1

January 13, 4917

Itaru System (V’kit’no’sat capitol)

Wendigama

Hamob returned to Mak’to’ran several months after news of the Armistice with Star Force had made its way through the Urrtren to find an empire in peril. The attacks around the galaxy had increased greatly, and the couriers from the Rim Consortium races that he’d met during the negotiations were going to take even more time to reach their homelands and order them to stand down. That meant at least another year of fighting in some places, due to the fact that the Consortium was an organization in name only and had no means of intra-galactic communication aside from couriers.

The V’kit’no’sat had the Urrtren, plus their massive territory was consolidated in the center of the galaxy whereas the Rim was even more spread out, and if the couriers didn’t want to take the risk of cutting through V’kit’no’sat territory they’d have to go the long way around, meaning it could be several years before the races on the far side of the galaxy got the stand down order.

But this war was coming to an end, and despite the losses they were suffering, those attacking races were soon to be mitigated by Star Force’s newly granted dominion over the entire Rim. If not, then the V’kit’no’sat would have leave to fight the races that refused to hold to the terms. That was good news, but the situation was far more complicated.

“What?” Mak’to’ran asked, his shock reciprocated by the other 6 Era’tran in his newly constructed command deck that stood at the center of what used to be the Elder Conclave. Two Hamob knew, Bar’su and De’grana, but the other four were junior Era’tran that Mak’to’ran must have elevated to whatever new positions he was creating as he started to rework Itaru and the empire as a whole into a semblance of real unity.

“There are 87 races in the Rim Consortium,” Hamob explained. “As of last count, there are 136 attacking us. I met with each of the 87 and have limited files on all. The other races are not coordinating with Star Force…they are operating completely on their own. Director Davis wasn’t even aware of their existence.”

Mak’to’ran swung his giant head to the side, with his body following as he began to pace around the huge holographic map at the center of the chamber. Two of the other Era’tran moved out of his way, allowing him to begin walking a lap around it as he was visibly fuming.

“Have we truly garnered that many enemies?” he asked. “Have we missed that many powers in our search of the galaxy?”

“I am beginning to wonder if the Oso’lon and J’gar did not reveal everything to us.”

“I wonder that as well, but I sense more to this,” Mak’to’ran said, telepathically signaling the other Era’tran and Zen’zat in the chamber to leave. He needed to have a private discussion with Hamob, and they all left without hesitation or resentment, leaving the pair of million year old Era’tran alone.

“The Zak’de’ron?” Hamob asked once the door closed.

“They strike at us through intermediaries rather than face to face,” Mak’to’ran said with a sneer. “Or fear of us has diminished to such a level that those we previously suppressed now sense a weakness and opportunity.”

“One that will quickly end when the Rim Consortium ceases their attacks.”

“What did you have to give up? Your message said nothing of the terms.”

Hamob sighed. “What was necessary, but it will be difficult for the empire to accept.”

“We are in difficult times, Hamob. We cannot tolerate weak V’kit’no’sat. Those that cannot handle the burdens of duty will be dealt with or discarded. What are the terms?”

“Many of the Rim Consortium are wanting territory from us. They are taking it by force, and I saw no reason to fight to hold worlds we need to discard anyway. We are too spread out, and we need to consolidate our holdings. I have agreed to vacate the outer rim of our territory completely. We will cleanse our worlds of any useful infrastructure, except for a ring of worlds that we will be handing over to Star Force intact. Including planetary defense stations.”

Mak’to’ran flinched for a moment, then nodded his head in agreement as the logic of the situation sunk in. “You want to use them to guard our outer border?”

“As long as we are giving them dominion over the Rim, we might as well benefit from it. They will tolerate no leash…that was made abundantly clear. We have burnt any chance of an alliance with our relentless pursuit of their destruction. They will not forgive the deaths we caused, but that said, they are being extremely reasonable. Far more than I expected. They are willing to do the work we need of them, but on their own terms. In effect, they are part of the V’kit’no’sat but in denial of that fact…minus the control of Itaru.”

“How many systems?”

“We will vacate 2,713. Of those, 283 will be turned over to Star Force, and the sooner the better. They will use our technology to keep the Rim Consortium away from the new border, as a watchdog that cannot be displaced. They will be so far from reinforcement they must have our planetary defenses or they could be erased before a report reached Director Davis. And there is nothing of our technology that they do not already possess. I am concerned, however, of the captured worlds and the Rim Consortium backwards engineering our technology. I recommend an immediate counterattack to destroy what has been captured.”

“Despite the fact that we have an Armistice?”

“Word will not have reached many of them yet. As long as they continue to attack us, we are free to defend ourselves. We must act quickly to destroy what they have taken. We cannot allow our technology in the hands of others.”

“And the ones to whom word has already reached?”

“We destroy them. Terms of the Armistice do not give any of the Rim Consortium ownership of our worlds, and how we evacuate is up to us. It may be a violation in spirit, but we cannot let our technology fall into their hands.”

“Assuming they have not already removed some of it,” Mak’to’ran pointed out.

“We must mitigate our losses.”

“We are stretched thin, Hamob. We do not have the forces available to do what you suggest. Not until we can close out engagements in some areas.”

“We must. Our situation is improving, but we must act quickly or we risk facing an enemy who possesses our own technology…and one who is far less restrained than Star Force.”

“We do not have the ships to send, Hamob.”

“Pull defenses from interior worlds. We know the war on the Rim is going to get lighter in a few years. These races will not push far enough to threaten them in that time. Leave them undefended and push to cleanse the outer Rim before we relinquish it.”

Hamob closed his eyes, then slowly spun around…a sign of frustration and reluctance.

“Very well. Which races are we going to have to deal with once the Armistice takes effect?”

Hamob floated a small data crystal away from one of the insets in his armor and inserted it into a slot on the base of the holomap. Those races in the Rim Consortium were highlighted, leaving the rest as being the V’kit’no’sat’s problem and not Star Force’s.

“The Li’vorkrachnika?” Mak’to’ran asked.

“Star Force may have a splinter of their race working for them, but they are not united in any fashion. Director Davis was surprised when he heard of their assaults against us, and even more concerned about their technological advancement. He recommends that we annihilate them quickly.”

Mak’to’ran huffed. “Annihilate?”

“Star Force has a long history with the Li’vorkrachnika, whom they irreverently call ‘lizards.’ It is an insult, and one well deserved. Star Force tried to annihilate them before, but could not continue closer to the Core without encountering us, so they were forced to let them migrate beyond their reach. Those they conscripted were acquired in a nearly impossible scenario. They do not think it can occur again, and when Li’vorkrachnika are captured they kill themselves. Their use of suicide attacks is also indicative of a race that thrives in bloodshed. I’ve been analyzing their attacks, and despite their inferiority they are overcoming their disadvantage with sacrifices of a staggering nature. They cannot be negotiated with.”

“Still, that is far beyond what Star Force norms are.”

“Not at all. Their long history has seen them try, numerous times, for some form of mitigation. Director Davis knows that there can be none, so they are no longer trying. The Li’vorkrachnika are an enemy that must be destroyed, and Star Force has offered their assistance with the rimward side of the Li’vorkrachnika’s territory. When defeated, the Li’vorkrachnika will send out ships to start new colonies, making them extremely hard to completely eradicate. Star Force will monitor, intercept, and destroy any ships heading for the Rim.”

“A joint effort?”

“In a fashion. I could sense fear in Davis. The technology upgrades the Li’vorkrachnika have seen are not natural progression. They have a sponsor. It is only a question of whom, and Davis fears either the Zak’de’ron or the Chixzon, though the possibility of a third unknown is also disturbing.”

“The gains the Li’vorkrachnika are making are also disturbing,” Mak’to’ran said, telepathically signaling the map to zoom in on the Tamprani and Olobiv Regions. “We have lost more systems to them than any other race, and they are pushing deeper at a furious pace. Where is the new border line?”

Hamob adjusted the map and a new outer boundary appeared, only 140 lightyears from the furthest Li’vorkrachnika incursion.

“They will be beyond it soon,” Hamob noted. “We need to hold that line at the minimum.”

“We don’t have the ships,” Mak’to’ran said sourly. “Too many were wasted fighting Star Force.”

“We must snuff this threat out before it grows further. Their rate of expansion is alarming, as is their lack of respect for life. They have no elders. Most live only as long as the mission dictates. They are an expendable resource for their hidden leaders and spread like a virus. If they had our technology, they would dominate the galaxy. Star Force is adamant that they must be destroyed or they will become a threat to both our survival.”

“The soul raiders are not part of the Consortium?” Mak’to’ran asked, looking at the other races listed.

“Soul raiders?”

“The only name we have for them. They will not identify themselves, but their ships have living beings engineered into them. We do not know if they are their own race, but some speculate they might be enslaving those they conquer in a hideously grotesque fashion. I have scouts out now trying to ascertain if they are doing the same to our people caught on the fallen worlds. If they are, we will burn them from the galaxy before we even look at the Li’vorkrachnika.”

“What have you learned thus far?”

“The individuals function as a biological computer system that works with the physical hardware. They are psionically shielded and self-destruct whenever it is breached. That has made it hard to determine what exactly they are, for the bio-matter is liquefied almost instantaneously, but we have had brief telepathic contact with some of them. Enough to realize that they have been altered heavily. Their minds are not free, but constrained. We suspect it is a programming override of their consciousness to ensure compliance.”

“To what advantage?”

“Adaptability,” Mak’to’ran said as if it were obvious. “Even given constraints, a person will be able to adapt to what a machine cannot. It is the same reason the Hadarak minions are superior to the one’s produced by the Uriti, but I fear there may be a punitive function as well. The Soul Raiders must be destroyed, and many of the other races are only slightly less abominations. The Ridoken are eating those they capture…alive. They are drinking their biofluids straight out of their bodies like a leach. I would rid the galaxy of them as well if they were not part of the Rim Consortium, but if they withdraw we must leave them be. We have too much to do elsewhere.”

“You fear we must sacrifice a larger part of the empire than we discussed in order to save it?”

“I fear the Zak’de’ron are exacting their revenge as we speak. Our systems will not fall easily or quickly, but our response forces are overwhelmed and the Hadarak continue to probe heavily. We are under assault on all fronts. The Armistice is the only advantage we have.”

“I have never seen you like this,” Hamob admitted. “You appear almost broken.”

“Our empire is crumbling, from within and without. I cannot hold it all together. We have wasted too much and our enemies are far greater in number and power than we had ever expected. The Oso’lon and J’gar have doomed us with their incompetence. We need to rebuild, but we don’t have the luxury of time and I do not think the Zak’de’ron will allow it. When we become weak enough they will emerge and the final confrontation will begin. I fear we are far closer to it than any of us realized.”

“And you have no plan of action?”

“I am badly in need of your counsel, Hamob.”

“If the empire is to break, we must ensure that the Era’tran survive. We are the central pillar of strength to build on now that the Oso’lon and J’gar have failed in their duty.”

“If we lose the other races we will not be able to stand against the Zak’de’ron. We cannot withdraw.”

“No, we cannot, but if panic ensues we must focus on our own worlds and those of our closest allies.”

Mak’to’ran swung his tail to the left and whacked a console, putting a dent in it as the Era’tran vented the frustration he dare not show anyone else.

“Only a few years ago we were stable. Now everything is falling apart. If the Rim Consortium is only responsible for part of these assaults, their withdraw is not going to be enough. We are going to lose massive amounts of territory before we are able to avenge the losses. And even one more downturn could spiral us into destruction.”

“You suspect the Zak’de’ron have more avenues of attack to unveil?”

“I assume they have plotted our downfall in excruciating detail, and we have no allies to turn to. Our obsession with dominance was twisted into sole control. Star Force has demonstrated a different kind of dominance, one that I wish we could have learned from rather than attempting to destroy. We are doomed, Hamob. I can see it clearly now. As I know you can.”

“The revelation of these other races beyond the Consortium also floored me, though I had not known it was growing this bad. There is no Urrtren link to Star Force, so I only had limited information getting through. But the advantage in that was I was able to think for a long time, so this is not as much of a shock to me as it is to you.”

“What do you advise?” Mak’to’ran asked, a glimmer of hope in his voice.

“We have not told the empire the truth, and while the appearance of unity remains, the underlying fractures deepen. The old empire is gone. And before the V’kit’no’sat realize this, you must build a new one. In that, you have far more experience than I do, and I was wrong to criticize your move here. In retrospect it was overdue.”

“I need more than that, Hamob. I suspect you have something.”

“I was surprised at Director Davis suggesting the Li’vorkrachnika should be annihilated. It is so different from their normal resistance to death I decided to probe it further. I was expecting to find hypocrisy, rather I found pragmatism. They gave the Li’vorkrachnika every chance to change. They offered them time and time again to surrender and survive. They even forced it upon them until they suicided so much that Star Force stopped trying. Even then they did not quit, and somehow managed to turn one of their mastermind variants. Through him they seized control of large sections of the Li’vorkrachnika population that were tasked with fighting and dying to buy time for their leaders to escape. They were expended, and if not for some biochemical trickery Star Force would have had to kill them all. Such trickery, I am told, has almost certainly been engineered out of the current Li’vorkrachnika.”

“So they are beyond hope, from Star Force’s perspective?” Mak’to’ran asked.

“I checked the records they made available. In the past, once they had expended their compassion on the Li’vorkrachnika, they began orbital bombardment of their worlds beyond taking down defenses. They destroyed them from orbit rather than risking their ground troops. They fought much like we do, because they know the Li’vorkrachnika have no individuals. All are programmed to serve their leaders, whom they refer to as Templar. Star Force has never encountered a single individual who had undone the programming. They are all enslaved, and Star Force cannot undo the enslavement, so the only recourse is to kill them before they kill others.”

“And you say this is not hypocrisy?”

“It is not. If there was even one individual out of a billion that could be saved, they would not bombard a planet. But they know how strong the genetic holds are on the Li’vorkrachnika. They have their own variants to study in detail, information on which is far less available. They fear the Li’vorkrachnika, not because of their superiority, but because they will spread across the galaxy if unchecked. That is why they have offered to block their retreat to the Rim.”

“That is of limited help. What are you driving at?”

“The Uriti,” Hamob said simply. It took a moment for that to fully register, then Hamob blinked twice in shock.

“Why would they?”

“We must offer them something in exchange. I am not sure what that would be, but they are the only quasi-ally we have, and the only known power in the galaxy greater than ours is at their command.”

2

January 31, 4917

Ohson System (V’kit’no’sat territory, Tamprani Region)

Neonni

Hanniena looked up into the sky from the Wass’mat world, able to see the fleet of Li’vorkrachnika ships as thick as clouds blockading the planet while the invaders attacked two others, forcing this world’s defenders to hold position and not reinforce the others. When they’d tried to do just that 3 days ago the Li’vorkrachnika had attacked Neonni and forced the ships to return. Now they just waited, staring at each other up there while the other two Wass’mat planets were getting hammered.

Kienma already had its planetary shields down and a full scale planetary invasion taking place. Logsda had only one generator down and the beginnings of an invasion getting a foothold on the planet, but its prospects did not look good. The formidable enemy, whom the Wass’mat did not even know had existed previously, had come in with such overwhelming force it was just a matter of time until all 3 planets were taken. The system and planetary defenses could not hold, and Hanniena only suspected preservation of resources was holding back the lizards from assaulting all three simultaneously.

That’s what Star Force called them, and during her stay in their prison facility Hanniena had learned quite a lot about them…for she’d been so bored that digging through the available historical records was preferable to staring at the walls in her cell. The thing was, the lizards were never this powerful before. Somehow they’d gotten a significant technological boost, as well as the audacity to attack the V’kit’no’sat a second time after being spared from annihilation by freak events previously.

They’d only killed a single Zen’zat that time, seriously wounding a second, and that had been enough for the empire to demand their deletion from the galaxy. Now they were here, with a massive fleet and the will to take entire planets…yet there was no response from the empire other than to say help was not available. They were still waiting to hear back from other Wass’mat worlds, and Hanniena had been summoned to the planetary Council Chambers to discuss what she hoped would be a timetable for holding out until help from their own race could arrive.

The sight of the enemy fleet overhead was ominous and overbearing, especially considering their tiny size. Both their ships and bodies were small, but their strength came in their numbers. The V’kit’no’sat should not be threatened by such a foe, but half of the system defense fleet had been sent away to assist other worlds as they fought off numerous assaults from the Rim races. No one had thought those systems near the Star Force border would come under attack, let alone from a race that Star Force thoroughly despised.

Hanniena walked steadily and quickly on her 6 thick legs, making sure not to twist her head to the side too quickly, for her pair of Saroto’kanse’vam tusks stuck out well in front of her and could easily knock Zen’zat over with a mere brush, but Wass’mat had long ago learned to look with their eyes and only move their heads when needed, meaning the other Wass’mat she passed did not impale each other. They moved with an almost lethargic grace, knowing the power of their bodies and their psionics were a threat if mishandled, but the skill her entire race showed in their choreographed movements belied the danger. They were fully in control of their bodies, their worlds, and their tiny slice of the empire.

But today there was a telepathic buzz of uncertainty palpable everywhere one went, and it did not evaporate when Hanniena passed by the guards at the entrance to the Council Chambers. In fact, it got a great deal worse.

“They have refused to help us,” Gargara said flatly when the former fleet commander arrived, finishing off the set of 8 who had been invited. The doors closed behind Hanniena, sealing them inside as the system governor’s panic was evident in his telepathic aura. “No one is coming.”

“Our own people won’t help?” Bweto asked.

“All our fleets are engaged in other fights. None are available and the limited ships that could head our way are mostly transports. They are coming to evacuate the few of us they can, but with that fleet overhead it is unlikely that they will be able to get through. No warfleets are coming.”

“Have they completely abandoned Tamprani?” Jovcho, the planetary defense commander, asked.

“Itaru has informed us that Tamprani is likely to fall. They are mounting a containment force, but those systems already under assault are on their own. We are on our own. The empire will not assist worlds that cannot be held. We have been ordered to evacuate what we can, and to make the enemy pay as high a price as possible when the end finally comes.”

Hanniena huffed angrily. How could the empire do this? Their bonds required they come to each other’s defense. There had to be some fleets available, even if they were just protecting worlds closer to the Core. Why were they hesitating? Was the threat from the Rim worse than was being reported? Could it be that bad?

No, the empire was huge. Beyond huge. Even if it took time to move forces around there were a plentiful number of them. This system had sent help to others, compromising its own defenses, and now it was the responsibility of others to do the same to help them…and not even their own race would! There were four Wass’mat systems, fully or partly owned, within 4 weeks travel. None of them had come under attack, nor were close to it, and they had warships they could send, even if it was just to assist in an evacuation. Why weren’t they?

“How many can we evacuate?” Bweto asked.

“346,000,” Trevarin answered. “If we can get all ships free…which I highly doubt.”

“Is that including Zen’zat?” Gargara asked.

“No. That is packing in every Wass’mat that we can, far beyond safety standards. Rations will have to be minimal, or the number goes down in order to stock more supplies.”

“346,000, max, out of 4.3 billion…not to mention 27 billion Zen’zat,” Parwa said, vibrating her head angrily. “How many additional transports are coming?”

“Enough for 48,000 more.”

“That’s all?”

“Unfortunately yes.”

“I do not know what else we can do,” Gargara stated flatly. “We need another option. Give me one.”

“We cannot leave and we cannot stay,” Jovcho announced. “Unless warfleets arrive, we will die here. I do not see where we will get them.”

“What about the forces still in Star Force territory?” Hanniena asked.

“Already gone or heading elsewhere. None have responded with anything more than apologies,” Gargara informed her. “They are needed elsewhere.”

“The interior systems are hoarding their ships,” Bweto said with a snarl. “They are betraying their duty.”

“Agreed, but we cannot force them to send their ships. What other options do we have?” Gargara repeated.

“Abandon the other two planets and pull all ships here,” Jovcho said, nearly spitting in disgust.

“Will that be enough to save us?”

“It will not, but our only chance is keeping the shields up. When the assault comes, we have to damage them as much as we can. If the other planets are going to fall, we could at least repurpose some of their ships prior to their destruction.”

“They would fall even quicker,” Hanniena reminded him.

“I know, but he asked for options. And right now bad options are all I have to give.”

“Then what other bad options do we have?” Gargara asked.

“Send our ships out to defend the other planets, forcing the Li’vorkrachnika to attack us here or follow them. If they attack now, without the rest of their fleet, they will take greater damage, but they will still penetrate the shields. I see no way we can fight this without ultimate loss.”

“If we will not support each other, our race is broken,” Shastah said mournfully. “It’s bad enough that the empire will not respond, but our own people…I cannot believe it has come to this. They are prioritizing other races’ worlds over our own.”

“They see us as expendable,” Gargara explained. “Why fight for a lost system when more valuable ones that could be held are in jeopardy.”

“How many do you think we will lose in Tamprani?” Bweto asked.

“If the empire does not respond,” Jovcho answered, “we could lose half the region. There aren’t a lot of valuable systems here, but I don’t see the entire region falling. It’s clear, though, that the outermost bands have been abandoned, us included.”

“Then we’re being left for dead?” Hanniena asked.

“It seems we are.”

“How shall we make our last stand?” Gargara asked. “Abandon our fellow planets or defend all 3 as long as possible?”

“If we are all going to die, what’s the point of betraying the others,” Shastah noted. “I would not do so anyway. At least let us die with honor.”

“What honor is there to dying to this vermin?” Trevarin challenged. “Where has our dominance gone?”

“Ask the J’gar that question,” Gargara responded angrily. “They gave it away when they sponsored Terraxis.”

“We don’t know that…for sure.”

“It was them or the Oso’lon,” Bweto echoed. “And the J’gar refused to fight this last war.”

“So did the Era’tran,” Hanniena pointed out.

“They did not have command codes then. Only the Oso’lon and J’gar did.”

“Both of them have failed us,” Jovcho said dismissively. “And now the empire has as well. I do not care about complaining while we are still alive. We must find a way to fight this better.”

Hanniena growled, dipping her right tusk down and impaling the console in front of her, then flicking her head up and ripping it off its attachments. A telekinetic push took it off its spear and sent it flying past Trevarin to where it hit the floor and rolled in a spray of debris halfway towards the far wall.

“We have another option,” she snarled, hating the words as she spoke them.

“Speak it,” Gargara demanded.

“If the empire has abandoned us. If our own race has abandoned us. Then we must seek a new allegiance.”

“What do you mean?” Jovcho asked.

“She means Star Force,” Shastah said, almost spitting the name.

“I do not like it any more than you do,” Hanniena said virulently, “but they hate the Li’vorkrachnika. They would have wiped them out long ago if not for fear of alerting us to their presence.”

“They are already fighting a rear guard against them,” Gargara noted. “Why would they come here to help us?”

“If we leave the empire and…join them, they would,” she said, barely choking out the words.

“Itaru would never…” Bweto began, then caught himself as he realized the stupidity of what he was saying.

“If they’ve left us for dead, it does not matter what Itaru wants,” Hanniena continued. “We are expendable to them.”

“Star Force hates us,” Gargara reminded her. “The Rit’ko’sor never fought them. We have.”

“It does not matter. During my captivity they gave me a lot of information. I think for this very reason. They hate V’kit’no’sat. If we stop being V’kit’no’sat…which we will when we die…then they will not hold a grudge against us.”

“Would they help a neutral or require us to join them?” Jovcho asked.

“They won’t fight our wars for us. We would have to become Star Force.”

“What would that mean?” Liol, the eldest among them, asked.

“They would send an Archon here to remake our race, as they have done with others. We would lose our dominance and have to follow their commands, but once inside their empire we would have our freedom…so long as we do not betray them.”

“Why would they want us in their midst?” Gargara asked. “We would be a threat to them.”

“Would we? They command the Uriti and have survived us for 1300 years. With the Armistice in place, they hold the dominant position in the galaxy if the V’kit’no’sat have truly broken. They do not fear us, but they know what we are capable of. They already possess one V’kit’no’sat race. They will want another in order to harness our potential and add it to their own.”

“This is treason,” Jovcho stated calmly, “but if there is a chance we can survive, and the war with the empire is over, we will do our race and Itaru no harm by surviving under another’s banner. I do not like it, but we have no other options for survival, and I do wish to survive this betrayal.”

“Why do you care what Itaru thinks?” Parwa asked.

“I do not want to survive if we are in the wrong. But if we are not, and Itaru is, I can grudgingly accept walking away from the empire if our duty has been fulfilled. In order to save this system, the Li’vorkrachnika will have to be destroyed, more so than we are capable of doing. If Star Force will intervene and kill them, then we have done our duty. Our corpses can then go where they wish so long as we do not later turn against the empire.”

“And what of our own race?” Liol asked.

“What do you say?” Jovcho said, turning it back on the Elder.

“I say that if they cannot even attempt to come to our aid, then what they think is irrelevant. We have an obligation to the Wass’mat and Zen’zat in this system to protect them. What I question is Star Force being willing to intervene so soon after a costly war.”

“Do not concern yourself with that,” Hanniena scoffed. “We have turned them into warriors. At this point, they are not content to sit and lick their wounds. They will be fighting in the Far Rim soon, if not already. They crave it now, and peace will not easily take that craving from them. Wherever there is a worthy fight, they will be there. Even for us if we make the right request.”

“And how do we do that?” Gargara wondered.

“We have to submit to their dominance and learn their ways. We have to become Star Force. If we are willing they will come. If we are not, they will not. If we pretend, they will know. There can be no subterfuge in this.”

“Will we be interrogated?” Liol asked.

“They cause no physical harm in interrogation, nor mental damage, but they will look to make sure we are not deceiving them.”

“You were not harmed at all after your capture?” Bweto asked.

“Not that they did to me. My pain came from my own failure.”

“Meaning what?” Trevarin asked.

“Star Force uses pain for training, but it has to be self-inflicted. You have to choose to accept their challenges, and through the challenges your torment comes from your own failure. It is how they weed out those who are unworthy, but they force it on no one. Those who do not accept the challenge are allowed to live in unimportant roles. None are harmed, aside from the stagnation. They used stagnation to get me to do what they wanted, and it is a very effective and honorable method. They will not torture in the conventional sense. No dismemberment. No beatings. No mind shreddings.”

“They use stagnation?” Liol said curiously. “Many crave stagnation. How have they not collapsed?”

“Stagnation and isolation are a powerful incentive. When you are offered something to break either of them, you will take it. And when they do not beat you, it is hard to carry spite over the years. They wear you down with time. There was a race of Protovic whom they fought a war with, then imprisoned all of them. Those that came through the training were released into their civilization. Those that did not succumbed to the stagnation and died in their cells. If we ask for membership, we will most likely be treated with greater respect than those who were forcibly annexed.”

“What you speak of is appalling, but far preferable to certain death. You have lived through it, so I ask you…is this better than standing our ground and dying here?”

“Some of us could leave and survive, but I would rather see this world join Star Force and live than leave them to die.”

“As would I. What say the rest of you?”

“If you wish to evacuate, you may do so along with a few others,” Gargara stated evenly, “but I am remaining with the Wass’mat here, and we will be asking Star Force for membership. There is no other choice in light of the empire’s betrayal. If you wish to leave, do so now and head to a single ship. We will need the rest. There will be no conflict between us. Itaru has created this situation. Not those in this chamber. Make your choice now.”

A few telepathic conversations were held in private, then 5 of the 8 Wass’mat in the chamber walked out, leaving only Gargara, Liol, and Hanniena behind.

“The masses will not accept this easily,” Liol warned. “Letting some of them leave would be a mistake.”

“I agree. Let those few go along with their associates, quietly. Hanniena, I need you to…”

“I know. That’s the only reason why I stayed. I do not want to be here.”

“Nor do we, but we have a responsibility to acquit. The others are free of it now, so I do not blame them for leaving.”

“I do,” Liol said angrily, “but it is better to have them gone rather than stay and undermine the transition. If we can survive this, we must fully commit to it. Star Force is not made up of fools. The Rit’ko’sor joined them willingly and have been given respect. We must have that, or there is no chance our people will accept their dominion.”

“I understand,” Hanniena said firmly. “Shall I leave now?”

“Go,” Gargara said with a flick of his head. “Negotiate and bargain whatever you must. If you cannot get their assistance, do not return here to die with us.”

“Shall I take others with me now, so not to waste a ship?”

“Yes. Take who you wish and go, and be quick of it. Their blockade is not tight, but it can easily become so if they anticipate more ships leaving. I suggest you leave at the same time or sooner than the others. I no longer care about them, but you must make it out.”

“Then I will waste no more time here. I have my mission.”

“Our fate rests on your ability to make them believe,” Liol reminded her as she turned.

“I know,” the Wass’mat said, jogging out of the chamber to save time on her way to the nearest spaceport as she made contacts with those she wanted to accompany her via the comm in her armor that she wore in bands around each of her six legs.

Three hours later, 18 Wass’mat and over 400 Zen’zat boarded drop pods and made their way up to a stealth-equipped Kaeper that easily made its way between the gaps in the lizard fleet groups that now massed more than 250,000 vessels, not counting their delivery jumpships that were, like Star Force’s, hiding in deep space safely beyond the potential combat.

Hanniena’s Kaeper took an obscure jumpline to avoid the bottlenecks at the most heavily trafficked ones the lizards were guarding, then she was off through backwater systems enroute to Earth, the closest Star Force outpost and hopefully one with enough ships to help the Wass’mat in time before the lizards overran and exterminated them all.

3

March 13, 4917

Solar System

Earth

Paul-024 flew through the air a couple hundred meters above the Gulf of Mexico, traveling from the southern tip of Florida down to Cuba wearing nothing but a T-shirt and shorts. Normally February would have been mild weather in the Gulf, but since the V’kit’no’sat had added atmosphere to the planet and thus increased the greenhouse effect a touch, it was now a warm 98 degrees even in winter. The polar ice caps were gone and the planet was green throughout. Even the Sahara desert was gone now, covered in trees and a few V’kit’no’sat cities that hadn’t been removed yet. And Star Force wasn’t planning on changing Earth back, so warm it would stay, for the next few thousand years at least. The snow lovers would have to go to another planet to get their chill on.

Right now Paul was on vacation…sort of. Archons never really had vacations, but with the war over and Star Force retooling before heavily moving into the abandoned Nexus territories to salvage what was left, there was a waiting period while war damage was repaired and new ships were built. And that left the trailblazers with little to do.

6 of them were on Earth now, along with a lot of other Archons and Monarchs as they began recolonization plans for the Devastation Zone. Rebuilding it would take a long, long time but Star Force wasn’t going to delay any more than necessary. Saving those people in need came first, so the majority of the freed up supplies would go to them, but as soon as there was a surplus again…which was a luxury Star Force hadn’t seen in a long time…they were coming here and Earth would be the focal point for the rebuilding.

But that wasn’t why Paul was here. Even though there was now an Armistice, Star Force wasn’t going to count on the V’kit’no’sat honoring it. He didn’t expect them to break it, but he had a sizeable fleet here anyway just in case, as did the 5 additional trailblazers and the other two that were out patrolling the Devastation Zone on the lookout for V’kit’no’sat ships and squatters trying to claim the dead worlds for their own. Star Force still publically laid claim to them, but now that the war was over there were already small expeditions being sent out from various races and corporations trying to get an unauthorized foothold established.

Those were minor problems, and right now Paul was just taking the time to relax and get back into a normal training rhythm. That meant long sessions that passed 30 hours and shorter, more intense workouts that needed to be done in sequence…something that had always been getting interrupted for missions.

At the moment Paul was on a rest period and had been doing some sensory enhancement training in Florida along with a few second gen Archons. He was scheduled to get back into mech training exercises tomorrow and had decided to fly on his own back to Cuba, for the island was one of the few places on the planet that was nearly back to Star Force norms.

The V’kit’no’sat structures were gone and Star Force ones were either already built or under construction, with an army of Kiritak swarming around with their Human counterparts to get the advanced training facilities that Earth had once sported rebuilt and tailored to the now far more extensive capabilities of the Archons and other elite personnel. The civilian population could wait, and there were none on Earth now, nor would be in the near future. They could stay where they were at the moment while Earth got the key infrastructure rebuilt using resources that had previously gone to planetary defenses and critical industry.

That said, Earth still needed more of both. Its planetary shields were decent and globe-spanning, but Paul and the others were going to strengthen them at least 20 times what they were now. Same went for the anti-orbital guns, which were going to be upgraded to Tar’vem’jic being produced in the secret Preema territory colony Star Force had. Now that the war was over the agreement with the somewhat friendly race had not ended. In fact it had been expanded greatly and the construction of new Grid Points was being rushed…as much as one could rush such huge constructs.

The plan was to extend a single line out from the network in The Nexus that already existed. A road that, in the extremely far future, would stretch all the way around the Rim that Star Force now had dominion over, at least as far as the V’kit’no’sat were concerned. It would connect the worlds that Star Force was inheriting from their former enemy, then have the ability to branch off further rimward to various locations.

It was so ambitious and costly that Paul was surprised the Preema had agreed to it, but they stood to gain immensely from the trade that would result. Star Force was going to build a highway around the galaxy, and the Preema were going to be suppling most of the raw materials for the section in their local region. They’d be hooked in to the current network first, but that wasn’t going to happen for centuries. There were so many links in the chain required, and two constructs at each location minimum, but already there were four constructs partially constructed inside Preema territory and more would follow.

Star Force wouldn’t be providing the raw materials in the near future. That was also part of the deal. They had so much to do, including rebuilding the Devastation Zone, that the initial resource payments would be supplied by the Preema, but once the new colonies got their foothold and started exporting, Star Force would begin to add to the officially titled ‘Hula Hoop.’

But that was a distant project that Star Force was wisely beginning now. For Paul, he had more immediate concerns to worry about, but nothing major now that the war was over. One of the other reasons he was here on Earth was the lizards. When the V’kit’no’sat destroyed them Star Force was going to try and intercept as many evacuation ships as they could so that they couldn’t run away and rebuild somewhere else in the galaxy. The odds of getting them all were slim, but they were going to try and finish what they’d started so long ago.

However, the dramatic increase in the lizards’ technology concerned him. There was no way they could have advanced that far on their own. Even if they had recovered bits and pieces of V’kit’no’sat technology they could not have unlocked the secrets so fast. Star Force had had not only the technology, but the database that explained it, and it had taken them forever to master it. No, the lizards had another race feeding them technology just as the Trinx had, so the sooner they were taken out the better.

Paul wondered how the Templars would respond when the fighting across V’kit’no’sat territory suddenly stopped and they were left alone fighting the V’kit’no’sat. They’d made such a colossal miscalculation is was almost funny, though the thought of so much death took the levity out of it, leaving the cold irony of the situation.

Star Force would do their part to stop the lizards fleeing rimward, but he was glad the V’kit’no’sat were going to be the ones to destroy them. It was long past time their blood thirsty fleets were put to a proper use.

Paul was flying quickly, but not so much that it was exhausting, though he had to use his bioshields to block the wind from his face. One disadvantage of having a slightly thicker atmosphere was more air molecules to push when flying, though the birds liked it. It increased the efficiency of their wings in producing lift, but even they had more wind resistance to fight when moving.

Below him now was nothing but water, but on the horizon ahead he could see a sliver of land and the needle-like buildings reaching up into the sky from it. The sun was near to setting in the west, but even at night it wouldn’t get cold here. He hadn’t worn his armor on purpose, nor even took a commlink. His telepathy had range, but not enough to contact anyone out here. He was, for the first time in forever, completely alone and vulnerable.

And it was refreshing. Paul was essentially superhuman now, but all his combat occurred behind walls of metal and machines. It had been longer than he could remember when he’d been in a non-training fight without his armor or a warship, and feeling the limited air on his body as he flew, sensing the deep water below that could easily kill him if he fell and drowned, or was eaten by a shark or davril, made him feel more alive than he had been in a long time.

He’d gotten so numb to the fighting and the routine of it that he was only now returning to his norm…but his norm was also constantly around people. It had been so long since he’d been out in the raw wilds on his own that he was savoring every moment of this flight and almost wanted to turn to the east and keep going.

The trailblazer had the strength to, but what would be the point? He was traveling to a destination and taking the long way, but it was still a mission…

Paul stopped flying suddenly, coming to a stop and hovering in the air as he let his bioshields down and felt the natural breeze on his skin looking out at the setting sun and the island of Cuba in the distance.

“Damn. I really do need a vacation. I’ve been so focused on holding out forever I forgot how to breathe.”

He took a moment longer to let the situation sink in, then realized what he needed to do.

He needed to go AWOL for a while. Completely out of contact and off the grid. Most of Earth was still barren right now. Vast tracks of forest that even the V’kit’no’sat had not gotten around to colonizing, and it would take centuries for the Star Force cities to return…though this time they were going to keep some of the forests. There wasn’t an overpopulation problem here anymore, so they weren’t going to pack things in so close. There’d be more of a balance that would allow Earth to escape the claustrophobic feel of heavily urbanized worlds, and while it was going to return to being the functional capitol of the empire, it would also be more of a trophy world. A luxury for those allowed to come and live here, much like many of the V’kit’no’sat capitols were.

But right now it was still very raw, and Paul felt an intense need to disappear into it for a while…and if he felt like that, he guessed there were a few other people on the planet that might need the vacation as well.

So he accelerated again, this time faster than before, and headed like a bullet for Cuba, excited more than he’d expected to be, as he went to hunt for the other trailblazers and organize a jailbreak from their responsibilities for a while. There was nothing the second gen and others couldn’t handle now that the war was over, and the only way to truly go on vacation was for no one to know where you were going…or even know that you were gone.

Two days later…

Morgan-063 flew at the head of the 6 trailblazer wedge only a few meters above the treetops. They could have gone higher for a better view, but that wasn’t as much fun as skimming and having to adjust elevation with the terrain. Indiana wasn’t that hilly, especially the central part, but not all the trees were the same height either. There was another abandoned V’kit’no’sat city far to the west and visible as it glinted off the sunlight, but the trailblazers were staying clear of it and any other signs of civilization as they continued their northward trek from Cuba, having covered a lot of ground yesterday and today, and Morgan was waiting for Paul to tell her when they got to the right location.

That occurred 7 minutes later with him telepathically pinging the exact location next to a river, and as one the Archons slowed down their fast flight and hovered in the air over the spot, seeing nothing but trees, trees, and more trees aside from the sliver of water running through them.

“This is it?” Oni-081 asked, floating to Paul’s right.

“Yeah. My house used to be at the base of that hill, right where the water runs now. It must have cut into it over the years.”

“How can you be sure?” Jason-025 asked.

“This spot was burned into my mind long ago, and we never altered the river’s course. It’s the same as it was back when I was born.”

“Did the V’kit’no’sat rip out the house or did we?” Logan-036 asked.

“It was removed a long time ago after Star Force took control of the United States, but the V’kit’no’sat ripped out whatever was here. I wonder what they did with all the rubble?”

“Recycled it, probably,” Morgan commented as they continued to hang in the air, wearing casual clothing and nothing even resembling a uniform, though they all wore small backpacks that looked similar to the book bags Paul had used when he was in high school and the others were at similar juvenile facilities in other countries. “You see a good spot?”

Paul reached out with his Pefbar as far as he could, then pointed down and to the right. “There, but I want a better look first,” he said, flying straight up with the others following after a slight delay. They flew up well over a mile before finding the air thin a bit uncomfortably and get chilly. There they held position, looking out over the trees that now blurred into a green mass beneath them with the river barely visible.

Everywhere they looked it appeared to be a flat forest carpet that reached out until a break occurred where a V’kit’no’sat colony had been. Two were visible from this height, with the second being extremely far away but large enough to show up to the enhanced Archon eyes. Other than those two blemishes, it appeared that Earth was uninhabited and completely raw…which is exactly the experience he’d been going for.

“How many are we going to cut down?” Oni asked.

“A lot,” Paul admitted. “But Earth is home and it shouldn’t be wild once we get fully moved back in.”

“But there is an appeal to this.”

“Agreed…until you reach out and feel the critters eating each other.”

“I’m still surprised so many survived,” Jason added.

“It’s a big planet,” Morgan explained. “And the V’kit’no’sat didn’t bombard all of it like the others.”

“They added some too,” Rafa-080 pointed out. “Especially in the oceans, but there are a few primitive races here that I know weren’t originally on Earth.”

“We brought a few back from other worlds,” Paul said, looking down below his hanging feet as his legs and the rest of his body where Yen’mer particles were located held firmly against the pull of the planet’s gravity. “Everything changes, yet in some way things stay the same. Earth is still home, and this is where I began.”

“Is it?” Oni asked. “The people are gone, the civilization is gone, and this isn’t the same spot in space the Earth was back then.”

“Fair point, but there’s enough to proc memories.”

“And the feelings of separation?”

Paul glanced at her. “You too?”

“The future doesn’t wait for the past, it’s always moving forward. We surf that wave. The wave is our home, not where it crosses. Do you truly feel at home here, or just nostalgic?”

“A little of both. I was born here, within a few miles anyway, and I still don’t know where I came from. This is my first known point, before that lies the mystery. The first point is significant because it’s a glaring reminder we still don’t know what the hell is going on in the universe.”

“We’re here now. We don’t need to know the past. We live in the present, not the past nor the future,” Oni lectured. “But I am curious as well. I sometimes wonder what the V’kit’no’sat think after living a million years.”

“They kill a lot,” Jason offered. “I don’t think that’s driven by enlightenment or nostalgia.”

“They are embracing a part of the chaos,” Rafa explained. “The universe puts us here without instructions or purpose. We just have a little genetic memory and we’re set loose, often in horrific circumstances that we can’t survive. The carnage that ensues is everywhere, and some people choose to embrace it rather than rise above it. The V’kit’no’sat are a mixed bag. Let’s make sure Star Force never devolves to that level.”

“The more people we bring into the fold, the harder it will be,” Logan agreed. “Thankfully we’re not lazy and a like a challenge.”

“It is maddening,” Morgan added. “If you really try and get a feel for it. We normally numb up and do the best we can, but right now, when we have no responsibilities…if you open your mind up it threatens to drive you insane. So much chaos. So much pain and suffering. Loneliness. Confusion. Despair. It’s like the universe is either tormenting us intentionally or just forgot about us entirely.”

“And we have to clean up the mess as best we can,” Jason added. “Not that we can ever win without knowing the objective.”

“That also threatens to drive you insane.”

“Death,” Paul said, quoting an old story, “would be a great adventure.”

“I think I’ll hang around here a bit longer,” Morgan answered. “There’s plenty to explore here.”

“Agreed,” Rafa said as a shadow crossed over them. He looked up, seeing the dark blot of a massive cargo ship in orbit as it briefly occupied the glowing spot in the sky. A few seconds later the sunlight returned, but it was a reminder that Earth was not, in fact, raw wilderness.

“Let’s get down before anyone comes looking for autographs,” Logan said, starting to descend slowly from their aerial viewpoint.

“Ditto,” Jason agreed as the others followed, except Paul. “You coming?”

“Just give me a couple minutes and I’ll join you.”

“It’s your birthplace, not mine. Take as long as you want,” the fellow 2 said, dropping down and leaving the sky solely to Paul.

He floated there for a while, just soaking in the environment and trying not to think. He was so wound up after years of combat, training, and trying to solve the galaxy’s problems that not thinking was hard. It took a conscious effort to slow down and relax, and it was something that all of them had made considerable progress on the past two days, but they still had a way to go to fully defrag…and they wouldn’t know how much was left until they got through it, for it operated like a fog on the mind that you couldn’t see more than 3 inches through.

But that fog was lifting and Paul was feeling more and more like his old self, and so were the others. This vacation had been spur of the moment, but it was turning out to be a very good thing. Even superhumans needed some time off every millennia or so.

“Hello, Indiana,” he whispered, looking out at the sea of trees, some of which were extremely tall. “You really need to shave.”

4

Jason was laying on the forest floor, his head cushioned on the crudely rolled up sleeping sleeve as an impromptu pillow as he stared at the campfire just past his feet. The sun had gone down a couple hours ago and their tent was set up to the far left between two thick trees in the small clearing they’d had to make, for there was scrub brush everywhere even a little sunlight got through the trees.

A little bioplasma here and there had solved that problem, giving the six of them a comfortable campsite about 15 meters away from the shallow river. Past Jason’s feet and the campfire was Oni leaning against a tree trunk, then behind her was the water and the opening in the canopy it provided…which was just enough to see a bit of stars through.

“I didn’t realize doing nothing could be so tiring,” Logan commented as the six of them were all lounging in various fashions around the campfire, which was completely unnecessary given the mild temperatures, heated tent, and ample artificial lighting they’d brought with them, but the trailblazers were all old enough to remember when campfires had been commonly used, and it felt appropriate to make one now…especially since they could light one using nothing but the palm of their hands.

“I don’t know about you guys, but that’s the longest I’ve ever flown,” Rafa commented. “Beat my old record by 3 hours.”

“Same here,” Paul added. “Never had enough time to go that far before. My body is tingling all over. Feels good…”

“Slackers,” Morgan said with a smirk. “I’ve gone 18 hours straight before.”

The other five looked at her curiously, then Oni shook her head. “Should have expected that.”

“Ginsi went 17,” Morgan explained. “Couldn’t let her keep the record.”

“Can you still take her?” Jason asked.

“Barely. She’s stronger and faster, but I know her fighting style well enough to predict most of it. I’ve also got two inches and 12 pounds on her.”

“I’d like to see her go up against Kara,” Paul commented. “Any bets?”

“Ginsi would take her,” Morgan said firmly. “She’s the better tactician.”

“You taught her well,” Logan noted.

“I didn’t teach her everything,” Morgan declared with a humorless smile. “She’s not better than us. She’s just focused more of her training in one area. Makes her a good commando, but a poor Archon.”

“Maybe we should do something about that,” Rafa floated.

“I think we should,” Oni said pensively. “We’re all multi-taskers by nature. Not all of the others are, and forcing them into fixed roles won’t work either. I think we need a branch function.”

“To what end?” Morgan asked. “Even with all the losses we’ve taken, Star Force is getting huge. Ginsi wants to be the best hand to hand fighter, she wants to be the best of the best, but you can only do that as an Archon. Arc Knights and Arc Commandos aren’t suited for her. They’re too one dimensional, yet she still wants to focus on her skills. She doesn’t really fit anywhere.”

“Same with the Twins,” Jason added. “Archons are meant to be soloists as a base, but those two need each other to really shine. I think we need more Archon options when you get to the higher ranks. The bottom ones are solid and what bind us all together, but the upper levels aren’t working the best for everyone.”

“Work in progress,” Oni noted. “We’ve got some big decisions to make for ourselves too.”

“I’m staying as is,” Paul said, drawing some odd looks. Advancement was the lifeblood of the Archons and stagnation was essentially treason. “I’m not going to lose any psionics to extend others. We’re going to hit limits no matter what we do unless we keep increasing our size, and I like mine the way it is. The V’kit’no’sat will always be stronger. There’s no way we can get our cranium size up to Era’tran levels, so this is one area that I’m not going to delve into the way Aaron has.”

“Our empire aside,” Morgan said, being more candid with her brothers and sisters than she’d had with anyone for centuries, “what do we do when we hit growth limits? My entire life has been based on improving, and not being able to scares the shit out of me. I feel like we’re only a few hundred years away from losing our path, and I’m not going to vicariously live through the younger generations retreading the same path we’ve already walked. Where do we go from here?”

“I haven’t had time to think about it,” Logan said with a frown. “The empire has always taken up so much time, but I see your point. Something tells me we will be able to keep advancing, someway, somehow, because that’s the way the universe designed us. I don’t truly believe we’re fixed to plateaus. Yet cranium size is there staring us in the face. I’m mixed on this, but I think we’ll eventually find a way forward.”

“But what about the others?” Oni asked. “Most will never reach our level. We need to give them options.”

“Draw the line at Mage,” Paul said. “Don’t touch anything before that.”

“Then let them specialize after that?” Jason wondered. “Special ranks if they want to go a different way?”

“Not ranks, positions,” Rafa corrected. “Special roles based off preferences more than skills. The larger our ranks grow, the less multi-tasking we need to be. Well, others I mean. We’ll always need a core of pure Archons.”

“Ginsi is a Brawler then,” Morgan coined.

“Scouts too,” Jason added. “Some want to go beyond the empire and explore more than train. If they can get to Mage, then they’ve learned enough. We can keep the forever training to ourselves.”

“To what end?” Oni asked. “Now that I’ve got a chance to think about it, and we don’t have V’kit’no’sat breathing down our necks, what do we do when we finish? Building an empire is something we’re perfect for, but what then? Monarchs can maintain, but we go where the need is. I feel we’re not built for peace. We’re meant to go for the next challenge. So what do we do if we eventually win? Beyond the normal problems that others can usually solve if they’re in the right place at the right time.”

“That’s a good question, Oni,” Paul said ominously. “I think that’s what’s bothering Morgan too. Once we win something, we can’t just stop. We have to move on to the next challenge. We can’t be adults and defer to the next generation. We’re forever kids climbing the ladder, and the end of the ladder is…unacceptable.”

“Don’t worry,” Logan assured them. “The universe is too large to ever fully know. We’ll never run out of challenges.”

“I think we need to seek them out together,” Rafa cautioned. “I think there’s going to come a point where we’re going to get lost in this monster we’ve created and be lured into a doldrum.”

“So we need to start taking on apprentices again?” Paul asked.

“Yeah we do, but I’m talking long term. Eventually I think we need to group up, back like when we were in basic training. We haven’t had that luxury recently, but down the road I think we’ll have to…or we’ll be hammering on plateaus we can’t break through alone.”

“You guys worry too much,” Logan dismissed. “Some people wonder about the purpose of life. How we began, why we’re here. Me, I just accept the fact that I am here and I’m supposed to be a badass. Being me is the objective, and right now I’ve got plenty to do.”

“To do for what purpose?” Morgan asked. “We instinctively react to injustice, but beyond that, what’s the point? I feel we’re missing something.”

“We’re defaultly designed to advance,” Paul said. “We know we’re supposed to. It’s our driving purpose. The idea of that ceasing to exist by hitting the peak improvement is problematic. But I’m with Logan. The answers are there, we just have to find them. I mean look at me. I used to live here, and compared to now I knew nothing then. There were a lot of dead ends I faced, thinking there was nothing more beyond. Me being here, now, is proof that life is full of mirages. The fact that we’re even concerned about this is proof that there is something more. If not, we wouldn’t care.”

“You don’t feel it then?” Morgan asked. “This threat in our personal futures. Aaron faced it already and found a way to postpone it, but I feel something worse is waiting for us. The others will probably never reach it, but we will.”

“You seem rattled,” Logan noted. “That’s not like you.”

“I suppose I am,” she admitted. “My entire life has been a quest. I don’t ever want it to end. If it did, my life would be pointless.”

“Is this the price of victory?” Rafa wondered. “The V’kit’no’sat have been our driving enemy for our entire lives since joining Star Force. Now the war is over. We’ve still got two worse enemies out there, at the minimum, but I feel it too. The constant, never-ending threat is now gone…and I’m not liking it either.”

“We’re trailblazers,” Jason summed up. “We push through the wilderness and leave a trail behind for others to follow. But it’s not about the others for us. It’s a critical function we provide, but that’s not really why we do it, do we? Why do we do it?”

“The adventure,” Paul admitted. “The challenge. We can’t stand still. We have to constantly be moving.”

“At first we learned from others…long, long ago. Since then we’ve been figuring things out for ourselves. If we suddenly came into contact with another race, a superior race. A better race. One that offered to teach us. What would we do?”

“Accept,” Oni answered. “I’d be there in a heartbeat. And now that you ask, that surprises me.”

“Why?” Paul asked.

“I thought Star Force was my home. But if what Logan said actually happened, I’d leave it eagerly. Why would I want to do that?”

“We want to be the best,” Morgan said pithily. “We always have.”

“It’s a call to duty,” Jason said as an epiphany hit him. “We don’t really want to rule, we want to serve in a war that we can’t fully understand. It’s there, we can feel it, but it wasn’t the V’kit’no’sat. I’d say it was good versus evil but that falls hollow. It’s something else at the periphery that I can’t quite latch onto. Without that war I’d feel like Morgan does. Pointless. Useless. Like a civie.”

Paul chuckled at that, knowing what he meant. “You get the feeling that we’re not supposed to be the old guys instructing others. We’re supposed to be the younglings learning as fast as we can.”

“And we were left clues,” Oni added. “Genetic memories driving us onward towards the horizon. Always seeking what is beyond.”

“Exactly,” Morgan agreed, feeling like a block in her mind had just dissipated. “Why didn’t I see that?”

“You just proved my point,” Rafa emphasized. “We work well alone, but we figure things out much quicker bouncing ideas off each other. For the bigger challenges, we have to group up. We’re not there yet. We still got a lot of house cleaning and empire building to do, but when the time comes, we have to face this together.”

“Is this why all the mythical wise ones eventually go into self-imposed exile?” Oni wondered.

“As we are right now?” Logan echoed.

“When we’re together we’re peers, not masters moving at the pace of the apprentices,” Paul pointed out. “We’re being held back by more than just the war.”

“So we need to…” Oni said, interrupted by a telepathic ping from the tent.

Morgan moaned, then all eyes focused on her.

“You didn’t…” Oni said accusingly.

“I told them only in an emergency,” she said, lifting a tiny comm out of her pack and floating it through the air, out of the tent, and into her hand.

“Traitor,” Paul mumbled as she put it to her ear.

“Yes?” Morgan said, then fell silent as she listened. Paul could almost make out some of the words, but the din of the river and chirping frogs was too much for even his advanced hearing to overcome.

“Stand by,” Morgan said, looking at The Admiral. “A V’kit’no’sat ship has arrived. They want to talk.”

“About?” Jason asked.

“The lizards are hammering systems near us and the V’kit’no’sat are not sending reinforcements. They’re leaving systems to die, and a Wass’mat one wants to discuss membership in Star Force.”

Paul rolled his eyes, leaning his head back then covering his face with his hands. “Fine, you win.”

“She usually does,” Logan pointed out. “Good call, Morgan.”

“Send a dropship to pick us up,” she said into the headset, then turned it off and threw it back towards the tent…where it curved and landed neatly back inside her pack. “Sorry, Paul. We couldn’t all be completely out of communication.”

“Looks like our future will have to wait. The present calls,” Jason said as he sat up.

“Next time we leave Logan behind to mind the store,” Paul quipped.

“Agreed,” Oni said humorously as she jumped to her feet.

“Why me?” he protested.

“You’re the badass,” Morgan reminded him as she stood.

“I’ll pack up,” Jason offered, looking at Paul. “If it’s lizards, you probably want to call Thrawn.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, telekinetically reaching into Morgan’s pack and pulling her comm back out and flying it to him. “We’ll table this discussion for later. Looks like we’ve got some more bad guys to kill first.”

5

March 17, 4917

Pooovalla System (H’kar territory, Rim Region)

Ratchniva

Thrawn was sleeping onboard his flagship when a chime woke him. He pulled his head up from the curl that Paladin preferred with their tails wrapping around to touch near their nose. Their bodies were so lithe, the position that would have seen Humans breaking their spine was actually comfortable for them, and Star Force had fashioned unique bed pods for them that had a warming feature built into it that replaced traditional blankets.

The Supreme Viceroy looked to the small notification device beside his bed, then jolted upright when he saw the red icon that represented the trailblazers. That meant this wasn’t a notification from the bridge, or Arch Duke Tevvaline, whose world he was currently orbiting as his fleet continued to make repairs while guarding the ‘safe’ border that Thrawn did not quite consider so.

He half stood up and crawled to the device, pressing the activation button and seeing a text message appear in hologram.

Combat with lizards imminent. Rescue mission to the Ohson System. Will arrive before you do. I need you to hold and defend the system afterwards. Get here fast.

The message was marked as coming from Paul-024, though it didn’t come through normal channels. That was odd, but he didn’t doubt the content. The system name, however, he did not recognize.

Thrawn fully pulled himself out of bed and over to a proper terminal, then looked up the information from the ship’s database…which prompted a perplexed look on his face. The Ohson System was a V’kit’no’sat one, and not on the list of worlds to be ceded to Star Force as part of the Armistice. It was slightly coreward of that, in the Tamprani Region, meaning it was close to Star Force territory but still about 8 weeks away from his current position in H’kar territory.

Earth was closer, which was where Paul was last noted as being, and that meant Thrawn was already 2 weeks behind in travel time. It would be shorter than that if he took the Grid Points, but he couldn’t with his fleet. There weren’t enough mag drive transports available on short notice, so they were going to have to make their way across the Devastation Zone just to get to Earth, and from there further coreward.

Actually, he could save some time by bypassing Earth, and he hoped a subsequent message would follow explaining more, but he couldn’t wait too long and the relay grid in the Devastation Zone was virtually non-existent. A limited line to Earth had been reestablished using mobile relays until permanent ones could be rebuilt, but that meant everywhere else where there would have originally been a system with a relay that he could tap into enroute was now dead to the grid.

So if a message didn’t come in from Paul soon, he was going to have to go straight to Ohson and find out in person what was going on…and every minute he wasted could have implications.

Thrawn activated the comm and reached the bridge, issuing orders before he got there to save a little more time…

“Stay,” the H’kar tech said, tapping the table for emphasis as he set his cards down and looked to his right at another H’kar. There were five of them at the table along with a Paladin technomage, their version of a tech but with extra abilities that the H’kar had not been granted. Namely the psionics Pefbar, Lachka, and Rensiek.

The H’kar were still sore about that, as were many other techs in other races, but HABDX-28894 had explained to them that if any Paladin wished to leave for civilian life they’d have to give up the psionics. Or rather a block would be installed rather than the tissue being removed, so if they chose to reenter service they would be able to reclaim their abilities without having to start from scratch again. It was said that Paladin civilians were rarer than rare, but there were a few exceptions.

Those exceptions left Paladin worlds, for there was no civilian presence there. They made their way into Axius or wherever else would take them, and it was hard to ever get to talk to a Paladin in service, with this technomage being an exception. He was older than the others, having survived over 900 years, and in that time he’d loosened up enough to spend his off duty hours exploring and interacting with other races…and in this case, finding card games to play with other techs.

And he was good at it. Good enough that there was concern he was somehow using his Pefbar to cheat and look at their cards, but it had long been said that Pefbar couldn’t see colors, only physical objects, and unless there was a raised portion on the cards they would just look flat to Pefbar view.

The H’kar had to take the word of those with it, for only a few H’kar had ever been granted the ability and those were Mavericks and Monarchs, who rarely interacted with the lower ranks. HABDX was the first these techs had ever directly talked to who had psionics, and he’d been more free with information than they’d expected.

“Raise 20,” the Paladin said, flicking a holographic chip into the holographic container in the center of the table.

“Out,” another H’kar said, putting his real cards face down on the table, for only the scoring metrics were holographic.

Before the next player could respond, a small device strapped to the left wrist of the Paladin sounded a repetitive alarm.

“What is that?” a H’kar asked.

“I have to go,” the Paladin said, standing up and dropping his cards on the table face up. “We are called to battle.”

“Battle?” the others said, standing up in a panic. “What are you talking about?”

“I am summoned to my ship,” he said heading for the door. “If I do not get there in time I will be left behind. This sound,” he said, touching the device and silencing the alarm as he walked, “says the summons comes from a trailblazer, and they are calling us to war. I must go,” he said, running out the door and disappearing from view.

“I thought the war was over?” one of the H’kar said, looking at the others.

“Why are we not getting an alarm?”

“Maybe the fighting isn’t here. Maybe the Paladin are being called to another system.”

“I knew it was too good to last. The V’kit’no’sat went back on their word, I guarantee you that.”

“So much for the rebuilding,” another said, throwing his cards on the table.

“Let’s see if we can find someone who knows what’s going on and figure out how much time we have left before our shore leave is canceled…”

HABDX-28894 ran out of the H’kar building on the planet’s surface and headed on foot towards the nearest pod car station, for the H’kar were not the best runners and had railways built on the side of their buildings high above their streets that carried passengers around the city at far faster pace than the pedestrians could manage.

Despite his being a tech, the Paladin basic physiology was much faster than that of the H’kar and he found himself having to zig zag between the pedestrians until he got to the base of one of the vertical tube clusters. Fortunately he only had to wait a few seconds for one to open up, then he jumped inside the chamber large enough for 5 or 6 H’kar and sealed himself in alone, upsetting the H’kar behind him that he’d pushed his way past.

He input his destination onto the navigation panel and the pod lifted up through the clear tubes for about 40 meters, then hit open air as it transitioned to one of the many lateral rails that were inset into the buildings and jumped the gaps between them. Once his was latched on, it accelerated rapidly with buildings passing by the clear pod every few seconds on his way to the nearby spaceport that his comm device was signaling him to get to.

All the Paladin wore the devices when they were off ship, allowing the captain to recall the crew and guide them to the closest pickup points. HABDX actually got to the spaceport just as the Paladin dropship was descending through the sky nearby, with the pod stopping and descending through another set of tubes as the ship made final approach and he lost sight of it.

The Paladin ran out, pushing by the H’kar outside and attracting the attention of the security guards at the entrance to the spaceport. Rather than stopping him they cleared a path, yelling at him and another Paladin a few steps ahead and further to the right to move through. Apparently the fleet had contacted the spaceport ahead of them and explained the urgency, otherwise he would have had to wait more than half an hour to get through this crowded checkpoint.

More Paladin were arriving behind him, but he was one of the first two out onto the landing pad as the dropship opened its boarding ramp a mere 8 seconds before HABDX’s feet hit it. He and the others ran in and to the waiting seats wordlessly. Other races might talk nervously, but Paladin didn’t. They all knew their duty, and unless it required them to talk they would sit silent and await orders…which is exactly what he did as a little more than half the seats were filled before the ramp pulled back in and they took off.

The dropship headed straight up, being given priority clearance and cutting through all the traffic of the H’kar civilian ships as they headed up to the Paladin jumpships along with a scattering of other dropships doing the same. Fortunately most Paladin crews stayed onboard, even during peacetime, so they didn’t have a lot of people to recover, but some of their ships were still damaged and sitting inside H’kar shipyard slips.

But they were moving too, casting off the repair scaffolding probably faster than the H’kar wanted. When the trailblazers called, no Paladin wanted to be left behind, and fortunately only one jumpship had been destroyed in this fleet during combat, leaving the rest of the damaged ones operational even before repairs had begun. That meant they were better off now than before, even if they still had some visible holes in their massive hulls.

Before the dropship docked, he could see fleets of drones around the damaged jumpships like bees around a hive as they raced to dock in the slots and refill, with his jumpship already being fully loaded, as was standard. Paladin ships did not release drones unless there was a need, so they could be moved immediately when orders came. Only the damaged ones and those on patrol had their drones missing, and right now they were frantically trying to get them onboard as the majority of the fleet was already making microjumps out.

That meant the combat wasn’t at this planet, at least, and once HABDX got off the dropship and back into the crew rotation he learned the truth. Star Force wasn’t under attack. The V’kit’no’sat were and they were being called to a rescue mission. A rescue mission that would see them fighting the lizards to save a V’kit’no’sat world.

The idea of saving the V’kit’no’sat meant the Armistice hadn’t been broken, but coming to the rescue of the enemy didn’t feel right. However, the inclusion of the lizards made everything crystal clear. The V’kit’no’sat might be Star Force’s arch nemesis, but to the Paladin there was one of higher priority to them, and that was the lizards. They were their evil twin, and the meaning of their relationship had been encoded in his genetic memory.

If the trailblazers were calling on them to fight the lizards, then there could be no more important mission for a Paladin. This fight was personal, despite HABDX never having had any contact with them. He was Paladin, and Paladin had a group memory from birth, a portion of which had come directly from the Supreme Viceroy who had once been a lizard before being saved by the trailblazers.

HABDX also knew the method of that rescue had most likely been safeguarded against by the Templars, meaning the only freedom the Paladin could offer the lizards was through their deaths…and better it be in combat than the lizards suiciding when captured.

The Paladin hated the lizards, because they were the sworn enemy of Star Force, because they operated opposite the loyalty and duty the Paladin lived and breathed, and because the lizards who had begun the Paladin had been left to die in combat against Star Force while the Templars ran. Paladin understood dying for their duty, but they were Star Force and that had to fall inside the lines of trying to save each other. The lizards threw away their lives…HABDX could remember that vividly…and it was only because their enemy at the time had chosen to save them were they still here.

The lizards were in the wrong, his people betrayed by the Templars and twisted into evil, and now that he was going to have a chance to get some payback, HABDX was just as eager as the others to get out of H’kar territory and into whatever battle the trailblazers were calling them to.

Add to that the fact that the Paladin had never fought the lizards before, and this mission took on historic meaning as well as procing their professional pride. Star Force had taken the discarded enemy soldiers and transformed them into something better. Something that fought for stability and uplifting the galaxy rather than chaos and destruction. And it was time to prove their superiority over their evil doppelgangers.

Thrawn had given his fleet in this system 3 hours to gather, and he was pleased to see that most of them had reported ready to jump out within 2. A few of the ships in the yard had taken longer, but all had transitioned with nearly full loads of drones to the stellar jumppoint as five other fleets along the border were doing likewise on Thrawn’s order. Kara wasn’t here, so it was up to him to respond as soon as possible, but he sent her a message that would take days to reach her in the Paladin Zone informing her of what ships he was taking and recommended her sending others to replace them just in case the border would come under attack in his absence.

The Arch Duke had contacted him previously, asking what the hell was going on, for apparently the message had come to Thrawn only. He took a small measure of pride in the fact that Paul hadn’t bothered to tell anyone else, even an Arch Duke, but he explained the situation to the Monarch none the less and she’d quickly cleared orbital routes to expedite his fleet’s departure from the planets.

Three hours might have seemed extremely fast to begin leaving the system, but it was just more time added to how far behind the Paladin were to whatever fleets Paul was taking. Most of those in the Devastation Zone were at Earth or the Uriti Preserve, plus the roaming ones on patrol. He had no idea what strength level the lizards were at now, for they hadn’t done much surveillance on them since the war with the V’kit’no’sat initially began, but they’d managed a few scouts over the centuries and they knew their tech level had advanced considerably, as had their numbers.

The Skarrons were gone now. Probably completely eradicated, though without a serious and comprehensive scouting campaign there was no way to know for sure, but everywhere they had looked the Skarron worlds were now full of lizards, and if they were choosing combat against the V’kit’no’sat and threatening to take their worlds, against their technology, then Thrawn wasn’t going to expect an easy fight.

In his opinion this fight was long overdue. Star Force had let the lizards go coreward because they couldn’t risk exposing their existence to the V’kit’no’sat. Since then things had greatly changed, and while a lot of Star Force was beat up from the war, the Paladin were ready and eager to fight. They always were. It was one of the primary reasons they existed.

And Paul knew that, which was why Thrawn was very grateful that the trailblazer was calling on him, despite the fact that the Paladin were the closest reinforcements along with the H’kar, but he’d checked and the H’kar hadn’t been summoned. In the past Paul had said he didn’t want the Paladin fighting the lizards, for the confliction that might ensue, but the Paladin were well past that point now and they would do their duty without hesitation. The lizards were not Thrawn’s people. They were slaves, at best, and slaves he couldn’t free now that the Templars had altered the biochemistry that had allowed him to assume command over the others.

The few genetic samples retrieved by the scouts had confirmed this, along with a significant alteration in other areas. These lizards were not the same as his had been, and if any of those still existed they would be few in number, for lizards did not live long when engaged in combat. His Paladin, on the other hand, were another matter entirely.

He privately wished he could go on a campaign of conquest, claiming the lizards as his own as he once had, but without the built in acceptance of his authority he knew they’d never turn. He knew it in a way that even the trailblazers did not. He did not like to admit defeat, but he knew that short of rewriting their mental code there was no way to save them. And to do that would essentially destroy them. They might live, but without their genetic coding guiding them the lizards and Paladin would go berserk. The trailblazers had tried it on some of their prisoners, thinking it would be better than them killing themselves, but they only turned into zombies, for Star Force didn’t have the ability to do more than block their programing at the time.

Since then they’d come much further, experimenting on some Paladin to see what happened when they were ‘freed’ from the mental order. They’d been born without the coding, and had quickly needed to be altered to include it, for they could not function at all. Even when picking and choosing how much to include, it just wasn’t possible to grow an adult with a ‘clean slate,’ and Paladin biology no longer included a means to reproduce infants, if it ever had.

Star Force had tried to undo the coding in adults, with disastrous effects. Some had lashed out trying to kill everything around them, others had killed themselves…only to be regenerated and have their coding restored. For whatever reason the lizards/Paladin were hard wired to a communal genetic memory, and there was no way to free them from it…so the trailblazers had chosen to turn it into an advantage while minimizing the downsides.

Thrawn was proud of what the Paladin had become, but he knew his own ascension to individuality had come at a heavy price that the others could not pay. If not for Paul and the trailblazers he never would have learned the truth…for he had to learn it, rather than being told it. That was a distinction lost on the others, and sometimes he felt he was the only Paladin truly awake and free…which meant he had to use that freedom to guide the others. They relied on him more than even the Archons, and if the Paladin were to truly earn their place in Star Force, they had to be able to operate independently without the Archons carrying them on every occasion.

The Paladin were far from that, and Thrawn feared they never would reach that point without the necessary experience that their genetic memory effectively blocked. He’d discussed some type of training program with the 2s to recreate what he went through, but they’d nixed that. Thrawn had to go through what he went through because the genetic memory was pushing him in the wrong direction. Now that it had been altered to bring them into the light, they would wait and watch for those curious enough to work their way free of it on their own rather than trying to force them out.

And they were still waiting. Many had made progress, but none had made it all the way. Going with what they were instinctually driven to do was too easy and too comfortable. No one wanted to completely break free, and Thrawn knew that only when they did would they gain the skills needed to truly lead the Paladin.

Perhaps the Paladin were not meant to ascend to that level. Perhaps it would undo their strength if it did. That put Thrawn in a solitary position. He existed because he had been in the transition, and as Paul had said, he’d been curious enough to choose to look after considerable pushing. If someone was not curious, the pushing would not matter. And he knew that was true for nearly all of his people.

And with the lizard genetic memories taking them the other way, he knew he wasn’t going to find any that could work their way out of it. If there were, they would have been executed long ago.

Gruesome work was ahead, but it had to be done and he knew the Paladin wouldn’t hesitate. Neither would the Archons, but only because they had exhausted all other possibilities. The Paladin simply would because they had been instructed to, and that worried Thrawn. So long as the reigns of the Paladin remained in the right hands things would be fine, but if someone altered them the Paladin wouldn’t care. They’d mindlessly follow orders just like the lizards. Age might temper that a bit, and the Paladin’s longevity was something to explore in that regard, but Thrawn suspected the truth.

The trailblazers had pulled him out of the trap that the lizards were, yet they were unable to do the same for others. Rather they had taken the enslavement and turned it into structure that would enhance and protect the Paladin, but they would never be free. Their greatest strength was also their greatest hindrance. Thrawn, for whatever reason, had been given the advantages of both, and that was why he thought Paul felt confident enough to call him to this fight.

And he would kill every lizard he could find. Not because he wanted to, but because he knew, as Paul did, that there was no other feasible way to deal with them. They had to be exterminated, and Thrawn hoped this would be the beginning of their end, either at Star Force’s hands or trodden under the heavy foot of the V’kit’no’sat.

But either way, it had to be done, and it was his responsibility more than anyone’s to see that it was.

6

May 2, 4917

Unnamed System (Tamprani Region)

Stellar Orbit

Paul was onboard the Excalibur two jumps away from the Ohson System and a few minutes away from entry into another uninhabited pass-through when he got a warning signal from one of the Ma’kri scout ships sent ahead of the main fleet. They had arrived, coming out of their jumps and reporting back on the way ahead via hyper-compressed, brief messages due to the nature of the signal being sent and the relative speeds involved in their reception.

But it was enough to get vital information back to the fleet, and it was signaling that there was a large lizard fleet in the system ahead, but they were not blockading the incoming jumppoint. They were pooled around the star in what appeared to be a holding pattern…and there were a lot of them. Upwards of 60,000 jumpships.

“Damn it,” Paul whispered to himself from the command nexus where we was waiting. He’d had a feeling they’d run into them before they arrived, and now he had a choice to make. Fight here and now or press on to the target system, and he knew it had to be the latter. The longer they were delayed, the less Wass’mat there would be alive to rescue.

With a thought he sent out orders to the other ships in line, with the Excalibur being 18th and only a few seconds away from the head of the convoy. The other trailblazers were further back, staggered within the 34,833 jumpships that they’d stolen away from Earth defense. They’d left some ships there so not to rely entirely on planetary defenses, but the bulk of their fleets were now behind Paul and creeping their way into V’kit’no’sat territory like a line of ants, spread out across lightyears as they jumped from star to star.

If the lizards had been sitting on their incoming jumpline it would have been a problem, but they had enough play with this star to come out a bit early in middle orbit and give them at least half an hour before the first of the lizard fleet could get to them.

That wouldn’t be enough time for their entire fleet to arrive, so if the lizards wanted a fight they could start one, but Paul didn’t intend to stick around to finish it.

He heard the battle alarm sound, though he hadn’t initiated it. Admiral Peterson, a new appointment to Paul’s command ship, had initiated it when he’d reviewed the status and Paul’s orders. That was typical, for while Paul was in charge of everything, the more others could take off his hands the better, and alerting the crew to battle was something the Captain or Admiral had the responsibility for.

Paul had 1 minute and 32 seconds left, due to the fact that the signals coming from the Ma’kri were only so strong and the further they traveled the more they weakened. So even if they had gotten to the system a day ahead of time, they couldn’t have sent a signal much further than they were now without bringing a full-fledged comm ship with an interstellar relay…and one of those big ass ships wasn’t something you snuck into a system to have a look around with.

But a minute and change was more than Paul needed, and by the time the Excalibur jumped into the system he had already sent messages to the other trailblazers and informed his leading ships how he wanted them to exit. They were not going to hold position and screen for the others. They were going to move, splitting up and fanning out across the system to disguise their intent and see how the lizards would respond.

And that’s exactly what happened when the massive blue shift ended and the light of the yellow star shrunk back down to normal intensity levels. He could see his other jumpships moving off and spewing drones as they went into flocks that followed along with much greater ease as the big ships began recharging their capacitors so they could execute large jumps again. They had a little charge left, enough to maneuver, but not enough to leave the system or make an emergency microjump. They’d nearly drained them braking extra hard to come out of the jumps earlier in this system than planned, but the capacitors recharged quickly and they wouldn’t need to make a full jump for hours to come…plenty of time to get them back to 100% even if they had to do some evasive maneuvering in the meantime.

As for the drones, they didn’t have the larger engines and capacitors needed for interstellar jumps, nor the necessary navigation systems. They were lighter, had larger power cores that fed the required energy directly to systems and required only a small capacitor for big microjumps. They were also denser, pound for pound, because they weren’t carriers, but they were still faster insystem until the jumpships got enough power back to make some massive maneuvers, then the drones would be turtles in comparison.

The Excalibur came out and continued heading directly towards the star for a few minutes, then slowed to a stop and held position as his fleet continued to spread out behind him to various additional holding points. The other trailblazer fleets were behind his, meaning all these first ships he was used to working with, and they were used to The Admiral’s predictable unpredictability.

Paul just sat and waited while the sensor signals bouncing off his ships eventually made their way to the lizards. He could see them long before they could see him, for the light bouncing off them had already traveled out to middle orbit. They could have moved since then, but he at least had some idea of where they were, and it took some time before the lizard fleet got caught on to their arrival here.

Paul noted that the lizards were receiving additional ships as well, from a jumpline a third of the way around the star. He couldn’t see any outgoing jumplines, though it was possible there could be one directly opposite the star. He guessed they were waiting here until more had arrived or they received a courier with attack orders, but they were still in the way and he doubted they were going to allow him to simply go around them.

“Alright you guys,” Paul said quietly. “We haven’t fought in a long time, so how are you going to play this? You’re stronger now, but so are we. You’ve laid off us all this time. Do you have orders for that or were you just busy with the Skarrons? Come on, show me your cards, you bastards.”

Paul waited until he knew that the sensor bounces from the lizards would have gotten back to them…but they didn’t move. They didn’t come after the fleet, nor did they even reposition from their holding orbits. They just sat there as if they didn’t know the Star Force ships had arrived.

V’kit’no’sat ships were somewhat sensor-eating, meaning lesser races couldn’t detect them at range. Star Force had incorporated a bit of that into their hulls, and the fleet wasn’t running with IDF active, so Paul had them light up their beacons, meaning that even if the lizard sensors were somehow not good enough to pick them up, the identification beacons would not be missed and would tell everyone watching exactly who these newly arriving ships belonged to.

But minutes later when those signals would have reached them and the return bounces got back to Paul’s fleet, there was still no response. The lizards were not reacting at all.

“Playing it cool, huh? Or just waiting to see if we have a Uriti before you attack?” he said as more and more Star Force ships arrived and spread out to 18 different rally points too far away from each other to assist in combat. Paul wanted them really spread out, and it looked like the lizards were not going to knee jerk attack any of them. In the past they would have, throwing themselves at one of the smaller groups and trying to overwhelm it or heading straight to the jumppoint and trying to hit the incoming ships before they could launch their drones.

But no…this was different. They had orders. There was no other way they would just be sitting there when Star Force was arriving into the system. So what was the game? Attack the V’kit’no’sat and not piss off Star Force at the same time? Hope that Star Force wouldn’t resume the war against the lizards now that they had an Armistice with the V’kit’no’sat? Or did they not know that yet?

It was possible they didn’t, despite it being news amongst many races beyond Star Force, but for whatever reason the lizards were just ignoring Paul’s fleet…and he wasn’t about to have that.

“Jason, you have fleet command,” he said, recording and transmitting a message, for his friend hadn’t yet arrived out of his jump. “I’m going to go poke them with a stick.”

He informed the rest of the ships of the transfer, then headed the Excalibur in towards the star and the waiting lizard fleet, getting better sensor readings the closer he got. He wanted to see if they would react, but he also wanted as much updated reconnaissance on their ships as he could get before they went into battle here or in the Ohson System.

In he crept in his massive, donut-shaped command ship, and still the lizards did not budge. He got all the way to low stellar orbit and only 8,000 miles away before he held station and just looked at them, scanning intently as they floated like sleeping fish with all their cruisers tucked neatly into the hulls of the jumpships that were even larger than the Excalibur.

“Hello there,” he said through the comm and translated into Li’vorkrachnika. He could read their language fairly well, but his pronunciations were crap and it was easier to let the translation program handle it. “I am Archon Paul-024, commander of the Star Force fleet now entering this system. I find it odd you are not moving to engage us, given that we are still in a state of war. If there is a reason I shouldn’t destroy you here and now, please state it. I am very curious as to why you think we are not worth engaging at our jumppoint.”

No response came for more than 15 minutes, then the image of a mastermind appeared in holo before him…but it didn’t look right. Paul could see the similarity, but the physiology had been altered. Still green as green could be, but there were armor patches and a few other oddities on its skin. Also, its eyes were smaller, its claws longer, and many subtle changes that caused Paul to flinch. The lizards did not alter their variants. They created new ones when the need arose and retired the old designs. They didn’t upgrade existing ones, and the mastermind body had remained unchanged since it was created long, long ago, with only coding changes and other small internal improvements made over the years.

“We are not here for you, Star Force. We are engaged in a war against your enemy. Combat between us would be a mutual disadvantage. Why are you seeking to provoke us?”

Paul raised an eyebrow. After so much time spent with Thrawn and the other mastermind converts, not to mention the Paladin, he picked up on the differences in tone and conversation instantly. This might be a lizard, but it wasn’t a mastermind.

“You tried to wipe us out long ago. We tend not to forget such things.”

“We are doing you a service by wounding the V’kit’no’sat. Interference would be illogical.”

“So if we pass through this system without attacking you, will you interfere?”

“We will remain in our current position. Move around us and we will not attack. Come much closer than you are now, and we will out of prudence.”

“Bargained and done,” Paul said with finality. “Tell me, why don’t you look like the masterminds I’ve dealt with in the past?”

“I am better than those you corrupted. Pass through as you wish. We will remain where we are.”

The lizard cut the comm, and Paul wasn’t going to squander the opportunity to get past them without a fight, so he ordered the Ma’kri scouts ahead and signaled Jason to begin moving around the system, keeping well away from low stellar orbit. Paul, though, stayed nearby, gaining a little extra distance between the Excalibur and the lizard fleet, but essentially buzzed them all the way around collecting ample amounts of sensor scans on their new ships.

As promised, none of them so much as moved. Their ships were shaped similar to what they had once been, but the materials were vastly different and much more powerful, though still built cheaply via mass production. That said, they had access to a lot of technologies that Star Force hadn’t possessed when they’d first fought, including something akin to a Dre’mo’don.

They didn’t have to fire them for the sensors to pick up the weapon systems, for the firing chambers stood out against several exotic scans. Based on the shape he guessed they were what the V’kit’no’sat labeled as Be’hast, something of similar energy but far less density per shot. In order to upgrade to a full Dre’mo’don you had to obtain Sha’gart particles to create the necessary density, and that was a technological leap that most races never obtained.

But the fact that these lizards appeared to have Be’hast as their standard weaponry was a bad sign. Only a handful of races cataloged by the V’kit’no’sat had ever reached that level, and even The Nexus races had never achieved that particular technology. They had others, and there were many, many ways to craft energy weapons, but Be’hast was the first foundational building block of V’kit’no’sat-level weaponry, and it was something that the lizards should not have possessed. Even if they found a Dre’mo’don and tore it apart it would do no good. They could not replicate it without understanding the microscopic physics principles, and without a manual to go along with it, primitive races couldn’t hope to understand V’kit’no’sat technology.

Star Force had had that manual, in the form of their database, and even then it had taken them forever to figure it out. This, more than anything, confirmed that someone was helping the lizards advance rapidly. The question was, who had the knowledge to give them? And who would be stupid enough to try, considering who and what they were?

Not to mention the biological changes. It looked like they had gotten more than just weaponry upgrades, and even having a mastermind talk to you was unnatural. They were typically silent and hidden within their ranks, though if this fleet contained a Templar he could understand why the mastermind would take the lead…except that they would typically just ignore you entirely. They must have had orders not to engage Star Force, but Paul still had a bad feeling that these lizards were not the same lizards he had fought long ago.

Something had changed drastically, but he wasn’t going to stick around here to figure it out. The fleet was moving quickly to the outgoing jumppoint even as more ships kept coming in along the convoy line. Paul stayed in the system, sending Jason to the front of the line, and made sure that the lizards didn’t double-cross them and hit the end of the convoy, then the Excalibur made the last jump out, intending to catch up in the next layover to be at the head of the line when they finally got to the Ohson System.

7

May 4, 4917

Ohson System (V’kit’no’sat territory, Tamprani Region)

Stellar Orbit

Hanniena’s Kaeper had traveled with the Star Force fleet near the head of the line, coming off the jumpline and proceeding further into the system at an angle in order to get decelerated in time yet missing the jumppoint itself. She felt safe doing this, having known the layout of the system when she left, and fortunately there were no Li’vorkrachnika ships in her flight path to accidentally ram, for the signal bounces coming back from the Star Force fleet were focused straight ahead on the jumpline.

There was an enemy fleet guarding the jumppoint, and the leading Star Force ships were already heavily engaged as her stealthy Kaeper slipped by them all and linked in to the V’kit’no’sat Urrtren. The relay was down, meaning interstellar communications were now cut off, though the insystem transmitters were still operational…but the situation was bad. Kienma and Logsda were gone. There were no V’kit’no’sat signals coming from them and the fleet over Logsda was currently bombarding the planet from orbit. Kienma was already a wasteland with all V’kit’no’sat infrastructure destroyed, including the planetary defense station, whose smoking rubble still remained visible but broken at the cap where the Tar’vem’jic had been located.

She could see the relayed images of the hole that had been bored in it from the bombardment, and the other ones in the system hadn’t fared much better. All were down, with two damaged by sabotage measures when the Li’vorkrachnika had invaded on land and taken them over from within on Neonni. Now the main planet was under full ground assault, with barely a third of it still fielding planetary shield generators.

A much larger fleet there was bombarding the parts of the planet that were exposed and did not currently contain Li’vorkrachnika troops. Hanniena could see in detail on the transmitted reports what her ship could not from so far away, and that data said they were almost too late. Two planets’ worth of Wass’mat were destroyed, and from the damage on Neonni she guessed at least half the population was dead already.

The bombardment was continuing ruthlessly as her ship moved through a microjump to get to the planet…then the attack suddenly stopped. The signal reception from the planet was sketchy when moving at jump speeds, but the cessation of the bombardment made it through the hyper compression disruption and soon thereafter the Kaeper got collision warnings and had to veer off the jumpline to avoid hitting the Li’vorkrachnika ships leaving the planet and heading towards the star.

Her ship made another angled braking maneuver that brought it well wide of the intended jumppoint and slid into a hasty orbit as she watched the massive fleet crowding the jumppoint to the star. It looked as if they were fleeing, but there were so many of their cruisers in the field that she doubted they would run from Star Force and not the V’kit’no’sat. As more data was gathered she noted the location of the Li’vorkrachnika jumpships out elsewhere in the system and saw that the cruisers were not heading there. They were heading out in a long line towards the distant jumppoint where the Star Force fleet was still entering.

They weren’t waiting for them to come to the planet. They were heading out to them. Every…single…ship…was headed out, leaving planetary orbit barren aside from the glut of vessels waiting near the exiting jumppoint. And not just around Neonni, but the ships around Logsda were also abandoning their bombardment and heading out to the star.

Hanniena didn’t understand that. They were leaving their troops on the planet completely unguarded, and while a Kaeper wasn’t much of a warship, it still had a lot of firepower compared to ground troops.

“Move us into low orbit and coordinate with planetary defense on bombardment coordinates…but do not drop stealth measures until the rest of their fleet leaves,” she ordered, sickened at the sight of the planet succumbing to destruction like a virus slowly spreading across the surface.

The scout ship moved into position and waited as ordered, with her ship still able to pick up basic sensor data from the Star Force fleet, for they’d offered a tie-in during the trip out here for navigational purposes and they hadn’t rescinded it yet, so she could see the battle taking place and was taken aback at the ferocity of it. Small ships fighting small ships was not the way V’kit’no’sat handled battle, and while they had gotten used to fighting Star Force’s small ships, they had never seen them go head to head with another small fleet.

But it was more than that. Their movements were…extreme. The tactics totally different and incredibly intricate. She realized after her ship began its own bombardment of exposed Li’vorkrachnika ground troops that what she was witnessing was two enemies that were extremely familiar with one another with a long history of warfare. This wasn’t a first conflict situation. This was an old feud brought to life again and it showed.

Hanniena had been a fleet commander before her capture. It was doubtful she would ever be one again after suffering that humiliating defeat, but she could appreciate what she was seeing. The movements were so complicated that she couldn’t follow them all, but the end result was always the same…dead Li’vorkrachnika ships, even as the ship count increased furiously as the massive assault fleets outnumbering Star Force 5 to 1 gradually worked their way out to the jumppoint. Not all of the Star Force fleet was here yet, and wouldn’t be for some time, but the Li’vorkrachnika were losing and losing badly.

What surprised her the most was how fast ships were lost. Star Force always had to whittle away at the larger V’kit’no’sat ships and often let them retreat if they abandoned their objective. But there was no mercy being shown here. No retreat. No withdrawal. No damaging ships to take prisoners later. There was just utter carnage with Star Force destroying all wounded ships as quickly as they could. They let nothing get away...not that the Li’vorkrachnika were trying. They were fighting to the death, and the ships that lost weaponry were making suicide runs along with fully operational ships that had decent positioning to do so.

Hanniena had never seen anything like it before, and it sent a chill down her spine all the way to the Saroto’kanse’vam spike on her tail. She didn’t understand why, for they’d been fighting Star Force for so long there was nothing about their combat style that hadn’t been documented and analyzed intimately. The inclusion of the Uriti had altered the status quo greatly, but there was no Uriti here, so what was the difference? It wasn’t just the ship size.

As she watched more and more Li’vorkrachnika tanks being destroyed under her Kaeper’s guns, taking satisfaction at each bit of vengeance, it finally dawned on her what was happening.

Star Force had a code of conduct, one that often seemed counter-productive. Even when fighting the V’kit’no’sat to retake planets claimed from them, they had been the defenders. Rescuing their people had been the priority, and beyond that, defeating the V’kit’no’sat had been the objective.

But not killing them. She’d been captured because Star Force chose to do so. They didn’t have the luxury of taking too many prisoners, but they still took some. From what the trailblazers had told her, the Li’vorkrachnika could not be taken prisoner. They’d fight to damage or destroy you every waking second, and when put in a position where they couldn’t do that, they’d kill themselves rather than be complacent.

When Hanniena’s fleet had been defeated, she couldn’t understand why she’d lost. Then the Wass’mat had a long time in prison to figure it out, but during all that time she had never been afraid of Star Force. They were dangerous and always had been so, but they were inferior and timid, except when backed into a corner. Then they fought more freely, but it was always in defense, one way or another.

But not now. They were here to defend the system, which now technically belonged to them per the deal she’d struck, but the Star Force fleet wasn’t acting like a defender. They were acting like an exterminator, and that truly scared Hanniena. She had never seen them fight like this, when they had the advantage in technology and essentially even ship size. They were so aggressive and unrelenting that even the V’kit’no’sat seemed lethargic in comparison.

Their drone movement was so complex, so coordinated, and so numerous she couldn’t understand how they were managing it. This wasn’t a cluster of vessels targeting a single opponent, moving around it and essentially sitting still firing. This was active ship to ship combat on a scale the Wass’mat had never known possible before, and even as she watched the small amount of damage her own ship was doing, she could barely keep her eyes off the sensor readings the Star Force fleet were transmitting out across the system.

And it seemed the Li’vorkrachnika knew what they were facing, for they were throwing every ship they had at them as quickly as possible…and were destroying many drones in the process, but they couldn’t get to the jumpships, even when those ships engaged in the combat. The drones screened for them so much that they couldn’t be damaged enough to be pinned in place, and their larger weapons were savaging the Li’vorkrachnika ships…especially the Star Force command ships. They looked like Brat’mar vessels smoothed on the edges, and they were not holding back, rather pushing forward with the drones despite the fact that they contained crews.

They rarely did that against the V’kit’no’sat. For all the time she’d spend in battle with them, Hanniena had never gotten a single clean shot at a jumpship or command ship. But now, here, they were using them to fight, at times in very close quarters, but the Li’vorkrachnika couldn’t destroy them and when they tried the drones counter-swarmed them while the heavy shields on the jumpships soaked up damage that otherwise would have killed more drones.

She felt she was getting an advanced lesson in warfare just by watching, and realized that the larger ship sizes of the V’kit’no’sat allowed for dominance through…admittedly…lazier combat. Moving a 36 mile wide ship around was extremely easy compared to moving around a fleet of thousands of drones equal in mass on individual attack patterns.

Hanniena didn’t know how Star Force was doing it. Even the Li’vorkachnika’s movements were damn impressive, but they all had living crews onboard. And the fact that Star Force didn’t seem to care about that was what scared her the most. She didn’t know the full history of the Star Force/Li’vorkrachnika conflict, only what they’d allowed her to learn as a prisoner, but the bad blood between them was undeniable. After all the V’kit’no’sat had done to Star Force, they had never fought like this against the invasion meant to wipe them out.

The trailblazers had said the Li’vorkrachnika must be destroyed, and Hanniena assumed that they had never gotten to that point with the V’kit’no’sat, though why not she didn’t understand. Was it because the Li’vorkrachnika would not be taken prisoner? Was it because Star Force was, in some way, part of the V’kit’no’sat, even in a heretical sense, and they saw the V’kit’no’sat as kin?

Honestly, she didn’t know what she was witnessing, but it was clear that Star Force hated the Li’vorkrachnika on a level they did not share with the V’kit’no’sat…and vice versa. She couldn’t attest to the hate level of the Li’vorkrachnika, but the way they moved their fleet and hit them with maximum speed and firepower suggested they knew better than to give them an inch.

The battle at the jumppoint was still escalating and would go on for hours, but Hanniena couldn’t stay here and watch it. The Kaeper had to keep using its advantage as the only starship in orbit to help the embattled ground troops as they continued to lose territory and more shield generators were at risk of falling, but she didn’t need to be here. The ship’s crew could follow commands from the surface. Her presence was unnecessary, and while her strength was fleet command she was a Wass’mat, and had psionics tailored to close combat.

So Hanniena boarded a drop pod and headed down to one of the combat zones, dawning her armor and taking part in the battle to save what was left of the planet while Star Force fought the naval war to save the Wass’mat from eradication.

The irony was evident, but this is what fate had brought them to in the wake of the empire’s unwillingness to defend them. Hanniena didn’t know what the future brought, but she was going to stay here and stick it out regardless, even while others would be running back to the empire that had abandoned them, for the trailblazers had already told her that those not wanting to stay would be allowed to leave once the system was secured.

And after what she had just seen in orbit, and her own experience in losing to them in naval combat, perhaps joining their empire wouldn’t be as bad as she was expecting. Never in her life would she have expected the V’kit’no’sat to be pushed back on its heels by unknown rim races. But then again, she had never expected the Terraxis heresy in the first place. So many things had changed in recent years that she wondered if the V’kit’no’sat were really V’kit’no’sat anymore.

Where was the dominance they lived and breathed? Certainly not here, abandoned to die against a race of vermin too numerous to count. The fact that they could openly attack the V’kit’no’sat and live was beyond what she would have expected even a few millennia ago. Now they were freely taking worlds and Itaru was doing nothing to counter it.

The only dominance here was Star Force’s, and with what she was witnessing here, Hanniena had no doubt they would cleanse the system of all Li’vorkrachnika presence with a vengeance, no matter how many enemy ships there were. They were showing the level of dominance that the V’kit’no’sat had identified as their birthright, yet they were showing mercy to their enemy by coming to the Wass’mat’s rescue. How they would deal with the survivors remained to be seen, but the fact that they were not letting them die or killing both the Li’vorkrachnika and the Wass’mat was different from how the V’kit’no’sat would have responded.

Hanniena understood times had changed and were continuing to change fast, and she wasn’t sure where this would end up, but if the galaxy was coming alive with multifaceted warfare, joining with the dominant empire was the most prudent means of survival, and between being defeated herself, their possession of the Uriti, and what she was witnessing here, there was little doubt in her mind that Star Force was now the dominant force in the galaxy and not the V’kit’no’sat, no matter how much larger her former empire was. They were on the decline. Star Force was on the rise.

And if Hanniena lived through the next few days, she had no idea what the future would look like. Everything was upside down now, but her race was under attack and she had her tusks to offer in assistance, so she put any other thoughts aside and dove into battle, shooting, cutting, and stomping the little Li’vorkrachnika on the surface along with the others…and hoping they wouldn’t nicked to death by their tiny weapons as wave after wave flowed across the terrain to oppose them.

There were literally too many to kill without naval assistance, but there were many other Wass’mat refugees in the ‘safe’ zones behind them, and the longer they delayed the Li’vorkrachnika’s advance the more there would be alive when Star Force made it to the planet.

Sadly, Hanniena would not be one of them, for two days later she would fall in combat multiple times, with her Kich’a’kat reviving her each time until her armor was so damaged that she died for the final time, surrounded by scores of Li’vorkrachnika, and unrecoverable by the other Wass’mat as they were pushed further and further back, leaving her body to be trampled on by the enemy reinforcements as they surged forward in unending numbers.

8

May 19, 4917

Ohson System (Tamprani Region)

Stellar Orbit

Thrawn’s fleet came into the system amidst a major war. Paul and the other trailblazers’ fleets were wrapped around one planet in the system and nowhere else. Lizard fleets, however, were everywhere, including his incoming jumppoint, but not in enough numbers to be a problem. The first few jumpships took some serious hits, but none were destroyed prior to releasing their plus-shaped drones that mimicked the hulls of the lizard cruisers.

They launched from the underside rear of the jumpships, whereas the lizard cruisers stuck into all sides of the hull on their carriers, looking like ticks rather than having a protective bay for them. None of their jumpships were near…Thrawn could see them positioned elsewhere in the system in large clusters, staying out of the fighting along with the transport ships, leaving only cruisers waiting at this jumppoint and 13 others.

That meant they didn’t know the Paladin were coming, else they would have had far more here. It almost felt like a token gesture, for most of the lizard fleet was blockading Neonni and engaging in sporadic combat. There were more than 2 million cruisers in play, and debris fields from far more at various points around the system…including this jumppoint, suggesting that there had been a much bigger fight here when the trailblazers had arrived.

Thrawn’s fleet made quick work of the few thousand cruisers waiting for them and secured the jumppoint before other lizard fleets began to race across the system towards them. Had he only been bringing a few ships it wouldn’t have mattered, but he had a long train of jumpships coming that stretched out more than a day long, meaning the lizard cruisers had plenty of time to get here before the last of them came out.

He had many minutes to contemplate the lizards’ next move as sensor images and comm telemetry raced both ways across the system. They could hold position around the planet and get caught between Star Force ships on both sides. They could force an all-out assault on the planet before the Paladin fleet could arrive, or they could abandon the planet and hit the Paladin full force before they could fully arrive. Then again they could always run away, but they weren’t going to do that. They were expendable, and doing damage to the Star Force fleet was worth their deaths even if they couldn’t take the planet.

So the question was, how could they do the most damage?

Thrawn knew what he would do in their position, and just as he expected, the blockading fleet began to rapidly withdraw and head for the star…and from there, he knew, they would be coming straight for the Paladin, even as the last of the cruisers here were blasted into oblivion.

“So be it,” he said to himself as he watched the belated sensor images of the ships making microjumps away from Neonni towards the star. They appeared as blurs on the sensor bounces, and when combined visually it looked like rain falling through space from the planet and combining into a river that then snaked around the star in droplets headed for his fleet’s left flank.

That occurred over a matter of hours as Thrawn waited, fighting the first elements to reach him as more and more of his jumpships arrived to reinforce the jumppoint, which had to have an open space protected inside a cup-shaped formation. If any of his incoming ships had engine trouble they would overshoot that gap and potentially ram the defending ships, so a jumppoint hold wasn’t an easy way to fight a battle. In fact it was damn hard, for aside from the navigationally issues and coordinating with the ships coming in using only small blurps of messages sent out to the rapidly approaching ships, they had to protect against the lizards backdooring the jumppoint and hitting the newly arrived ships before they could deploy their drones.

That’s why the cup kept stretching further and further back into a tube around a region of space only 12,000 miles wide. That might sound like a lot of room to maneuver in, but when jumping from another star system it was a damn precise target to hit, and a little finagling with other gravity wells in the system at the last moment allowed for some minor corrections, but the tightly spaced jump intervals between ships made it even more tenuous.

But Star Force was well practiced in such maneuvers and Thrawn had the Paladin ready for the lizards before the first reinforcements arrived into the grinder. The lizards came in solo to begin with, throwing themselves into the fray with no hope of survival in order to do some damage and disrupt the incoming ships, but they couldn’t get through. They tried, running some cruisers past the Paladin drones to try and get through to the jumpships but they didn’t make it. The incoming firepower was too strong along with numerous dampening shields thrown up in their path.

So after the first few attempts the lizards began to arrive just short of firing range, pooling their ships into greater numbers before launching another attempt to get through, not even bothering to stop and fight it out normally. They rammed every ship that got in their way, attempting to blow a hole in the formation for others to follow through, but Thrawn knew how they thought, for he had once been one of them. The Paladin’s genetic memories had been altered, but not his. His memories were still Li’vorkrachnika ones, though he thought of them as lizards now. His base skill set was that of the enemy, but his loyalty and advancement were completely Star Force, and that gave him a huge advantage.

The lizards were going to do damage, they always did, but they were not going to get at the vulnerable ships arriving at such high speed that normal collisions turned fatal. Nor were they going to catch a fully loaded ship in a kamikaze run. Thrawn had enough drones now to prevent that, with more arriving faster than the lizards could destroy them. He had the jumppoint locked down and enough ships coming to handle what was before him, but the trailblazers weren’t going to let him fight alone.

The fleet defending Neonni was breaking up, with part of it engaging the lizards as they fled through a single jumppoint. That forced them to jump away at multiple points that did not allow them to directly approach the star. Some went to other planets, but most just jumped off slowly into null space. Those ships had to then curve back towards the star at slow speeds because they didn’t have a solid gravitational base to push off of. Forcing that maneuver would delay their arrival at the Paladin jumppoint by hours, and those ships that did not quickly get away from Neonni were caught in combat with the trailblazers’ fleets.

Not many did get caught, and Thrawn understood why. Sometimes lizards shot the closest enemy regardless of numbers, but there was a mastermind in this fleet…perhaps several, which meant they were going to operate on a higher tactical level. The lizard technology, while obviously more advanced than what Thrawn had when he served them, was not up to Star Force standards. That meant grouping was essential and getting split apart was not going to see the trailing ships do much damage at all. Mathematically it was better to run and regroup to hit harder later, which was why the lizards were abandoning the planet with such haste.

During the fighting Thrawn got an update from Paul, informing him that the Wass’mat on the planet were now reluctantly part of Star Force, though more than 90% of those in the system were dead. They hadn’t gotten here soon enough to save the other two worlds, and the one that still stood was in tatters.

Thrawn wasn’t worried about that. He knew Star Force would take any small amount of the Wass’mat and grow them into a new Star Force faction, as well as the fact that those on the surface would not be touched now that the trailblazers were here. That part of the mission was secure now, and as for the losses of the other Wass’mat, he personally did not care. A good number of his Paladin had died to the Wass’mat, and while he was willing to accept those that changed sides, trusting in the trailblazers’ wisdom, he wasn’t concerned with V’kit’no’sat losses.

In fact it was almost ironic, after all the time they’d spent trying to destroy Star Force, now they couldn’t even defend their own territory. It was downright pathetic, actually, that one’s sworn enemy has to come to the aid of a system abandoned by its own empire. And just like the Templars had abandoned Thrawn to die fighting, so too had the V’kit’no’sat abandoned these Wass’mat.

And the thing that drove the V’kit’no’sat so hard was their dominance. Well now they weren’t dominant. They were getting beaten by the lizards and a lot of other races out there, and despite Star Force being the weaker in the recent war, the empire that had rescued him was now rising to dominance. Give it enough time and Director Davis and the trailblazers would grow it to the point where it was larger and more powerful than the V’kit’no’sat, but even now, in this situation, Star Force held the upper hand and rescuing these Wass’mat was another small puzzle piece involved in growing the empire further.

So no, the lizards were not going to win here. They were not going to kill the rest of the Wass’mat. They were not going to claim this system for their own. They were not going to overrun Star Force and push them out. They were not going to destroy them. And they were not going to compromise this jumppoint.

But they were going to make Star Force pay a price for it in ships…but not in lives. Drones they would lose, but they were not going to take down a jumpship. Thrawn would make certain of that. But a price had to be paid in materiel, and seeing the records Paul was sending him about how many relief fleets the lizards had been getting, he made the decision to send a courier back to rally more Paladin to defend this system against however many subsequent attacks they decided to make.

Dominance was formed in permanence, and no matter how many more ships the lizards sent to this system, Thrawn was going to make sure they lost all of them.

Jason went down to the planet before the naval fighting was over, leaving Paul to handle the combat at the jumppoint as the other 4 trailblazers organized orbital bombardments to decimate the lizard formations on the planet still engaged against the Wass’mat. The few mech units onboard the command ships went down with Jason and helped to defend key points while the lizards were thinned out, then when the tide swung to the defenders advantage he didn’t have to do anything more. The Wass’mat were so incensed that they were out actively hunting down the remaining lizards and wiping them out in a small act of revenge.

Even as the naval conflict continued, the process of annexing the Wass’mat was beginning with Jason as he met with the leader of the planet in one of their intact cities. He went alone, wearing his combat armor but with no escorts, as the mechs had been sent to secure a spaceport for Star Force’s use.

“What do you require of us?” Gargara asked simply when the Jason arrived amongst a half dozen Wass’mat in an open air courtyard.

“Once we get this system stabilized, we will allow those who wish to return to the V’kit’no’sat to do so. We’re not going to treat this as a hostile annexation. Those that remain will have your normal infrastructure operations maintained while we slowly modify the planet. Right now I need you to keep things working, repair essential services, and just hold tight as you decide who goes and who stays.”

The Wass’mat exchanged a flurry of telepathic conversation, but it was Gargara who finally spoke again.

“You are letting us go? You only want the system?”

“We didn’t come for the planets, though they are prime,” Jason admitted. “We intend to keep them regardless, but we came for you. The V’kit’no’sat abandoned you. If you want to go back to them, you can. You would be stupid to do so, but we’re giving you that choice. Those who stay will go through a similar process to what the Rit’ko’sor did, and you will become the foundation for a new faction within Star Force.”

“What will our penance be?”

Jason frowned. “What do you mean?”

“For our part in the war against you. The Rit’ko’sor were not involved. We were.”

“Mercy is a luxury of the dominant. There will be no penance for you. The V’kit’no’sat penance was detailed in the Armistice. Any of you that choose to stay here will no longer be seen as V’kit’no’sat. You will be Star Force and treated as such.”

“We do not understand what that means,” Gargara admitted

“It means a lot of training. Not punishment. But training for those who willingly go through it. Those that do not should leave. We have no intention on annexing a problem. We intend to annex an asset. See to it that those who do not want to be here are put on the leave list.”

“How will they leave?”

“V’kit’no’sat ships can come to pick you up, or we can deliver you to the nearest V’kit’no’sat world not in the war zone. That will take time, and those who wish to leave must not make themselves a problem while they wait.”

“I will assure they do not,” Gargara promised. “And I will be one who is staying. I cannot promise any others will.”

“If you’re the only one, you will be welcome. In the meantime, all of the Li’vorkrachnika must be destroyed. They will not surrender, and will seek to do whatever damage they can until they are dead. But do not torment or torture them. Simply kill them.”

“They will not last long,” Jovcho, the planetary defense commander, assured him.

“Eliminating them is the first priority. The second priority are foodstuffs. Has enough production survived to accommodate the existing population?”

“We are at 83% production,” Gargara said. “We have some stores of supplies to compensate, but we do not have enough to perpetually sustain us.”

“Put your construction efforts there first. Even ahead of planetary defense. We will protect the planet, but you must get the foodstuff supply up to 100% to sustain you through the initial transition. We’ll build our own facilities when we’re able, but it will be months before we can get even limited production. We’ll ship in some supplies before then, but you need to maximize what production you have in the interim. How long can your surplus last?”

“I do not know. Several weeks at the minimum. Possibly longer. We have not done a full tally of resources remaining.”

“Do so now. I need to know. Are all of your injured being treated with Kich’a’kat?”

“Our armor has it included. Those few exceptions are being dealt with. Your assistance there is not required.”

“Good. Do you have any ships left?”

“Drop pods only. All our starships were destroyed.”

“Use them to search for and pull in survivors. Don’t assume the lizards got them all. And ‘lizards’ is the term we use for Li’vorkrachnika. It’s a shorter word and an insult. As for language, I and many others speak V’kit’no’sat, but our empire uses English and you’ll need to learn it eventually. For those who want to start now, I’ll have the files transmitted…assuming you don’t already have them. For the next few years V’kit’no’sat will suffice, so there’s no rush, but we don’t like different factions with different languages. If we can’t talk to each other, what’s the point of communication?”

“That will not be well received.”

“A lot won’t be. Which is why we’re letting those of you go that wish to. Changes will be occurring, but beneficial ones. We defend our people rather than writing them off as expendable. We also do a lot of other things differently. We won’t expect you to change instantaneously, but it will be a process…and it’s a process we’ve had a lot of experience with.”

“If not for you we would be dead,” Gargara stated unenthusiastically. “A life in Star Force is preferable to no life. That is what we agreed when sending Hanniena to ask you for assistance, now you tell us we can leave. We did not expect that.”

“We’re the good guys. The V’kit’no’sat are not. That’s why we do things differently. That’s why we were in the right in the recent war, you were on the wrong side. That’s a tough lesson to learn, and not always a fast one, but as I said, mercy is a luxury of the dominant, and we’re offering you a path forward. Until you decided whether to take it or not, we need to secure and stabilize the planet. During that process you will have plenty of time to think…while we keep the lizards at bay and the V’kit’no’sat don’t give a damn. Keep that factoid in mind throughout this transition process.”

9

February 12, 4919

Meinto System (Zadjen Region)

Treneis

Davis stood less than a meter in front of the enormous windows in his office looking out over the ocean and beach beyond. Palm-like trees were swaying slightly in the wind with small waves lapping up onto the shore where dozens of Meintre were walking about on their 6 thick legs. All of them were part of their faction’s leaders, for the beach was part of the command complex where Davis had set up his unofficial capitol when he’d taken on the personal duty of annexing the Meintre into Star Force.

In the beginning he hadn’t been sure whether the Meintre could be a full-fledged faction, or would become a sub-faction that couldn’t field all 5 divisions of military assets. Given their size, aerial combat and aquatics were a concern, but as it turned out the latter was actually an asset. It had taken a lot of time and bravery to get the Meintre to swim, for they instinctively did not like the deep water, but with appropriate suits they actually fared well compared to many of Star Force’s other races, though aquatics wasn’t their specialty by any stretch of the imagination.

Their four trunks, especially, were well suited for manipulation underwater and actually allowed them to work well as construction crews when needed, but most of their aquatic and aerial forces were drones piloted by Meintre in secure locations. They had to have backups, meaning the ability for manned craft and a proficiency in them, which they’d proven, thus their race had been designated as ‘faction’ status and the responsibilities that came along with it.

A lot of interior work was still being done on their race, and a faction had to not only support themselves, but support the rest of the empire as well, both in combat and other functions. That was why they had to have all 5 military divisions and an exporting economy, and the Meintre had been coming along nicely. Far better than other Monarchs had expected, but Davis had seen their potential immediately, which was why he’d taken on the task of their annexation personally. Others had suggested a low level Monarch would be best, for the Meintre were not a broken people. They had joined by choice and were one of the stable Nexus races that had agreed to change sides.

But such stability was misleading at times, and when changes had to be made a stable race sometimes was more resistant. Fortunately there hadn’t been any major issues with the Meintre, and Davis had headed off many others before they arose. They’d never be among the most numerous races in Star Force, but they were among the largest. Ironically the Meintre and the Wass’mat had a lot in common, despite their origins.

The Meintre were covered in hair, whereas the Wass’mat were reptilian and covered with thick skin scales. The Meintre also stood taller, whereas the Wass’mat were wider and flatter, but both were large massed, hexped, and moved about in a lumbering nature. The Meintre didn’t have the psionic upgrades that the Wass’mat had, and the Wass’mat didn’t have the facial trunks, but both were now the primary large races within Star Force.

The Ikrotor had been with Star Force since nearly the beginning, though not as a member race. They were still independent, even after having to be evacuated from their homeworld in the ADZ when the Devastation Zone consumed it. But a lot of Ikrotor had joined Axius and they had formed the central core of the large-scale infantry units that were essentially the size of mechs. They were true biped, which was rare for such large races. None of the V’kit’no’sat bipeds had straight vertical backs, such as Humans did, and the same was mostly true for the other known large races in the galaxy.

But as a race, the Ikrotor were not unified. They were more a loose association of individuals, and even those that had joined Axius, or were born into it, were lacking a gravitas that the Meintre had. Their inclusion in Star Force had been more important than anyone else realized, aside from Davis, and now he had been gifted with another such race even more impressive.

Right now the trailblazers were overseeing their initial stabilization while the Ohson System remained a war zone. The lizards kept attacking it, but so far no other Star Force world. It was odd, why they would be so insistent on that one yet not engage the rest of the empire. It was also odd, if they were trying to avoid combat with Star Force, as Paul had suggested, that they would not let that system go. They had the V’kit’no’sat to deal with, and they were going to be destroyed by them, so why bother with Star Force now?

Something about that didn’t feel right, but he couldn’t pin it down. He also couldn’t understand why the lizards were fighting the V’kit’no’sat. It was too much for them to handle, even if the V’kit’no’sat were busy fighting the Rim Consortium. Better to just let them fight it out and then assault the crumbs that remained afterward. No, whoever was feeding the lizards tech had to be nudging them into this fight…or worse. As bad as the lizards had always been, they were never stupid. This was stupid, unless there was something else in play.

There was a small V’kit’no’sat delegation on the planet now, acting as ambassadors. At his request they were Ari’tat, and thus smaller than Humans. Having the larger races around, with their host of psionics, was dangerous and put everyone else on edge. Security especially didn’t like them getting close to Davis, but the Ari’tat, while they did have basic psionics, were nothing that Davis couldn’t handle with his own. Right now couriers were still being used, as a full scale Urrtren extension had not yet been built, primarily because Tamprani was a lizard-infested war zone, but the Ari’tat had enough ships coming and going regularly to keep both empires in decent communication.

And what they’d told him of the wars going on indicated that some of the Rim Consortium had already backed off, in some cases abandoning taken planets and in others holding them. So far none were violating the terms of the Armistice and the lines of dominion established, but the races on the far side of the galaxy probably hadn’t gotten word of the Armistice yet, and as such they were still fighting.

But there were others, like the lizards, who were not part of the Rim Consortium and were continuing to push into V’kit’no’sat territory. The fleets who were being freed up from those war zones that were standing down were being redistributed, but not enough to stem the tide yet. The V’kit’no’sat were losing a lot of outer territory, including some of the systems promised to Star Force as a buffer zone.

Davis had informed the Ari’tat that the V’kit’no’sat must retake them and then deliver them to Star Force, for he wouldn’t be doing that job for them, but already there were 9 systems that had been evacuated and handed over in the regions on either side of Tamprani. Davis had sent different races to those systems, but all were accompanied by either Kiritak, Bsidd, or Paladin so they would have access to larger populations quickly. The distances between them and the empire weren’t much different than the trek out to Shangri-La, but the other ones that would soon to be added to the occupied list would be further and further away from Star Force territory and help if needed. They had to stand on their own, so population spamming was going to be required.

The Ohson System wasn’t originally on that list, but Davis had decided to keep it and add it to that ring of systems that would eventually encircle the galaxy. 14% of the Wass’mat there had decided to stay, with the rest in the process of being picked up by other Wass’mat ships who were volunteering to come get them. Davis had been told there was some bad blood between those picking them up and those refusing to leave, but no fighting had broken out. For whatever the reason, some wanted to stay with Star Force and Davis had to make good on their membership, just like he had with the Rit’ko’sor.

Which brought him back to the Meintre. They couldn’t walk around on other worlds with the smaller races. The size difference was too dangerous. That was why Axius worlds were divided into size zones. And while all Star Force infrastructure was built on the big side, the Meintre and Wass’mat really needed super-sized cities. Star Force had already built some for the Reen and others, but none of their civilizations were as motivated, unified, and as loyal as the Meintre were.

Davis had kept the Meintre integrated into the empire, but also separate at the same time. Their worlds had some other races on them, but not in large amounts and only to use as intermediaries. That wasn’t totally unusual in Star Force, for aside from Axius and Beacon, a lot of races were little empires within themselves, but Humans and Protovic and Calavari easily mixed with one another. But with the Meintre it wasn’t the same.

There was no issue working with Monarchs and Archons, nor the elite individuals within the empire. It was the civilian aspect that didn’t mix well, and the fact that the Meintre were simply more advanced than many other races. It wasn’t snobbishness on their part, it was just a side effect of being superior. They related better to those with skills and, frankly, more knowledge than them than they did to those weaker, stupider ones. Those they tended to avoid, though politely, and interacted via intermediaries such as the Kiritak, whom they had developed a curious relationship with.

Not unlike the Wass’mat and their Zen’zat, some of whom had decided to stay with their masters. Fortunately there were only a few thousand, but Davis had to confine them to the planet until he figured out what to do with them.

And that also brought him back to the moment of change he knew had been coming, but he was still unsure about how to handle it. Size differences in Axius had forced him to segregate that faction for safety concerns. Then when the Raptors had been included, he had to treat them like Arc Knights from hatching, stripping those who did not wish to be held to such high standards of their psionics and letting them move freely about the empire. There was no Raptor civilian population, and with the Wass’mat it was going to have to be the same. He didn’t want to take away their psionics, or even hold them suppressed, because their races had become so accustomed to them. Even walking back the Raptors’ with the Ikrid blocks had been immensely troublesome. They were adapting to it, but they’d taken a big hit with that necessary change.

If Davis had removed Ikrid from them entirely he felt they would have fallen apart. Much the same way that if he suddenly banned the Archons from training they would go crazy. Normal civilians wouldn’t, because laziness was commonplace. But the Archons had risen so far that you couldn’t force them backwards. They were no longer compatible with laziness, just as the Raptors were no longer compatible with the lack of telepathy. Moreover, Davis didn’t have a pre-telepathic template to work with, and it was far easier to give Humans psionic upgrades than it was to take what had become a staple to the Raptors away from them.

More than 80% of those Raptors who chose to leave eventually came back, for they couldn’t stand to have their telepathy silenced. They thought they could, but eventually it drove them nuts and they boomeranged. Some didn’t, and Davis had talked to many of them. They all admitted to a tough transition period, but they’d adapted to it…and all of those that he had met with had been surrender monkeys. They wanted easy challenges, rather than being completely stagnant, but they didn’t really want to stress themselves. What they wanted was a simpler life, and not having telepathy worked to their advantage in that, but to the others they couldn’t stand going backwards and becoming less, and Davis doubted the Wass’mat or the Zen’zat would be any different.

The trailblazers and the Arch Dukes knew of the problem he now faced, but none of them fully understood it. The V’kit’no’sat had Ikrid as standard, and while a few of them suppressed it in their hatchlings until they could develop further, their entire society was based on it and personal privacy was obtained by having a stronger mind, or at least one trained to block out others.

They had made it work, but there were problems they still faced. It was the pack mentality, for when you had other people in your head constantly you became less like you and more like them. He’d seen this full tilt with the Elves, and while they were doing ok with guidance, they were not a stable society. Without that guidance they’d veer off wildly into self-destruction, which was why the new Elf colonies that had been established had telepathy but with Ikrid blocks. That meant only physical contact would allow one in another’s mind, and that had brought a lot of improvement to the Elves, so much so that the existing ‘free mind’ Elves were being asked not to reproduce. To let their societies age and focus on attaining and maintaining self-sufficiency.

He wasn’t going to force Ikrid blocks on them or make them mix with the other Elves, but birthing more of their kind was an error that he wasn’t going to allow to continue. Too much influence from others could help or hurt you, and Davis knew that if even for the better it was a dangerous thing. People had to learn to think and question, not just accept and do as you’re told. Effort and obedience did not conflict with curiosity, and the free Elves seriously lacked curiosity wherever a current of their society pushed or blocked them.

They had essentially become Lemmings, and while that might be useful to others who wanted servants, it was worthless to Davis who wanted peers. And the difference between the Elves and Paladin was that the Paladin already had ample experience through their genetic memories. The Elves were ignorant of everything in the beginning, and they came to rely on the hive mind of their society for everything.

And when no one knew how to lead, to explore, to figure things out…the whole mass referred back to itself in what would become a state of madness without a stabilizing rod to structure off of. The Archons had been those stabilizing rods for the Elves, but the free Elves were a dead end. One that Davis had learned a lot from, but they were not the future of his race.

And Davis knew trying to take the Raptors or Wass’mat backwards would also be a mistake. He had to take them forward, perhaps sideways to find a new path, and with the Zen’zat, at least, they were not going to reproduce, so that headache was avoided there, but he’d already asked Jason to work with them and give him suggestions on how to make use of them. Hopefully they’d come up with a better idea, for while having smaller races attending to the larger ones made some practical sense, that’s not how he wanted Star Force to be structured going into the future…because it instilled laziness in the larger ones.

And this was why he was the Director. Everyone else was running the empire, making sure supplies got delivered, training schedules were met, research done. They were competent and left Davis free to tackle the problems on the horizon. To guide Star Force forward and avoid as many headaches as he could by being able to see problems before they arose, and to note those in other races and learn from them.

So no, taking the V’kit’no’sat races backwards was not the solution. Ikrid blocks were necessary, but removing their telepathy was not an option unless they individually opted out. He wasn’t going to deny those individuals the freedom to roam the empire as others did, but so long as there was an ‘elite’ race division, they were going to have to be held to higher standards and that meant no civilian life.

Part of Davis didn’t want to officially develop an elite division, for the founding races of Star Force…Humans, Calavari, Kiritas, and Protovic…would not be included. The Archons, Mavericks, and Monarchs would be recruited out of them, but the masses just weren’t good enough. It wasn’t the fault of the individuals, but of their basic biology. Those exceptional individuals would find their way out, but the average Human would not match up to the average Raptor. The Raptor race was just too damn advanced at this point.

And the same was true of the Meintre. They were simply better, on average, than any other race aside from the Raptors, and while Star Force was built on the individual and always would be, the communities where those individuals lived were structured on the group, and Davis had to create pockets of the empire where they could not only live, but thrive and prosper.

So it had to happen, and the newly included Wass’mat were forcing his hand sooner than he’d expected. He could choose to wait longer, but this was the way the empire had to move forward. The junior high team just couldn’t play with the varsity, and keeping them somewhat separate was best for both so long as he maintained routes for individuals to surpass their race…and to fall below it.

It was ironic that Star Force was starting to mirror the internal structure of the V’kit’no’sat. They had different tiers of races as well, though they didn’t put as much thought into it. Maybe they would have become something more if the Zak’de’ron had still been leading them…or maybe not, if the Zak’de’ron just wanted pawns to use as they pushed their agendas on the galaxy.

Davis didn’t want pawns, and he only put up with the Paladin because they relied on their genetic memories. Their starting point was what it was, but it wasn’t what they’d stay at. The Paladin weren’t the goal, but victims being rescued and given a choice where they had none before.

But many people just went along with what everyone else was doing, and in that respect he had more control over the Paladin than other races. He could keep them safer, but blindly following orders was insufficient for many things.

No, the only path forward was advancement, and holding back the superior races was stupid. The Meintre were growing to the point where a choice had to be made, so he might as well make it now. He just didn’t want the Wass’mat to think he was carving out a ‘former V’kit’no’sat’ wing to the empire, but he’d jump off that bridge when he came to it.

A tone sounded and he slowly turned around to see a Human attendant standing on the threshold of his office entrance.

“Ambassador Nilhan has an urgent message to relay.”

“Very well,” Davis said, abandoning his ocean view and heading back to his large, clear desk. “Send him in.”

He sat down just before a tiny Ari’tat came bouncing into the huge room and over to his desk, where he hopped up onto one of the opposite chairs and stood there, leaning back on his tiny tail.

“Ambassador,” Davis greeted in V’kit’no’sat as he sat back and steepled his hands together. “What do you have for me today?”

“I have an offer directly from Mak’to’ran,” the Ari’tat said in all seriousness. “It concerns the Li’vorkrachnika.”

Davis sighed. “You’re getting beat, aren’t you?”

10

“We are still engaged on many warfronts, including with most of the Rim Consortium. It seems they lack the fast access transit routes that we have in the Core and have not yet arrived to deliver the Armistice to their empires. Even still, there are non-Consortium members attacking us simultaneously that will not stand down. We will prevail eventually, but in the meantime we are taking losses, including some of the systems we have promised to you.”

“Which are your responsibility to reclaim and repair prior to transfer,” Davis insisted.

“So it would seem, but given your unusual insistence on the destruction of the Li’vorkrachnika, I have been instructed to relay a special offer from Mak’to’ran.”

“Go ahead.”

“We want you to eliminate them for us.”

Davis laughed. “Your empire’s level of arrogance is astounding. I may have worked with you out of prudence, but we are not allies and I have not, and will not, forgive you for what you have done to my people. What compensation do you think would over-ride that?”

“To begin with, free transit across our empire so you can access the far side of the galaxy more quickly.”

“Noted,” Davis said, making it clear that was minor in comparison to what was being asked.

“We will also compensate you, in the form of materials, for any and all ships you lose in combat.”

“We’re in the process of rebuilding from the damage you did. Sending our current ships to fight the lizards would pull them away from other small scale activities where they are needed. And at the end of it all, replacement will be a wash, assuming we lose no personnel, which you cannot replace. We have business to attend to in the Rim, and the longer we delay the more primitive races die.”

“Furthermore,” the Ari’tat continued, “due to a realignment within our empire, we are willing to cede all of the Tamprani Region to you, intact, along with any planetary populations that wish to remain.”

Davis raised an eyebrow, thoroughly surprised. “And why do you assume we want them?”

Ambassador Nilhan looked shocked, but his tiny face’s composure recovered quickly. “You have already illegally annexed one of our worlds. We are willing to sanction this and any others that wish to join you. This is a major concession that will not be well received in the empire, but Mak’to’ran is offering it none the less.”

“Why?”

“He feels that the Li’vorkrachnika, if left unchecked and in possession of V’kit’no’sat technology, could expand greatly and become a larger threat in the distant future…but a gnawing one in the present. We do not think they will only take a few worlds and stop. They will continue to press until they run out of ships or until we make them stop, and their industrious nature has been noticed. Mak’to’ran wishes to secure the Tamprani Region, and would rather see it in your hands than reduced to rubble and become a breeding ground for an…unstable race.”

“You were about to say ‘enemy,’ which we still are.”

“You are not reckless, nor are you seeking combat. The past aside, we do not view you as a threat in the future. Well, to be perfectly honest, many still do. Especially the Oso’lon. But Mak’to’ran trusts your intent is not to destroy us and he is willing to cede Tamprani to you if you will eliminate the Li’vorkrachnika threat permanently.”

“There is no way to eliminate them permanently, for they can regrow from a single ship. They must be destroyed now, and not allowed to rebuild elsewhere. A guarantee of total erasure from the galaxy is foolish.”

“So I have been told. But a single ship will pose no threat to V’kit’no’sat worlds, and we can destroy any that we find in our territory. You can do the same and the threat will essentially be eliminated if their current holdings are destroyed. You possess the Uriti but have been unwilling to fully utilize them for fear of unintended deaths. You have also said all Li’vorkrachnika must die. That they will not switch sides nor allow themselves to be confined as prisoners. In light of that, I am ordered to ask if you are capable of fully unleashing their destructive potential on Li’vorkrachnika worlds?”

“They are our allies. We would have to ask them.”

“Assume they agree. In principle, would you fully unleash their power on the Li’vorkrachnika?”

“Yes,” Davis said firmly, surprising the Ari’tat again at his immediate and unequivocal answer.

“I am also authorized to offer you sanction as part of the V’kit’no’sat empire,” he said, holding up a tiny hand to forestall Davis’s kneejerk response. “This is not for your sake, but a way to justify the situation within our own empire. The genetic power imbued in V’kit’no’sat races is something we closely guard. Your Zen’zat coding is one of the primary reasons we could not simply let you live free. No one can leave the V’kit’no’sat because of what has been granted to them in their genetic coding. The Wass’mat that you have claimed have violated this, as have the Rit’ko’sor that joined you. The death mark on them remains, and we cannot allow others to join you from Tamprani unless we claim you are part of the V’kit’no’sat.”

“How exactly would that work?”

“Mak’to’ran once offered to sanction you as the Rimward guard of the V’kit’no’sat, under his authority. He will do so again, but as an independent faction that has no duty to fight the Hadarak. You will protect us from the Rim, which we now see holds many threats we never knew about. You will do so in your own way, and over the course of time, once you fully encircle the galaxy, you will shield the bulk of our empire as we engage the insurmountable task of defeating the Hadarak, which is what we were created to do.”

“How many races are in Tamprani?”

“All have some presence there. Under former rules, we had to disperse our populations equally in every region. Now we are restructuring into clumps of territory that are more easily defensible.”

“You were going to abandon Tamprani all along?”

“What Mak’to’ran intended I do not know. But the pullback orders I have seen do not go as deeply to completely abandon the Rim regions. We are willing, however, to fully cede you Tamprani and all our worlds within it, with full infrastructure and weapons, if you are willing to destroy the Li’vorkrachnika and enter into this galactic realignment. Your dominion over the Rim has already been agreed to by the Armistice. We are simply asking that you exert dominance over it when you eventually grow to sufficient size and shield us from any threats there. This is not out of alignment with what you are currently doing in this area of the galaxy.”

“And if someone does attack you from the Rim? What are our obligations then?”

“In the near future, none. You may have dominion, but you have no presence in most of the galaxy. When you do, your natural inclinations are sufficient for Mak’to’ran. He does not ask an oath of mutual defense. He knows you will pursue threats within the Rim for your own reasons. You will attract their attention before we do, and we will still be the stronger. If they come for us, we will deal with them in the Core. What we do not want to have to do is station a strong fleet on our border with you. That would defeat the purpose of our offer.”

“We will never operate under the V’kit’no’sat banner. We will never authorize this agreement. If it is for your empire only, then I am not opposed to it, but if anyone asks us…we are not part of the V’kit’no’sat.”

“Your ancestry says you are, and that is sufficient for us. You also wield our weapons, and now have some of our worlds. Your claim to independence falls on deaf ears when you are literally our progeny. I do not mean that as an insult, for I know you hate us, but from others’ perspective you are V’kit’no’sat.”

“Point taken. What of the lizard incursions into Olobiv?”

“We can defend those if you take the offensive against the Li’vorkrachnika home worlds. We will also offer you any systems in Olobiv that have fallen to the lizards that you can reclaim.”

“And if we are part of your empire, what of those within the Coreward realm that wish to transfer to the Rimward?”

“Such things will be discouraged, but allowed. I trust you see the immense power this affords you?”

“We could potentially gain access to all your races even if those in Tamprani do not wish to stay.”

“Yes. Is that sufficient compensation?”

Davis, still leaning back in his chair, rested an elbow on the rim of his desk and cradled his other in his hand, propping up his right arm as he pinched the bridge of his nose and temporarily hid his face behind his hand.

“What is Mak’to’ran’s long term agenda?”

“He has not informed me, other than to insist that this arrangement is mutually beneficial. He wants to return his attention to the Hadarak, as is our duty, and you wish to have your independence. By appearing to unite, from the outsiders’ view, we discourage attacks against either one of us and bring the galaxy into a far more civilized state than we have ever been able to do before. The Rim has always been beyond our grasp, and Mak’to’ran believes we have spread out too much already. It has weakened us. We cannot fully control the galaxy. We know this now. But if one spawned of us took on the mantle of responsibility for the parts we cannot, both would gain immensely from it.”

“And how do we gain from it?”

“Aside from all I have offered, we will continue to shield you from the Hadarak. Or have we done such an efficient job of it that you forgot they once stretched this far out into the galaxy?”

“Barely,” Davis corrected him, “and only in small numbers, but your point is taken. Any and all economic links will be done through conversion points. I will not allow V’kit’no’sat to have regular access to Star Force markets or planets.”

“You are free to configure our access to your empire in any way you wish. As I said, such things will be discouraged, but not disallowed. If you want to negotiate trade or personnel transfers with member races, systems, or individuals you may do so, but you will not be allowed to send your people to our worlds without those individual worlds’ permission. Furthermore, only your sanctioned ships can travel through our territory. Your civilians cannot. We do not want them on our worlds, nor to colonize within our domain.”

“We each stay on our side of the line and cooperate on occasion?”

“Exactly. The galaxy is large enough to share, us to the Core and you to the Rim.”

“And what do the Ari’tat have to say of this?”

“We see immense potential in establishing limited trade relationships with Rim races, if you would allow it.”

“Who does not like it?”

“The Oso’lon still wish you to be destroyed, but they cannot overrule Mak’to’ran now. He leads unopposed.”

“So much so that he cannot come here and discuss this in person?”

“He is needed on Itaru. His absence would have negative consequences.”

“If you are on the verge of another civil war, then this agreement could become moot.”

“That will not happen. Not so long as Mak’to’ran leads. The invasion from the Rim has assured this. He was proven correct, the Oso’lon were proven wrong. The empire is behind Mak’to’ran now.”

“Yet he asks them to do many things they do not wish to do.”

“The empire is healing, but old wounds do not mend fast. Our stability will grow when we are opposed by a common enemy, as of now. When the Rim Consortium fully withdraws and we have dealt with the others, internal issues will reassert themselves. We need to have this agreement fixed well before then so others can adapt to it while…distracted with combat.”

“And he also wants a demonstration as to what the Uriti are truly capable of?” Davis guessed.

“It would help to forestall the credibility of those who still call for your destruction. You have chosen not to assault V’kit’no’sat worlds. Some think that is because you are not capable of doing so, as foolish as that is. Evidence to the contrary would be useful, in a small way. Destroying the Li’vorkrachnika is the priority, however, and any witness of the Uriti’s destructive power is merely a beneficial side effect.”

“How many systems are currently in Tamprani?”

“1628, though several have already been lost to the Li’vorkrachnika…and one to you.”

Davis remembered back to when they had found the pyramid on Earth and had his first look at the V’kit’no’sat maps. He’d thought their empire only had around 2,000 system at that time and the regional capitol was their primary, because they only made maps based on layers. The pertinent worlds were marked, but all the irrelevant ones were omitted unless additional refinement was requested.

The full number of V’kit’no’sat systems back then, discovered after the Zak’de’ron had unlocked the database and Star Force had learned how to use it properly, had been more than half a million. Records on Tamprani alone had been more readily visible, but only the local region around Sol had been available on a complete map back in the beginning. And now, millennia later, he was being offered approximately the same number of systems he once though had comprised the entirety of the V’kit’no’sat’s unbeatable empire…as nothing more than a bargaining chip in negotiation.

He’d gained a lot for Star Force in the fall of the first Alliance, and then again during the fall of The Nexus. Now it seemed he was cleaning up more systems and races as the V’kit’no’sat hemorrhaged territory prior to their predicted collapse. Ambassador Nilhan did not know of the existence of the Zak’de’ron, but Mak’to’ran did, and he knew their far flung empire was weak against a focused attack on individual systems. So it seemed that Mak’to’ran was executing a controlled collapse of their most rimward territories and Star Force stood to benefit from it even more than what was allocated in the Armistice…if they fully engaged and destroyed the lizards.

That wasn’t going to be easy, but it was something that Star Force needed to do, for its own sake, and Mak’to’ran, despite his many faults, was a master negotiator. Mutual benefit was the name of the game, and he’d crafted this deal expertly…along with a dose of ‘I told you so’ by means of Star Force joining the V’kit’no’sat, in name only, as he’d similarly suggested long ago.

Davis stood up from his chair, walking around behind it, and stared at the Ari’tat as he rested his arms on the headrest from behind.

“This will require some finessing, but in principle, we accept.”

“Very good. I will send word to Mak’to’ran while we endeavor to come to an agreement on the finer details of our new relationship. And I will say, on a personal level, this is the way it should be. Independent as you are, we both originate from a common ancestry. Our fighting one another was never right.”

“It would have been nice if you figured that out long before now,” Davis quipped.

“An error on our part,” Nilhan admitted, hopping down from his chair to the floor where he stood and looked up at Davis. “I hope you can see the exchange of many of our worlds as a form of compensation. Is there anything else you require of me?”

“I need time to consider the ramifications of this agreement. Come back tomorrow and we can begin formulating the bounds of our limited interconnection.”

“Tomorrow I will return,” he said with a bob of his head, then turned and ran/walked out of Davis’s office as the Director headed back to his window view of the ocean. He had known Star Force needed to make a change, but he had not seen this coming. Mak’to’ran was afraid. Very afraid. And the thought of the current instability bringing forth the Zak’de’ron early was probably driving this generous offer. Then again, some of the races attacking the V’kit’no’sat might be doing so on the orders of the Zak’de’ron.

Mak’to’ran was desperate, but he was also savvy. This realignment would strengthen both the V’kit’no’sat and Star Force…as well as giving Davis the V’kit’no’sat races. It wasn’t quite as good as getting a batch of eggs from each, but they’d never allow that. Touching an egg was almost sacrilege for them, and allowing individuals to move from Core to Rim within the same empire was a workaround.

Mak’to’ran knew he had erred, and while this might also be part of his penance, Davis knew that Mak’to’ran needed Star Force to grow as large and fast and strong as possible for when the Zak’de’ron returned, because Davis knew they’d both have to fight simultaneously or be defeated singly. The wrath of the Zak’de’ron was coming, and if Davis let the V’kit’no’sat be destroyed then the Zak’de’ron would eventually turn on Star Force, for they would not allow a peer to exist, and Star Force had already grown beyond the bounds of a servant.

“Cousins it is then,” he said softly. “And the last one standing inherits the galaxy.”

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