess Ikrid. If they do our civilization becomes unbalanced.”

“Hence negotiation is required. We do not wish to integrate, we wish to fight. As for our hatchlings, there is much to discuss. Our telepathic balance is not something to throw away to make us match the lesser races. It is an asset that we are confident that you will find a way to integrate along with our other abilities.”

“Hatchlings aside then. You wish your current population to be kept separate?”

“As you deem necessary.”

“Do you wish to retain your current systems?”

“No. Once we are revealed we will become targets. We must fully relocate to your territory. We will be weak before we are allowed to expand within Star Force.”

“How large a fleet do you possess?”

“We took almost all of our non-drone fleet so the traitors couldn’t use them, but we didn’t leave the systems in Hadarak territory defenseless. We have 2,849 original warships, and have created another 12,000 since. We have had to move our population 8 times since leaving the core, and have not been able to put down necessary infrastructure to grow rapidly due to matters of secrecy.”

“Are all of your people in agreement?”

“We are.”

“Including your newer hatchlings?”

“They do not fully understand the V’kit’no’sat, but we all wish to fight.”

“Apparently you are not alone. We’ve been contacted by several other races that wish to align with us against the V’kit’no’sat…not all requesting membership, but the feeling that we actually have a chance to win, or at least legitimately fight the V’kit’no’sat is spreading rapidly. Probably the latter is reasonable, for I still count us at a significant disadvantage.”

“We wish to lessen that disadvantage and be amongst the first to fight when they return.”

“Are you personally combat capable?” Sara asked.

“We all are,” Tarck answered. “We have not let ourselves become invalids.”

“Then I need you to come onboard and prove it. Let me see how superior you actually are. I’m guessing that’s more ego that fact.”

“That can be arranged,” Jovca agreed.

“Pick your best 5 in your fleet,” Davis said casually. “I wish to continue talking with you, but you may send them to her ship.”

“I will go,” Tarck volunteered.

“Do not hurt them badly,” Jovca warned.

“I will take care.”

“I’m no Zen’zat,” Sara reminded them with a twitch of distaste.

“If we are to fight side by side against the V’kit’no’sat, then you must understand the power of the Rit’ko’sor. Only then can you use us appropriately.”

“I’m waiting.”

Tarck disappeared and the other 5 holograms increased slightly in size, then Sara’s image winked at Davis and disappeared as well.

Director, Randal said telepathically from beside him.

Go, Davis answered. You guys get all the fun assignments.

Randal smiled and retreated from the command nexus, breaking into a run when he hit the bridge as he headed for the hangar bay so he could grab a dropship and head over to Sara’s command ship before the Rit’ko’sor arrived.

9

Randal watched, from the Archon sanctum no less, as Sara kicked another Rit’ko’sor out of the sparring circle in the 6th round as she was going 1v6. They’re started out 1v1, then added another and another each time she won, and this time was no different with all the unarmored Rit’ko’sor being manhandled by the faster Archon who also had Jumat at her disposal, which she used to punch the last remaining Rit’ko’sor across the curved line, leaving her the last man standing.

“Again,” Tarck said, with all 6 Rit’ko’sor walking back into the large ring.

“As many times as you like,” Sara taunted, but Randal saw something different happen. The Rit’ko’sor began to move differently this time, and suddenly they all surged towards the center where Sara was in unison as she threw a Jumat blast off her left hand and hit one square in the face as it ducked down, being dragged back a meter but not out of bounds.

Randal saw multiple tendrils of Lachka reach out for Sara, and her respond with a wash of Rentar, but they didn’t stop and he saw her make many micro-stumbles…too many to all attribute to Lachka attacks. He guessed they were also going after her telepathically, but they couldn’t actually hack in without physical contact. What they could do was ‘shout’ at her and try to distract, and however they were working it they had Sara slightly off balance as she stepped backwards and spun into a punch that swatted one of their long faces to the side.

The trailblazer surged forward, bodily hitting the Rit’ko’sor in the shoulder and summoning a Jumat blast strong enough to combine with her muscle strength to punt him out of the ring, but her feet were knocked out from under her by a tail swipe from another with perfect timing. She grabbed hold of the Rit’ko’sor’s smaller arm and launched herself up onto its back…but that was a mistake as the other Rit’ko’sor were suddenly ramming their own and pushed them both out of the ring.

Sara let go, falling and rolling out of bounds onto her feet as the 5 Rit’ko’sor in the ring looked at her with tilted heads and blinking eyes.

“Again,” she said, echoing them, and headed back to the center of the ring.

Randal saw her set herself, and when they began she didn’t get off balanced, but she did get overwhelmed. For some reason the Rit’ko’sor were operating with a coordination they hadn’t been showing in the first few rounds and all Sara could do was bat away attacks and hold her position for 30 seconds…then he saw that she had had it, obviously frustrated, and kicked it up a notch as her feet came off the ground a few inches and she went Saiyan on them, fighting from her flying pose.

Two Rit’ko’sor were knocked out before she got head butted towards the line…only to freeze in midair as she pushed back with her Yen’mer, then she flipped feet over her head and got behind the Rit’ko’sor and knocked him out with a Jumat blast, leaving her hanging high in the air above the other 3 and just staring down at them as they stopped fighting.

“You can fly?” one of them asked.

“The more advanced Archons can,” she explained, just hanging there a couple meters off the floor.

“We knew you could in armor,” Tarck added, still in the ring, “but how are you flying without it.”

“Our armor does not have gravity drives in it. They take up too much space.”

“Then how are you flying?”

“A psionic buried in Zen’zat coding. It allows us to fly the same way the V’kit’no’sat fliers do, minus their wings.”

“It’s been in your genome the entire time? You didn’t add it?”

“No, we discovered it.”

“Then why don’t you all have it?” another Rit’ko’sor asked.

“We have to achieve Frieza rank, our level 9. I’m currently level 12, Goku rank.”

“How many psionics do you possess?”

“Personally, I have 68.”

Randal could feel the stunned emotions of the Rit’ko’sor, who had no Ikrid blocks, making it clear they were flabbergasted. He’d assumed the V’kit’no’sat had counted how many different psionics the Archons had displayed in combat, but then again these Rit’ko’sor hadn’t been involved in that fight, so maybe they had less information than he thought.

“Did you create any of them?” Tarck finally asked.

“No. They were all encoded within the Zen’zat genome to be discovered by those who proved worthy. We figured out how to share them once we attained one, but at least one of us had to earn all of them. Something the Zen’zat apparently never did.”

“We were never told of flight being included. Nor were we told of 68. We thought there was less than half that number.”

“Battlemeld was never discovered, and it allows 19 more psionics, so that’s 20 you never knew about.”

“What is this battlemeld?”

“Something kind of similar to what you were just doing, only it allows us to communicate through a telepathic medium that auto-transmits. It’s not Ikrid, but something else. Randal, get over here.”

The Archon smiled and walked out into the ring, feeling Sara’s battlemeld prompt and accepting it.

“We’re now linked. We won’t use any psionics other than simple battlemeld. Try again.”

The other Rit’ko’sor came back into the ring, then the two Archons attacked them rather than waiting. As promised, they didn’t use psionics, going hand to hand as the 6 Rit’ko’sor worked together in telepathic harmony, fighting as a pack rather than individuals, with Randal humorously realizing that Jurassic Park had at least got that much right.

They were hard to beat, especially when they had 6 bodies to work with rather than 2, but Sara and Randal covered for each other so well the Rit’ko’sor couldn’t isolate one of them to knock out. Fortunately they didn’t use their Lachka, for she’d promised not to use any psionics, including Rentar, and had they wanted to the Rit’ko’sor could have just picked them up and threw them out.

But they didn’t. They fought hand to hand as well, though they also had tails. Their arms weren’t as strong, but they were still useful in close range, so they had 5 limbs each to worry about while the Humans only had 4. The group of 8 fought it out for several minutes before the Archons finally knocked one of the Rit’ko’sor out.

“Enough,” Tarck said, ending the fight early as both Archons were dripping with sweat while the Rit’ko’sor were only panting slightly. They didn’t sweat, and their internal heat production was far less, making them more efficient in that regard, at least. “You do have a formidable coordination. I do not understand why the V’kit’no’sat would encode you with this and then not teach you to use it.”

“From what we understand, it was a test of worthiness. A way of demonstrating that Zen’zat were inferior.”

“Can you show us what is is?” another Rit’ko’sor asked.

Sara nodded, then sent a telepathic link, essentially transmitting her thoughts to the Rit’ko’sor so they could glimpse the battlemeld link between her and Randal.

Randal sensed their anger immediately, and soon several snarled and paced around the ring in disgust.

“What’s wrong?” he thought, but it was Sara that said the words.

“We were told there is no such psionic. If there was, we should have been given it. We have the highest combat synchrony rating, even higher than the Dan’chey. If they created this for the Zen’zat, there must be another existing version. Who has it?”

“We do not know of any race in the V’kit’no’sat possessing it,” Sara said truthfully, omitting the Zak’de’ron who were now definitely not part of the V’kit’no’sat.

“What is the source of your information?”

“We had access to a fully unlocked planetary defense station.”

“How did you fully unlock it?”

“That’s a secret we will keep. How did you steal your information from the V’kit’no’sat?”

“A variety of ways, but we never accomplished a complete data breach. You’re saying you did?”

“We had full access prior to losing the pyramid when Earth fell.”

“Terraxis,” Tarck mewed. “Why did you change the name?”

“We didn’t. It was the name our ancestors used. We only discovered the name ‘Terrax’ after we found the pyramid. Before that, we didn’t even know the V’kit’no’sat existed. We found skeletons, but thought they were an extinct group of indigenous lifeforms.”

“You knew nothing of the Zen’zat who spawned you?”

“Nothing. Where the name Earth came from, we don’t know. But it’s our name, and since it’s our planet we decided to keep it, out of spite if nothing else.”

“We understand spite,” another Rit’ko’sor agreed.

“If not for your rebellion, Earth never would have been freed and our ancestors left to die there. So thanks, sort of. The leaving to die there part wasn’t very nice though.”

“We were not there,” Tarck said, “but if we had been we would have killed everyone on the planet. If some Zen’zat were left behind, it was not on purpose.”

“But you did leave the aquatics behind. Why?”

“They are difficult to kill. Are you saying they still inhabited the planet?”

“Briefly, then they evacuated.”

“Then they are the ones who left the Zen’zat behind.”

“That’s still a mystery we haven’t solved. The pyramid…”

“You call it by its shape?”

Sara shrugged. “It was what we first called it, then when we found out it was officially labeled a ‘planetary defense station’ we decided that was too much of a mouthful, so we stuck with ‘pyramid’ except when we talked to the V’kit’no’sat. You’re speaking English, so now that you know what I’m talking about I’m calling it what we call it.”

“You do not still have it? It was destroyed when you retook the planet?”

“Gutted, but the exterior still remains.”

“And the datafiles?”

“We copied them before we lost Earth the first time.”

“Would you allow us the curiosity of checking on a few things?”

“Possibly. What do you want to know?”

“Everything that they did not tell us. If you have access to the J’gar and Oso’lon files, we would like to see them.”

“We haven’t agreed to be friends yet, now have we?”

“We have offered. The decision is yours to make.”

“You said you were here to negotiate, so it’s not as simple as that. What are you unwilling to do?”

“It is not a matter of what we are unwilling to do, but what we are requesting that you do. We want you to incorporate our race into your empire in the most effective way possible to fight the V’kit’no’sat. We have some ideas of how that would occur, but you know better than us. We do not want to be reduced in stature to match the other races. We wish to be enhanced and unleashed on the V’kit’no’sat. You have knowledge and technology that we did not possess during our rebellion. We have ample experience fighting the V’kit’no’sat. We wish to combine the two to maximum advantage.”

“We always do everything to maximum advantage,” Sara pointed out, finally releasing the battlemeld with Randal. “But we fight with honor, and will not compromise it to attain a victory.”

“It is that honor that we are trusting in. We would not be here if we thought you would behave the same as the V’kit’no’sat.”

“But will you hold to the bounds of our honor?”

“Once we learn them, yes. Your combat record is enough to vouch for it, even if we do not understand it.”

“To put it simply, we do not focus on the short term. Doing something wrong might gain you something in the short term, but it weakens you in the long term. That’s why we are able to negotiate with other races to the effective level that we do. We have a history of trustfulness…and a history of doing the right thing simply because it is the right thing. That has gained us much over the long term, but we would do the right thing even if it gained us nothing. We fight enemies because they are threats, not because of vendettas. Sometimes the two overlap, but we don’t kill people who don’t deserve it, and we don’t barter lives.”

“Which is why you do not use death marks?”

“If you have to ask that question you really understand very little of us.”

“We are willing to learn if it helps us fight the V’kit’no’sat more effectively.”

“Well that’s a start,” Sara noted unenthusiastically.

“What is that alteration to your hand?” another Rit’ko’sor asked.

Sara held up her palm and pointed to the slit in it. “You mean this?”

“Yes.”

“Randal, bioshield please.”

“Fire at will,” he said, generating a shield over himself…and even that appeared to catch the Rit’ko’sor by surprise. Then when the bright white streak of plasma leapt out from Sara’s palm and impacted his shield he could sense even further anger and awe from their guests.

Sara didn’t fire a long blast, but held it long enough that the Rit’ko’sor got a good look at it, then closed down her hand slit with the glow disappearing entirely.

“It’s called Choratrik,” she explained.

“The Les’i’kron possess the same,” Tarck said, “but theirs emits from their mouths. It’s considered a weak psionic compared to Saroto’kanse’vam, but useful in certain circumstances. Do you use it much?”

“Not when we’re in armor with weapons, but it’s nice to know you’re never unarmed in case you’re separated from your armor.”

“That’s why we wear ours,” he said, referencing the pile of jewelry against the far wall that was their own battle armor in condensed storage mode.

“Ours is more formidable against single strikes. Yours is more flexible. A tradeoff we made.”

“Why?”

“We want someone to be able to survive a large, single hit. If they die from it, then the longevity of your armor becomes useless.”

“How often do you fight against that level of firepower?”

“Whenever the larger V’kit’no’sat races invade. Against Zen’zat our armor lasts long enough unless they poke a hole in a specific spot…but then that spot can be defended whereas yours fills in and weakens the entire armor.”

“So that’s why you wear static armor…” another Rit’ko’sor said, as if some long-held mystery had been discovered.

“Not entirely static, but we need to be able to take a large hit and keep fighting. We rely on skill and teamwork to deal with repetitive smaller hits.”

“And your psionics,” Tarck added, seeing another strategic advantage.

“Yes. It doesn’t make us superior to the Zen’zat, but it does allow us to fight in a style of our own choosing.”

“We were not even allowed full armor if we were not of high enough rank,” the Rit’ko’sor leader said with disgust. “We had shield generators, nothing more, and were expected to accomplish missions via our numbers. They valued our lives cheaply, and as a resource they would rather expend than let us build the necessary armor.”

“Why? Why did they waste you like that?” Randal asked, not fully understanding.

“They were given weak opponents,” Sara answered before the Rit’ko’sor could, “and were expected to win with less equipment. Otherwise they would not be dominant. Correct?”

“We were allowed full equipment against the Hadarak, but we were not even permitted to create it in sufficient numbers for our entire military. Other races had similar restrictions, but the larger ones did not. They valued their lives more, while the smaller races were seen as expendable. Star Force uses races as small as my foot to fight and kill V’kit’no’sat. You make use of the smaller races. You do not waste them. This is why we choose to trust you.”

“Your strength is your coordination,” Sara pointed out. “We can use that, but you must also be able to fight as individuals.”

“Our ability to do so would increase with additional psionics.”

“We don’t trust everyone with psionics. Only those who prove themselves worthy. Rit’ko’sor already having psionics is a problem.”

“One that you can solve for future generations as you see fit. We know that you will not waste power when it is presented to you.”

“No we don’t, but this war is going to be won or lost on the naval front. You were able to produce a massive fleet in secret. How?”

“We knew where the V’kit’no’sat would not look, and our Lachka was configured for smaller applications. We have undone that, to some extent, to give us more power in battle, but we were originally designed to use our Lachka in groups and individually as techs. We were not enhanced purely for battle as others were.”

“You have good techs then?”

“We are good at production. We are not as good at research, which is why we needed to steal blueprints to build our Mach’nel and other assets.”

“Do you have more than one?”

“No, and that one was extremely difficult to construct. We needed it against the Hadarak, but against the V’kit’no’sat it can be overwhelmed with lesser ships, as you know well. You have destroyed two of them.”

“Two and a half,” Sara corrected.

“You said there were battlemeld abilities,” another Rit’ko’sor interrupted. “Show us some of these.”

Sara glanced at Randal and the two linked up again, then they took off running in separate directions, turning and running around the perimeter of the circular sparring ring dragging an invisible Trielo conduit between them. When it passed through the Rit’ko’sor it transmitted the stun energy into their bodies, knocking them to the floor semi-unconscious, for the Archons had dialed back the intensity for demonstration sake.

Tarck and the others stumbled to their feet, trying to stand and regain their balance as they wobbled.

“Impressed yet?” Sara asked.

“Psionics are power, and a power that has been denied to the Rit’ko’sor in many ways…yet we still have enough psionics to make us superior to the races in Star Force. Your Archons have more power than we imagined, and if you can learn to transfer some of those psionics to us, you will not be disappointed with the results.”

“That’s getting way ahead of ourselves, but I won’t rule out that possibility.”

“Then you will accept us?”

“We have to work out a lot of details, but if you’re willing to accept doing things our way, the answer will be yes.”

“If doing things your way gets us our vengeance, we will happily accept following your lead.”

“Leadership is about direction, not suppression. That’s something the V’kit’no’sat still haven’t figured out. I hope you learn faster than they do.”

“The blood of our kin has prompted us to reassess many things over previous years.”

“As has ours. In that we share a common legacy.”

“We have hurt them more than any other,” Tarck said with a note of pride. “You have defied them in a way no other has ever accomplished. Together, I believe we can do a great deal more.”

“If they give us time to build,” Randal added ominously.

“If they give us time,” Tarck agreed. “If not, we will still be honored to fight and die alongside you rather than wallow in self-imposed exile.”

10

March 2, 4848

Axalon System (Pavana Region)

Stellar Orbit

It’d been two years since the meeting with the Rit’ko’sor, two long years for Sara as she and half the members of the 1s had been assigned the task of annexing the most powerful race ever to join Star Force. The 2s had got to fashion the lizards into Paladin, and now it was the 1s job to do the same with the Rit’ko’sor…only this was considerably harder.

Ethan-014, Erin-016, Kevin-017, and Landon-019 weren’t here, being tied up with war duties on the Rim, but the other 5 members of her original team were and they’d been working with a trio of Rit’ko’sor who had stayed behind in Star Force territory while the rest returned home and began packing. They weren’t going to leave their current planets with technology that others could recover, so over the past 2 years they’d been deconstructing them and converting every ship they possessed into transports to bring their entire population here in one massive convoy.

The Mach’nel helped greatly with that, but Sara had been told they were still packed tight and would have few foodstuffs to spare by the time they’d arrived, which was why Star Force had been in a frantic hurry to construct the necessary facilities in this formerly deserted system to sustain them upon arrival. Even now there were an army of Kiritak and Bsidd working round the clock while a large chunk of the Kvash navy was patrolling the system and keeping everyone else out. This was the heart of Star Force territory, safely away from the V’kit’no’sat and other threats, but word had already begun to spread and travelers were coming to take a look at the construction even before the Rit’ko’sor fleet started to arrive.

Star Force had designated this system off-limits, but there were many ships that came anyway and had to be turned back and Sara doubted that would end now, for the Rit’ko’sor had come straight here and passed through one of the black hole routes in former Nexus territory, so there were many local eyeballs on them and Davis had to put out a press release informing people why a V’kit’no’sat warfleet was moving through their territory.

The response had not been kind, but then again the inclusion of the lizards hadn’t been popular either in the aftermath of that war, and it was just one more factor that Sara and the 1s were going to have to deal with. For now, though, they would be left here in hopefully quiet isolation to build while waiting to see how the V’kit’no’sat responded. Would they break their truce and attack immediately? If they did, at least Star Force would now have added a Mach’nel to its combat capability, but it was really the Uriti that would make the biggest difference and they’d already added one more to their ranks, though having a Mach’nel now certainly didn’t hurt.

Sara watched from the bridge of the Dominator as the Rit’ko’sor ships continued to pour into the system via their jumppoint and move directly for one of three planets that had freshly built Star Force infrastructure on them. None were even close to fully constructed, but they had the necessary bioharvest facilities up and running and right now the quartaries were at 83% complete. That meant some of the Rit’ko’sor would have to live on the ships for a while until the Kiritak and Bsidd finished their work, but both the 1s and the Rit’ko’sor had wanted to make this transition as fast as possible, for if the V’kit’no’sat did hold to their truce they only had a limited number of years to prepare for the resumption of the war and they didn’t want to waste even one.

Already there were maturias set up to receive the incoming eggs, and it had been decided not to reduce them in capability. The Protovic had been the first experiment with psionics in the general population, but even they had to earn them through merit standards. Creating a similar system for the Rit’ko’sor was doable, but it would still mean watering down their Ikrid to the point they couldn’t hack into other people’s minds and remotely control their bodies. That was a line that Star Force was not going to cross, and the few people that had that capability had to be those that were deserving of the power and the responsibility that came with it…not to mention Lachka, which could crush a person’s brain or heart with a single thought.

No race could be given that power, which was why either the Rit’ko’sor had to be reduced or kept separate from the rest of Star Force…and the 1s had decided on the latter. If any individual Rit’ko’sor wanted to leave they could, but they’d have to forfeit their psionics to do it, just like a Human that spontaneously generated their dormant psionics. If they didn’t agree to follow certain protocol they were denied the psionic, for Star Force couldn’t let unscrupulous people run around with that kind of power.

So what Sara and the others had decided was to treat all Rit’ko’sor as if they were Arc Knights until they opted out, and already Star Force’s medtechs were working on creating new versions of existing psionics to add to the Rit’ko’sor, first on the list being bioshields. Initially that hadn’t been the plan, but the 3 Rit’ko’sor that Sara had gotten to know fairly well over the past 2 years had changed her mind considerably, for now she realized what it truly meant to be elevated to a V’kit’no’sat member race.

She didn’t know what the Rit’ko’sor had been before the dragons found them, but now their bodies healed remarkably fast, making self-sufficiency much easier to maintain. More so than Humans or even Zen’zat, for Humans were really a watered down version. A lot of tinkering had been done to the Human genome by Star Force to close that gap, but the bottom line was that Zen’zat were never designed to reproduce so a lot of their power didn’t translate through the generations.

For the Rit’ko’sor it did, and not only could they attain self-sufficiency much easier, they also learned quickly. Their minds didn’t possess Sav, but they were structured in a way that made them superior and was not part of their original genome. They’d been upgraded, and Star Force geneticists had been studying that for millennia now, but with only a few small experiments of their own to show for it. Davis wouldn’t permit anything dangerous, for Star Force wouldn’t sacrifice people to gain scientific knowledge. The V’kit’no’sat were another matter entirely, but still there were some races in Star Force that had been upgraded here and there were there was an easy fix to be made.

Advancement through training was the preferred method, and often it yielded better results than from direct manipulation, but there was no denying the level the Rit’ko’sor were on was superior to Humans…and Humans were superior to every other race in Star Force. The genetic wizardry of the V’kit’no’sat was now clear to Sara in a way it had never been before, but it wasn’t enough on its own and that was why Star Force had survived so long. They didn’t rely on a race, but rather individuals, and Sara was individually superior to these Rit’ko’sor even if her base genome wasn’t.

That was a concept the Rit’ko’sor were having a hard time acclimating too, though they were trying. Everything about their previous culture was based on their race, and they were going to have to unlearn that…though the hatchlings wouldn’t. How to train a superior race from ‘birth’ was going to be hit or miss as they began, but Sara knew they’d get the hang of it eventually and she was eager to see just how fast they would progress.

Faster than Humans, she knew, for Rit’ko’sor grew to adulthood in less than half the time. It was how fast they learned and adapted that she was interested in finding out…though there was one modification they were going to make to them that would cause some trouble. Rit’ko’sor were telepathic from birth, as many V’kit’no’sat races were, but not all. Some restricted the telepathy and other base psionics, such as the Era’tran, until they developed further, but the Rit’ko’sor did not and the pack mentality was developed in them from infancy. Even now those in eggs could feel the others nearby, but the eggs that were soon to arrive in Star Force hands would be undoing immediate genetic alteration.

Doing so in a developing hatchling was dangerous, for the growth was based on very specific plans that, if messed with, could have disastrous consequences. Back when Star Force first began Sara had found out, after the fact, that Davis had searched the planet for malformed babies and had them brought in secret to be treated with V’kit’no’sat regenerators. Any bad growths, such as two individuals being born with their heads connected, would be fixed and separated within minutes because the base genome hadn’t been corrupted, it was only the growth sequence that had seen a glitch.

But this was far more serious, for making alterations to the base genome could have unintended consequences, and a regenerator could only repair you according to those genetic blueprints. It couldn’t adapt and solve problems, only rebuild you to specs. Fortunately the procedure that the eggs were going to have done on them was adding something rather than changing tissue, in that they were getting an Ikrid block identical to what all Humans carried, though by necessity it was slightly different due to the structure of the Rit’ko’sor minds.

That meant the hatchlings could still communicate telepathically, but they couldn’t read each other. How that would affect their development no one knew, and Sara assumed it was going to be troublesome, but both the trailblazers and the Rit’ko’sor agreed it was necessary. Mental warfare amongst the V’kit’no’sat was extreme, and for that reason their servants had been given an immunity to it, in order to keep them neutral, though physical touch could still bypass it. Give the Rit’ko’sor this immunity and they’d be even more dangerous in combat, not to mention their armor could be engineered lighter without having to have their own version of countermeasures installed…though they’d never been permitted that technology previously.

They’d had to steal/create it before their rebellion, but having an Ikrid block would be much simpler. Unfortunately they’d never had the necessary genetic knowledge to create it themselves, and right now Star Force stood as having a higher biotech level than the Rit’ko’sor did even without the added advantage of Chixzon knowledge. The compartmentalization of V’kit’no’sat knowledge, even somewhat compromised by data thefts during the Rit’ko’sor rebellion, was now plainly evident and made what they’d accomplished even more impressive. For as much as the Rit’ko’sor had been upgraded, they’d been deliberately kept in the dark about many things, and it was no wonder the V’kit’no’sat were surprised when they were able to mount a rebellion of the size and scope that they had.

You’d have thought they’d learn their lesson and have taken Star Force more seriously, but thankfully they hadn’t. Now, however, Sara didn’t think they’d make that mistake a third time, but who knew. If they were really as egotistical as their reputation suggested, they just might.

As soon as the Mach’nel came into the system it was sent to a separate planet and began offloading the civilians that were packed inside, using both their own drop pods and Star Force dropships to transfer them as quickly as possible. Once that was completed several Star Force cargo ships brought the Mach’nel an abundance of supplies and a new crew, with only a handful of Rit’ko’sor remaining onboard. Riona-111 was among them, and was going to take personal command of the Mach’nel while some of the best Rit’ko’sor naval officers went with her to help fly and fight the massive ship while learning firsthand what it meant to fight the Star Force way.

Sara knew she was heading out to assist Paul, who was already engaged in heavy combat against the Ziviri, one of The Nexus’s primary enemies that had not only been attacking their strongholds but running rampant through the territories they’d left abandoned. Tech-wise they were below Star Force’s level, but not so far below that it made for an easy fight. Paul was currently engaged in more than a dozen systems far beyond the Avta Region, with the Ziviri being tagged for complete conquest.

Sara knew they were too dangerous to be allowed to linger, but taking them out was a luxury Star Force didn’t have while fighting the V’kit’no’sat. Now that that war was on pause, Paul was hitting them hard and fast, and if he could fully conquer their 1,389 system empire it would relieve an enormous amount of pressure on The Nexus and thousands of other non-aligned races. Bottom line was the Zirviri had to go, and just having the Rit’ko’sor Mach’nel sitting in Axalon protecting a safe planet was a waste the trailblazers were not going to tolerate.

That, and the Rit’ko’sor wanted to get into battle immediately anyway, and this was a small opportunity for them to do so…without their lack of scruples being a danger to anyone else with Riona in direct command.

Knowing how bad Paul wanted that Mach’nel with him, Sara had arranged for the quickest possible transfer of supplies and personnel and was pleased to see it moving out of orbit just before the last of the Rit’ko’sor convoy finally arrived in the system. According to manifests the Rit’ko’sor had given them upon arrival, all ships were accounted for and every single member of their splinter race was now here in Star Force’s custody and under the protection of the entire Rit’ko’sor warfleet…minus the Mach’nel that was leaving.

With all that new firepower the bulk of the Kvash fleet was dispatched to other assignments, but there were still several battlegroups that remained to handle uninvited guests. Sara didn’t want Rit’ko’sor ships trying to do that, so she ordered all of them into parking orbit around the three planets while she and the other 1s that were here began heading down to the surface of Turok, which was going to be the capitol and experimental training center for figuring out how to best incorporate the Rit’ko’sor into Star Force. Already a lot of pre-work had been done with the 3 Rit’ko’sor that had volunteered to stay behind, but that was just the beginning. Now Sara and the other 1s had their work really cut out for them, and they weren’t going to waste any time getting started.

Already they had several basic challenge courses laid out and benchmarks established by the three ‘forerunners’, as Sara had started to call them. Now they needed to start sending the masses through and seeing how well they adapted while the Kiritak continued to build more training facilities. Sara was feeding them upgrades as they went, and the more information she got from running the Rit’ko’sor through the basics the more she could stay ahead of their needs, for it took time for even the Kiritak to build facilities of the scope that the Rit’ko’sor needed…especially with their Lachka, which made challenge courses much more intricate to give them problems that they couldn’t easily solve with their invisible hands.

Putting up psionic dampeners worked in some cases, but that was really a cheat and Sara needed challenges that would kick the crap out of the Rit’ko’sor while they had their full array of skills at their disposal.

To that end she had also sent out a request for some old friends to come and help, with Head Trainer Wilson indicating that he would arrive in a few years after he got enough baseline data to be of use. A few other elite trainers were already on their way, some of whom were Calavari, but the most important individual on her request list was already here and had been sparring with Sara and the other 1s for two weeks while they waited. She was glad Vermaire had agreed to come off the battle lines in the Rim, for he understood as much as she did how important the Rit’ko’sor were going to be to Star Force…and how they had an ego that needed to be whacked down.

So the original Black Knight that had terrorized the Archon trainees was returning to reprise his role, only this time on the Rit’ko’sor…and Rit’ko’sor that had been alive for thousands of years. They would be harder to own than rookies, but that would make their defeats even more stinging while keeping Sara and the 1s as allies rather than enemies. That was important, and a reason why the Black Knight had been created in the first place. He was a place for those learning to put their hate…and later their respect, but for now the Rit’ko’sor still had to learn the hard way to hate first, and Vermaire wasn’t due to start randomly kicking the crap out of them during challenges for a few weeks, but Sara couldn’t wait to see how they reacted to him.

Hopefully they’d learn, but there was just as much of a possibility of it going bad. She needed to know that and a great many other things before those in eggs ever got to this point, and talking only got you so far, including mental scans. Some things you only learned about a person when they were pushed to their limits, and Vermaire definitely had a knack for getting you there.

Actually, what he had was a mean streak, but one designed to give you no hesitation or mercy. It’s what the Black Knight was meant to be, but Archons never could quite go that far in training. Maybe that’s because they’d always seen the Black Knight from the receiving end and they couldn’t put themselves in the mindset of the one they’d always reviled. But thankfully there were plenty of Knights and Arc Knights that could and would willingly take on that role, but none were as good at it as Vermaire.

And since he was supposed to be an enigma, none of the Rit’ko’sor had met him yet…though they would soon, the hard way.

When Sara got to the surface, she and Aaron-010 met up with the Rit’ko’sor leader, Jovca, and a few others in the main embassy building that would allow more than just their elite to interact with Star Force during this transition period. With 53 billion of them, there were a lot of people to get to know and mental scans to go through before giving them access to Star Force positions. For the time being, though, these three planets were more of a refugee camp than anything else, though that would be changing rapidly in the days ahead.

“Trailblazer Sara,” Jovca said respectfully as his hip robes dragged slightly across the floor as he walked with a characteristically Rit’ko’sor bounce towards her.

“Jovca,” she replied, gesturing to her right. “This is Aaron.”

“I recognized him from the files, and I offer our greetings along with a request.”

“What?” she asked casually, for she’d gotten so used to dealing with the forerunners that they seemed like brothers by now.

“We once held great pride in the name Rit’ko’sor, and we do not wish to relinquish it or our history. We have made mistakes, but we have done great things as well, and our rebellion, no matter how bloody and costly to us, is something we intend never to forget. However, the traitors who returned to the V’kit’no’sat have assumed our mantle and our name. As painful as it is for us, we wish for there to be no misunderstandings as to our allegiance. We are the real Rit’ko’sor, but since the traitors have laid claim to our name and our previous position within the V’kit’no’sat, we require a new identity. Given that we are becoming part of Star Force, we ask that you create a new name for us.”

Aaron said something telepathic to her about ‘Chocobo,’ but she suppressed most of her humorous smile and turned it into a warm acceptance, glad that she did have an Ikrid block and the Rit’ko’sor couldn’t read her mind. She nixed that name and offered another one to Aaron, who quickly agreed, citing it was the obvious one and that he wanted to hold ‘Chocobo’ in reserve in case they needed a nickname or slur to use.

Sara agreed with that, but didn’t miss a beat in her vocal conversation with Jovca.

“We have a name from long ago, after finding your skeletal remains on Earth, that would suit you well and carries with it an ancient respect before we even knew what the V’kit’no’sat were. If you wish it, you can now lay claim to that name.”

“We wish it,” Jovca said with a slight head tilt. “What is our ancient, and now present name to be?”

“Raptor,” Sara said with emphasis. “You will be known as the Raptors. Star Force Raptors. And when we’re done converting you, no one will ever mistake you for V’kit’no’sat again.”

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