1

October 19, 4826

Medforjet System (V’kit’no’sat territory on Star Force warfront)

Tivonmenk

Ronoken steadily ran through the V’kit’no’sat city on the colony world, watching the skies above him for sign of weapon strikes. A Star Force fleet was raiding the system, but it looked like they were not yet attacking the planet directly. As it was, only a partial defense shield was raised over the inhabited areas, but they were not attacking it nor even attempting a landing beyond its range. The V’kit’no’sat defense fleet was heavily engaged in combat, but not nearly as much as it would have liked, and Ronoken doubted the fighting would find its way down to him today.

No, the reason he was running was because he had received a summons to the command deck of the outpost and he had been on the far outskirts of the colony. The summons had come before the raid, and while others were being called into defensive positions his orders had not changed, so he continued at a decent pace so not to waste time while looking above with the enhanced vision his armor availed him.

Once again Star Force was striking at the V’kit’no’sat forward colony. They owned the system, having laid claim to six uninhabited worlds here that Star Force had passed over, but had been within their region of influence during the massive multipronged assault a decade ago. The enemy had lost many systems and in the chaos the V’kit’no’sat had claimed three right under their nose, subsequently building them up with a steady stream of supplies being sent out from the core, but Star Force had not let them build in comfort.

Small raids had been hampering their convoys, making them take extra defensive measures and drawing more ships away from the V’kit’no’sat harassing attacks up and down the Star Force border. Both sides in this war were poking at each other, with this current attack once again going after the orbital shipyards. It looked like they’d done some more damage, but the mass of construction infrastructure was still mostly intact. They couldn’t get to it in sufficient numbers without dragging themselves into a fight they could not win, so they’d been using guile and misdirection to get sniping shots at it and other bits of V’kit’no’sat property and ships within the system.

They’d soon be chased out again, assuming nothing else developed. There were too many V’kit’no’sat warships in the system for Star Force to take it…unless they were willing to open themselves up to a counterassault elsewhere. The Rit’ko’sor Sess’met, who was in charge of this region of the warfront, was playing an intricate game with the enemy and Star Force was obliging. Each were trying to find weaknesses to exploit in the other and Star Force had far more systems to defend. Right now the V’kit’no’sat had 3 beyond Terraxis, but the problem was all of them were new and none had even close to a full planetary shield.

Virtually all of Star Force’s worlds were heavily dug in, with full planetary shields that had multiple layers and many redundancies. Hammering through all of them was doable, but costly. Too costly for Sess’met, who had lost far less ships than the other 5 regional commanders on the front, but the Rit’ko’sor had yet to take another Star Force planet. All the others had, but even Ronoken could see that the V’kit’no’sat fleet could not sustain these constant exchanges unless more reinforcements were coming…and by his count, very few new warships were arriving in the convoys. Most were cargo ships that left as soon as they’d deposited their valuable loads, the most recent of which had put the final touches on the outpost here.

It was the smallest version the V’kit’no’sat made, a small pyramid barely large enough to hold a herd of Oso’lon, but it was covered with Yeg’gor armor and a very small Tar’vem’jic. Its kill power was less than conventional Var’ko, whose needle thin beams could breach event the heaviest of shields with their pinpoint deposit of energy. The Tar’vem’jic here, having been test fired only recently, produced a beam equally as thin and less damaging, for it was not as compact…crazy as that sounded. Var’ko were very dense per their design but far less expensive to produce than Tar’vem’jic.

As it was, the V’kit’no’sat had to import the exotic weapon components from the heart of their empire, for they didn’t have the production facilities here or even on Terraxis. Other than the symbolic nature of a Tar’vem’jic, which was significant, the tactical advantage was the range, which far surpassed the Var’ko and anything that Star Force had. That meant the outpost could poke beyond the enemy’s firing range and own orbit above them. Something badly needed in an infantile system such as this.

The other two colonies had not been granted such an outpost, and it was seen as a reward for Sess’met’s efforts…as well as underscoring that this was going to be a very long campaign and that patience would better suit the V’kit’no’sat than brashness. Holding their footholds was more important than taking worlds at this point.

That was the word going through the Zen’zat here, with Ronoken being the third highest ranked in this campaign and the highest assigned to this colony and Sess’met’s assault region…which included the Medforjet System and a large swath of Star Force territory along their border. The three regional commanders that did not have defensive duties were typically in the field leading their fleets in action against the enemy, but Sess’met chose to remain here to conduct his strategic war against Star Force, and it was he who had sent the summons to Ronoken.

By the time the Zen’zat got to the command deck the raiders had been driven off and he could see damage statistics floating in hologram. It wasn’t much, but with these repetitive attacks even the slightest setbacks added up…and that was the exact same strategy the V’kit’no’sat were employing against Star Force, only doing so far more effectively, making this raid more annoying than anything else.

Sess’met wasn’t visible on the command deck, which was full of individuals from 9 different races plus a lot of Zen’zat attendants buzzing around. Most weren’t warriors, and one that was an analyst telepathically signaled to him with a mental pointer towards a nearby chamber.

Ronoken sent an acceptance ping back and went where directed, finding the Rit’ko’sor inside what was psionically shielded walls, for he couldn’t detect his presence until he walked through the threshold of the door that folded closed behind him, combining multiple shards down into a single solid lump of synthetic rock.

“Persistent, aren’t they?” Sess’met said in his low, but melodic voice that was typical of his race. “I only wish others in our empire had such strategic sense. These Archons are truly a threat, and one we must squash before they grow any more powerful. Tell me why.”

“Their unearned use of psionics is abhorrent.”

“Abhorrent? Elaborate.”

“It is an unbalance. Zen’zat of equal skill I could easily defeat, but Archons of that level can evade with perpetuity. Ubven is too much of an advantage.”

“Are you more upset that they have not earned it, or the fact that no Zen’zat ever has?”

Ronoken looked down slightly into the Rit’ko’sor’s green eyes. “I do not understand why we were never told it existed.”

“Those who are worthy will uncover it.”

“Even Ironnsey never did,” Ronoken pointed out, citing the legendary Zen’zat from before the Les’i’kron culling.

“Because he wasn’t worthy.”

“How can he and the other masters not be worthy?”

“Because they did not trigger the ascensions as the Archons did.”

“They cheated.”

“Did they?”

“I was told all of them get the psionics.”

“But how do they get them?”

“They share through some bastardized Ikrid link.”

“So our intelligence has said. I admit, that may not be fully true, or could even be disinformation granted for our sake, but for the moment assume it is as rumored to be. How can they share what none of them have attained? At least one must have triggered the ascension in order to then share it with the others. If that is true, then there is at least one Archon that did what Ironnsey and the others of your kin never have…and that is why they are so dangerous. They are young and accomplishing what you have not.”

“They cannot be. It must be through technological intervention.”

“Possible. How many Archons have you personally killed?”

“26 solo kills, and I have had a hand in at least 12 others.”

“At least?”

“Their armor is difficult to distinguish from their Commandos at times.”

“And their Knights? How many have you killed?”

“I have not kept count.”

“How were you able to kill their Archons?”

“Their bodies are physically weak, like young Zen’zat.”

“Lachka kills?”

“No. They also possess Rentar.”

“And their Knights?”

“Very few possess psionics.”

“Why do you suppose that is?”

“I do not know. Their divisions make no sense.”

Sess’met shoot his head back and forth three times, staring at the ground as he did so. “So little you understand. So little you all understand. This is why they are dangerous. They do not confine themselves to doing what they are told. Why have no Zen’zat achieved Ubven? Because they were not looking for it. Even now that it has been revealed to exist, none of you can earn it. You are regimented, and against strategists you are easy to defeat. If not for our numbers Star Force would have won this war long ago.”

“Your words border on treason. I assume you have some rationale for them?”

“Thinking is not treason. I know treason. I committed it long ago. This is not treason. This is me adapting to a dangerous threat that, if allowed to persist, will grow ever more powerful. We must reduce their empire faster than they can expand rimward…but that is not why I have called you here. Zyrnox has assigned me a task far beyond the war zone, and I require your skills.”

“Tell me.”

“These Archons think beyond what Zen’zat do. They have smaller size than their Knights, which are equivalent to you yet have no psionics. Why? Because they are specializing. They do not intend to fight you strength for strength. They know there are Zen’zat far stronger and older than they are, thus they have taken a different path. One of evasion, guile, and superiority. Not one of ego. Reducing their size, or rather maintaining their reduced size, limits their already limited psionic tissue further. No Zen’zat would want that, so you must stop thinking of them as Zen’zat.”

“Then what does an Archon want?”

“The Archons are meant to lead, Zen’zat are meant to serve. Their Commandos and Knights serve, but in their empire only a few have psionics. Those few have more than you or I, but most of their empire does not. They have built psionic dampeners into their armor to negate most of the effects, allowing lesser personnel to combat you.”

“I kill them far too easy. Why not give them psionics to at least slow us down?”

“As I said, they have charted a separate path. One that I do not fully comprehend, but they are not mad. They are savvy, and your mission is to illuminate another facet of that intelligence. There is a world deep within their borders that we have little information on. It is forbidden to the public and only has limited travel, but rumor says that there are unusual Human forms on it. Zyrnox believes they may be experimenting with their form in order to combat their genetic deficiencies.”

“What deficiencies?”

“Zen’zat are forbidden from reproducing. It is not simply a rule, but the way you are designed. The upgrades are not meant to be passed on, so it is highly likely that there are deficiencies and even malfunctions occurring within the Humans. Their size is an indicator of this. Yours has come from growth enhancements. Those enhancements were apparently not passed on to their offspring. Their Knights are a remedy for this, but they have not made the transition for their entire race. We believe they are still experimenting and have not found a final solution.”

“Reconnaissance then?”

“Partially. You will accompany an infiltration team, but they will have a separate mission from yours. You are to operate alone, kill and sabotage what you can without hindering yourself. You must remain alive and return to me with the information, so do not overestimate your abilities or underestimate theirs. Be cautious and conservative, and probe this mystery world for its secrets while the others cause more havoc. I want them to be wary of our interference anywhere in their empire, but I do not want you caught.”

“How will we infiltrate their world?”

“A new class of scout ship has the ability to defeat their sensors and deposit you on the planet. Their shields should not be up constantly, so you will drop in, conduct your mission, then return without drawing major attention.”

“Is there something specific I am to look for?”

“Your psionics were never meant to be a reproductive legacy. The Humans have not passed on those they have activated, and we believe they may be attempting to do so now. Investigate possible subdivisions within their race created for research purposes. Subdivisions we have not yet encountered. Above that, use your instincts and explore. We cannot get a war fleet that far without encountering resistance, so your only defense will be stealth. Do not squander it. I am sending you because I know you can handle small scale combat if needed. Do not let it escalate beyond that.”

“You want tissue samples?”

“I want as much information as you can give me however you are capable of providing it. Star Force has already proved it can make more of Zen’zat genetics than our empire has. We should not let them explore beyond and further imbalance that which was carefully crafted long ago.”

“I will investigate this heresy gladly. Will this other team be under my command? Will we travel together or parallel?”

“They are meant to draw resources away from the front. Either by sabotaging production or by forcing more security to be diverted to the distant planets in their territory. They are yours to command, but I want you doing your exploring solo. That will necessitate comm silence once you are on the ground. As for your transport, you will be traveling to the surface in multiple gunships. I do not want to risk stranding you by using only one.”

“How small a team?”

“I will let you determine that. Choose from whom you like, but they are not to be elite. Only capable.”

“They are meant to return?”

“They are, if they can withhold their bloodlust. I need indirect damage.”

“I understand. I will choose wisely and abide by this edict. Information you will have, along with what small disruptions I can personally make.”

“Good. The scout ship is ready and waiting in hangar 18, crew aboard. Leave at your convenience.”

“I will not take long assembling a team, but how thorough an investigation of this world do you wish?”

“Time is of no importance. Genetic development takes millennia. I simply wish to know what it is they are doing…or attempting to do.”

“I will requisition ample supplies then. Do I also have leave for personal stealth gear?”

“Of course. You will not be able to evade them without it.”

“Did Zyrnox give you a deadline to meet?”

“No…and he has granted me discretion in how I obtain the information. I have chosen you. Please prove my choice to be wise.”

“It is. I will not fail,” he said, taking a brief knee. “By your leave, Commander?”

“Proceed,” Sess’met said, with the Zen’zat rising and making haste to leave the chamber and begin his mission. Zen’zat weren’t the best when it came to deep scouting missions, but Ronoken was not an average Zen’zat. He was one of their elite, and smart enough to use caution when caution was required. And if he did succeed in this mission, Sess’met intended to use him in a similar role elsewhere. Grooming Zen’zat was a tedious task, and this mission, important in and of itself, would make for good field training.

Tiparen like Ronoken were rare, being the fourth level of 6 within Zen’zat skill hierarchy, but they weren’t irreplaceable. Sess’met favored his return, but if he proved to be inferior then he’d simply send another and another until one succeeded, even if he had to reach down into the Tamrenor ranks to find more recruits.

Teaching the antiquated V’kit’no’sat empire how to fight in new ways was a tedious task, especially since the Rit’ko’sor had gotten used to doing everything on their own without any Zen’zat, but if he was going to successfully help Zyrnox wipe out this infestation of heretics he was going to have to rely on them and their hapless masters…for he wasn’t going to get so much as a single Rit’ko’sor ship out here in support.

A pity that, but it was what it was, and the Rit’ko’sor needed this victory to increase their standing in the empire…which was almost as low as it had been before the rebellion, but they were on the rise and Mak’to’ran had made it clear there was a path for racial ascension if they proved themselves worthy.

Sess’met just wished he didn’t have to deal with all these other inferior races in order to prove it.

Ronoken assembled his team quickly, gathering 18 other Zen’zat, all level 2 Zardaku that could easily handle the Star Force regular troops and would be an even match for most of their Archons in single combat…but he chose individuals with high evasion and stealth skills and had them onboard a modified Kaeper-class vessel. The hull was covered in obvious paneling that told him it contained a cloaking device and was ill suited for battle, but so far as he knew even their best cloaking device had enough of a detection window for Star Force to see at close range or high intensity sensor scans.

It wasn’t until he was onboard and enroute to the system’s central star did he get the answer from the Ari’tat crew as to why this ship was different. The cloaking system had not been upgraded, and while absorbing almost all signals would send false images out to mimic light and other emissions passing through their position so they wouldn’t register as a dark spot when backlit by a star or planet.

This was a big upgrade to the basic null field technology, but it wasn’t perfect. A careful look could detect discrepancies and previous attempts at fooling Star Force had been mostly unsuccessful with regard to insertions anywhere near a luminous source, including planetary reflectivity.

The difference here was that the cloaking field did not have to leave a bandwidth to navigate through. This Kaeper would be traveling totally blind, making it even harder to detect by the enemy. They could still use their gravity drive to detect where planets and stars were and avoid them, but they couldn’t see anything else and might very well ram another ship…except that this scout vessel had a new sensor in it that would allow them to detect the position of other gravity drives, as well as artificial gravity fields.

That meant the Kaeper could fly blind and avoid the Star Force infrastructure at the same time. Atmospheric insertion would still be tricky, but even a simply probe the size of Ronoken’s finger floating on anti-grav could be detected and avoided. What the name of the new sensor was he wasn’t allowed to know, but the Ari’tat assured him that it had proven successful multiple times in recent history and had only come into existence within the past 30 or so years…a product of new V’kit’no’sat research.

Meaning it was technology that Star Force did not have blueprints of…and that was key to their insertion into the Tauriel System weeks later when they exited their jump blind to everything but a field of dots that had replaced their sensor board.

The big two were the stars at system center, with another large one further out that was the blue/white giant in this trinary system. Around it were smaller ones for the inhabited planets, but the bright pinpricks were the return signals for the enemy ships and stations.

It took a long time for the system scan to return, with the gravity fields being picked up immediately but the new sensor contacts coming later. Using those positions the Ari’tat pilots kept the fully cloaked Kaeper far from them, taking a long, laborious path through the middle of nowhere to get to their destination planet.

There they avoided orbital stations and starships, dropships coming up and down through the atmosphere, and anything else with a gravity drive. The Kaeper couldn’t see what was what, and it really didn’t matter. Wherever there was a dot there was danger, so they steered clear of it after taking a tiny peek out through the cloak at range to make sure the planetary shields were not raised.

They weren’t, and there was no cause for them to be sucking up enormous amounts of power when not under battle conditions. With the door confirmed open they fully shut the cloak against all known signal forms and proceeded in towards the planet, dodging the mystery signals and eventually encountering resistance from the atmosphere.

They slowed immediately, coming to a full stop so not to create turbulence that could be spotted. There they released the stealth gunships, giving them their last bit of sensor telemetry. Remembering the locations of the Star Force infrastructure, the gunships took turns leaving so not to hit each other and moved down to the planet’s surface, not knowing exactly where it was until a Pefbar cone from the pilot finally picked it up. Nestling down along it, the gunships slowly peeled back a layer on the cloak so they could see where they were and what was outside.

Ronoken’s was in rocky terrain with sporadic trees and no sign of Star Force infrastructure or people. The gunship waited patiently for more than a day to make sure they had made it to ground undetected, then it repositioned to a nearby location at a crawl, nudging itself down next to a sheer cliff where no one would be passing through. There it dropped off Ronoken, with him wearing a cloaking field of his own and looking up into the sky through the invisible ship. There was a tiny hint of distortion betraying its presence, but had he not know what he was looking at he could easily have missed it.

Soon the distortion moved and he lost track of the ship as it headed off towards the equatorial region where most of the Star Force infrastructure was. He’d decided to drop off here and explore the small settlements nearby…if 150 miles counted as ‘nearby,’ but he wanted to take no chances. His team had his orders and his blessing to carry them out in a way they saw fit, but their gunships would drop them off then find a nice cozy place to park and wait for the pre-arranged pickup windows, for no comm traffic would work when the cloaking fields were fully up, and even if they could their signals could be detected by Star Force.

They had to be ghosts here…and vengeful ones at that. But first Ronoken needed to find out what was on this planet before he started to kill anything, and that was going to take some time.

A lot of time, in fact, so he set off across the landscape navigating by only his Pefbar to make his cloaking field work more efficiently as he headed towards one of the odd cities they’d picked up further to the south. They didn’t match the normal Star Force design, but then again the gunship couldn’t do a scan to know for sure. All they had was a basic image and outline on the horizon, plus the new sensor pings from that location that showed a fair amount of anti-grav devices clustered in a haphazard fashion.

Ronoken didn’t know what they were, but he intended to find out cautiously. Kills didn’t matter on this mission if they got him caught, and Sess’met had trusted him with getting and returning the necessary information. With no time limit on his return he decided to take this very slow, knowing that soon there would be activity along the equatorial belt to draw Star Force’s attention while he quietly slipped in and started to dig up whatever he could on the rumored genetic research heresies taking place here.

If he had to run across half the planet to find them he would, and he had plenty of time. This war wasn’t going to be ending anytime soon, and this mission came from the campaign commander himself. That meant it was of the utmost importance and Ronoken had no intentions of letting Zyrnox, Sess’met, or the empire down due to reckless haste. Patience would prevail here, so he set his mind to that mode and started off, not knowing where he would end up, but knowing the first place he was going to start looking for heretics.

2

February 9, 4827

Tauriel System (Seon Region)

Eoxion

Jessica Avril sat with her bare left leg hanging over the armrest on her ice-like thrown as she sat on it mentally flipping through holograms via the advanced mental interface that all Monarchs now had access to thanks to their Ikrid psionic. The chill of the room tickled her skin from head to toe as she sat naked and exposed…a trick she’d learned long ago to help break mental blocks, and she was full force into one right now.

The throne chamber was empty, and despite the encircling, majestic windows no one could see inside. This was the Duke’s personal version of an office as well as a conference room, patterned off of fantasy lore that she was fond of, but it was also her private sanctum where she did most of her creative work.

And that’s what her responsibilities were…creation. It was joked that the Monarchs were the gods of creation while the Archons were the gods of destruction, and while there was some truth in that, it did the Archons a disservice. They had built quite a lot of the Star Force empire, but their responsibilities didn’t lie solely there as hers did. So when they hit a mental roadblock they could always switch gears and go blow something up, whereas she couldn’t afford to waste such time outside her duties.

Jessica had her own physical training where she could blow off steam, but unlike the military she didn’t spend more than 40 minutes on it per day and her morning session was already over. That left the rest of the day with administerial duties that her immediate subordinates were handling while she focused on big picture issues…though right now she was browsing through the smaller details, essentially looking over their virtual shoulders as she was stuck on her own work.

In past years, when she got really brain locked, Jessica had taken a walk up in the mountains visible outside the windows of her command ‘castle,’ on top of which her royal chambers were located. She’d walked out amongst the snow and rock and then disrobed, letting the frozen air of the southern pole soak into her and reset her mind all the while using her Rensiek to avoid actually freezing. One time she’d walked over 30 miles before inspiration had hit her, and she really did need to get away from everything for a while, there just wasn’t time.

She controlled far more than this planet, on which she’d placed her own personal ‘capitol’ in her assigned territory, and had a total of 18 systems under her care. There were lesser Monarchs in some of them, but the overall interaction of their economies was her responsibility…as was their defense, supply lines, trade routes, resource acquirement, resource allocation, infrastructure development, shipyards, commerce markets, etc. The responsibilities of a Monarch were virtually without end, and much of what she was doing out here far beyond the warfront was work that she could do in her sleep because she’d already done it many times before.

She’d been the Duke of Epsilon Eridani for more than 3 centuries before it finally fell to the V’kit’no’sat, and before that she’d been the Marquis of Clan Stark under the de facto tutelage of trailblazer Will-052. Both assignments had been stepping into the shoes of another Monarch that had moved on to another task, but the growth rate of the Clans had taught her much about improvising, for Will had been relentless in his pursuit of expansion and advancements, and the other Marquises who she’d been in regular contact with had said the same of their trailblazers.

But her assignment now wasn’t carrying on what someone else had started. After Epsilon Eridani had fallen she’d been reassigned to another system far from the ADZ where she’d temporarily helped facilitate the massive evacuation exodus that had occurred.

After that Director Davis had given her this more important assignment all the way out in the Seon Region. It was deep into the territory that had once belonged to The Nexus, and when Jessica had first taken up residence on this uninhabited world it had been on the back border. Not so anymore, for Star Force had pressed rimward much farther by now and Seon Region itself was moving towards dead center within what was now their territory, with Grid Point Seon being the namesake and central transit hub with 7 different routes out to other Grid Points.

Jessica didn’t have control over them all, and Seon itself was not hers, but she did have Grid Point Natam and shared access to Grid Point Soti, which was a main trading hub for the Zezdi…and they were the source of her current mental block.

She had 4 different full races under her stewardship, 3 of which were single system entities and all wards…which was the lowest of 4 tiers within Star Force regarding the size and responsibilities of pieces of the empire.

A Ward was a race or civilization that was taken into Star Force as a guest, with few or no responsibilities. Star Force was taking care of them and in exchange the ward was giving up all sovereignty and joining the empire under Star Force’s terms. The three that Jessica had were in bad shape initially, one of which was near starvation and had to have years of foodstuff supply convoys coming in from other Monarchs to sustain them enough to even begin rebuilding.

Not that they had done much. She’d had a Kiritak crew come in and build new habitats for them, including bioharvest facilities that her trainers eventually taught the Vadi to operate themselves. They were a mix between refugees and younglings and even today still required a great deal of handholding, which was accomplished by others she’d recruited into colonies built on their worlds. Those colonies were not part of the wards, but rather classified as Axius save for one standalone Kiritak colony she’d maintained.

They were what kept her 3 wards…the Vadi, the Onoskat, and the Wenat…alive and functioning, as well as giving her a few exports to the rest of her small fiefdom that was composed of the multi-system race known as the Zezdi. They were not a ward, but rather a sub-faction, which was the third tier of civilization within Star Force.

The second tier was known as Beacon, with the civilizations in it being more responsible for themselves but not able to stand alone. Rather they were groomed to contribute via specialties, with the Beacon faction being a combination of hundreds of these races that supported each other and made up for their respective weaknesses.

A Sub-faction had no weaknesses. Sure, they might have areas they weren’t that great at, but they could stand on their own without having to have imports in order to survive. They had to have a military that could help defend beyond their own borders and have a robust enough internal economy and infrastructure to stand on its own if the rest of Star Force suddenly disappeared.

The highest level was a Faction, and they were the pillars on which the empire was built. Mainline was the original, and was the name for the bulk of Humanity. The Calavari, Bsidd, Kiritas, H’kar, and 19 others held that lofty position. Canderous, populated entirely by Humans, was technically a sub-faction, but Jessica wished she had even a fraction of their strength. The Zezdi were far inferior, and in some ways even less powerful that some of the larger wards.

The problem with them was that they hadn’t started out as a ward or a member of Beacon. They were one of the original members of The Nexus that had essentially been abandoned during the collapse of this region and Star Force hadn’t been able to get to them in time. They’d suffered over 70% population losses and had their territory chopped in half before more than a few Archon-led warships were able to assist them.

Jessica had been brought in as soon as the situation was stabilized and no longer a warzone, and while she’d been able to bring them back from the brink of collapse she’d had to use their own methods for most of it. Transitioning them over to Star Force technology and methods was a headache, and despite the hard earned progress she’d dragged them through to this point they had to make a big change and she didn’t know how in the world she was going to make it happen.

She’d been weening them off their previous culture slowly, but there was an impasse that had formed. They reproduced via a process known as Atroki, which had their younglings literally attached to their bodies as they grew on the exterior…and they were conscious in the latter stages, carried around observing and learning, even talking, prior to reaching semi-adult status and finally disconnecting.

That made the traditional Star Force maturia a moot point and Jessica had been using modified versions of the Zezdi’s current nurturing system to inject some Star Force mojo into their society, but it wasn’t enough. They had to get over this hurdle to take on bigger challenges ahead, and she still wasn’t sure how to go about it. Medtechs had told her it was theoretically possible to make alterations to their biology so they would be released earlier, or more complicated and bold changes to have them develop within eggs or even biotech surrogates.

All of that would have to developed, tested, and refined…and she wasn’t sure if that was the way to go. If it was she needed to get started now, because altering their population was a long term process, for the new births would be the foundation for the future of their race while current ‘holdovers’ would only be used as transitional population. She’d give them a chance to convert to whatever form the Zezdi ended up in, but her and other Monarchs’ experience said that few would want to.

That meant the future would be built on younglings that didn’t exist yet, and she needed to get a baseline establish on which to build, otherwise everything she was doing now was just more temporary crap. Jessica desperately wanted to jettison their former culture and infrastructure…the latter of which she was already working hard on…but until she could deal with this reproductive issue there was a long list of things she could not do and it was driving her nuts.

Their development was her responsibility, and it was one that she knew she couldn’t fail at…and not just because the Zezdi were depending on her. That was the primary reason, of course, but guiding the redesign of annexed civilizations used to be an Archon thing. The factions within Star Force had been fashioned by the trailblazers, but with the increasing number of races in the empire that task was falling more and more to the Monarchs while the trailblazers were focused mostly on defending against the V’kit’no’sat on the coreward front and fighting/expanding on the rimward one against lots of smaller, but still dangerous enemies.

As it was, there were now 372 races at sub-faction level or above and well over 2,000 races, all of which she couldn’t name from memory, that were at least ward status. The full number of different races, when including Axius and the individuals there, was beyond 12,000 and rising with every year as more refugees found their way across the stars to their empire or the empire expanded out to them.

But there were even more races within Star Force territory that were not aligned with them. They were neighbors, in essence, and more or less under Star Force’s protection. There were two within Jessica’s region that she had to look after…not on a managing front, but in the way of keeping other races from beyond coming in and attacking them. Other than that, there was no contact with her neighbors, though many others more advanced traded with Star Force all the time, and some of the produce from the Tauriel System was being put on the public markets that those neighbors accessed.

The Tauriel System was not a part of the Zezdi, thankfully, but a fresh colony built by Jessica that was considered Mainline but had a lot of cross play with the Kiritak, who were providing the bulk crews for the shipyards and mines as the Human population gradually increased, both from local births and immigration.

That Mainline colony was her other responsibility, and the key piece of her assignment that Davis had chosen her for. On this planet the colony was built up across the desert terrain of the equator, but beyond that they were forbidden from traveling save from her southern polar city. Everywhere else on the planet was a research project that she was babysitting for Davis and the Trailblazers. She chimed in on it where appropriate, but her primary task was to watch for problems and keep everyone else away from the denizens. They needed isolation, and she was to provide it, but she kept close personal ties with them and a pinging hologram suddenly broke her mental funk as it reminded her of the Ascension ceremony she need to attend.

The Duke sighed. “Oh well, I’m not making any headway here,” she said, swinging her left leg off the fake-ice armrest and letting her bare foot smack the hard crystalline floor with a tiny ‘plop’ of soft flesh as she dismissed the array of holograms with a simple thought.

Jessica sat there for a moment, closing her eyes and running through a meditative cleansing routine…forcing all thoughts out of her head for a few seconds then stabilizing the blankness on a single thought as her brain returned to her surroundings, letting go of whatever had been consuming her and almost forcing herself to forget it.

She glanced down at her naked body, and in particular her soft breasts that were clean and clear of any markings. Her entire body was, in fact, whereas many others chose to adorn themselves with genetic tattoos or altered colorations. She’d experimented with different skin and hair colors during her life, but it hadn’t lasted long. She’d found she preferred her natural pale skin and blonde hair, keeping it simple and pure like the ice fields beyond the windows.

Jessica actually stood out in that regard, for ‘normal’ had almost become rare. Jessica could get any part of her altered with a simple stop to a med bay, and if she went to the equator of this world and walked the public areas she could see people with checkered squares of skin covering them from head to toe, girls with fully pink skin and sparkles instead of freckles, or even people with pitch black coloration that made them look like walking shadows. Others had glowing eyes or fingernails, let alone the vast amount of tattoos, text or otherwise, that were programmed into their genetic code and grow from within rather than applied externally.

Normal now stood out, either as a choice or a fact of laziness. Those people who chose to do nothing more than lounge around for their lives after graduating from a maturia didn’t have access to the genetic alterations. Those had to be earned or purchased, but it wasn’t expensive and most people got some alteration done as soon as they could as a mark of status. The limitations were imposed so the medtechs weren’t swamped with people wanting to change colors or tattoos every other hour, and if people did even a few years of work for Star Force they could get a limited amount of alterations done per month indefinitely, meaning that almost everyone had something, even if it was just a few dots here or there.

Staring down at her thin and mildly fit body Jessica wondered if she should make some admirer’s day and hop into bed with him…but no. She didn’t need her head any more muddied than it was now, and the Archons were right in avoiding such things. Jessica hadn’t indulged in decades, but her current predicament was making her consider doing a lot of stupid ideas…including going over to the window and banging her head on it until she came up with something new.

Tempting as that was, she knew she just had to keep working the problem until an epiphany hit her and maybe a change of venue would help. The Ascension ceremony was taking place at Lake Nessi…so named by Trailblazer Page-071 who’d been helping with Project Legolas…and Jessica figured she was one of a rare few who actually got the joke of it.

Times changed, and her job as Monarch was to make sure those changes were beneficial for the empire, and more specifically the Zezdi, but remembering the root cause for the name ‘Lake Nessi’ made her feel lonely. Few peers she had left from back then, most of whom were now out in the galaxy as Monarchs or Archons wielding powers that kept them separated from one another.

Jessica reached back and grabbed the collar of the cape she was sitting on, triggering it to reach up and wrap around her body, transforming into one of her many elegant ‘Ice Queen’ wardrobes that covered her slender form from toe to neck. A thinner cape remained and flowed through the air as she rose and walked across the large chamber, her shoes clicking on the crystal floor as she looked at the ring on the middle finger of her right hand. The little white thing was more than jewelry, but she’d had it fashioned for more than just security. It was also a reminder.

“To bear a ring of power,” she whispered as she approached the ice-like door that stood twice her height on the far side of the royal chamber, “is to be alone.”

Alone amongst a sea of people…that was the Monarch way, for a guide had to keep their eyes ahead, not behind, otherwise those following them would be lost. And with your gaze fixed ahead, you could see no one behind you, leaving your mind fixed on the upcoming challenges and dangers, hoping you could navigate them before they could engager those under your care.

Jessica touched the door and it responded, pulling back against her fingers as if she had glued them to it. On the other side was more traditional Star Force architecture, but still with a fantasy bent woven into it.

“Ready my skiff,” she told a waiting guard/pilot.

“What destination?”

“Lake Nessi,” the Duke answered without breaking step. “I need to be there in three hours.”

3

The outside of the ice-smooth command center opened up near the peak but just below the royal chambers, exposing an internal hangar bay with a boat-like craft slowly creeping out. On it stood Jessica and her pilot, protected beneath a clear energy shield that would stop both wind and weaponsfire, but otherwise they were standing in open air inside a short rim railing on the Duke’s personal skiff.

It accelerated quickly, cutting through the air with its pointed bow while gaining enough height to get over the surrounding mountains as they headed north…though technically any direction was north from the southern pole…as they headed across terrain that would eventually thaw to reveal huge plains outlines by a multitude of rivers, most of which flowed north into a huge lake that circled half the planet.

That was Lake Nessi, their destination, and while a total of 11,429 miles long, at its thickest it was only 112 wide. Beyond it the terrain transitioned into forests that eventually bled off into sand seas. Those eventually tapered off near the equator, leaving nothing but hard baked, dry rocky ground that was more or less uninhabitable if you wanted to live outdoors. That was where the Mainline colony was, living inside of cities much as they would on a totally airless world, though Eoxion was quite the reverse. It boasted an atmosphere thicker than Earth’s and a gravity of 1.2 that tugged on Jessica now that they were outside her castle.

Technically it was the anti-grav in the skiff that was holding her feet to the deck plates inside the IDF that kept her from feeling the acceleration and turns, but the skiff was programmed to mimic the gravity effect on it, so now it was in the heavier natural environment and adjusting accordingly. The Duke stood for a long time, watching the terrain pass below them as they zipped across hundreds of miles of it before the ice fields finally disappeared.

Eventually Jessica sat on a padded bench as she watched the uninterrupted ‘natural’ environment around her. Civilization was the enemy of nature, but ‘natural’ had several definitions. One was organic, and the planet fit mostly into that category with the select bits of infrastructure contained to organized areas. Another definition was survival of the fittest, which was totally darkside. People being born into situations where they had to kill and eat each other was abhorrent, and civilization fought against that by producing surplus food stores that didn’t come from other people’s body parts.

If you were born into a civilization you didn’t have to kill to eat and survive, but true civilization didn’t just pick out a corner of the galaxy and huddle there while others were suffering from ‘nature’. Of the many native races to this planet, most no longer had to kill to eat because Star Force also fed them. Seeds for the birds, grown and laid out across long fields were occasionally visible to Jessica on the plains, though they didn’t fly over any of them directly.

They did fly by many flocks of differing varieties, not worried about hitting them at speed because of the deflection shields that would gently push them out of the way rather than kill them on impact…but the native birds were usually good about giving them room and the skiff passed by without incident all the way up to the edge of Lake Nessi.

It was easy to spot, for the bank had no trees along this side, only grasses. Some of them grew as tall as trees now that they’d been modified, but the lake was so big even they could not hide it on the horizon for long.

The light of three suns made the reflections on the calm surface a kaleidoscope of flashes that soon surrounded the skiff as they moved out over the water at some 450 meters of altitude as they curved to the right and began to follow the lake. Jessica looked down, seeing from above some of the subsurface habitats on the lake floor, for the water was so clear that when you got an angle that didn’t have reflected sunlight you could see almost all the way down.

It got quite deep farther out, but in the shallows the clusters of habitats were easily visible but not common. Most of the lake was just…lake, but every now and then she’d see another village much like where they were headed. Had they been late they would have flown a direct line, but so long as they had some extra time she liked to take more of a tour over these areas that she rarely set foot in but was tasked to take care of.

Eventually, after traveling over a 1,000 miles of lake, the skiff came upon a city that was first below the water, with many subsurface habitat buildings appearing below Jessica, but they eventually transitioned into a large cluster that rose high into the air and had bridges out to both sides of the lake on one of the thinnest portions of it, barely 8 miles wide.

This functioned as one of their embassies, of sorts, for Project Legolas had different factions that lived mostly separate from one another, but for some occasions they needed to interact and rare cities such as this one were built for those activities.

Ascension ceremonies were rare, occurring once every 2 years if there was any cause to have them. Today there were not one, but 5 individuals ascending and Jessica had made it a point long ago to always be there where it happened and make a personal connection with the altered Humans born into this world rather than choosing to immigrate.

Davis had explained to her long ago that the basic maturia system was based off of taking chaos and turning it into a semblance of order…but that such things carried with them inherent disadvantages and eventually Star Force would have to find another way. Not an abandonment of the maturias, but a change none the less. Project Legolas was the Director’s primary research experiment into that distant future, and even he had said he didn’t know what would come of it.

The idea was to venture forth and troubleshoot as you went, but that required a population closed off from the rest of the empire without making them prisoners. There was an out for them, if they wished, and a few of them had taken it even though it meant a removal of their psionic birthright.

Jessica’s pilot brought the skiff in to a landing pedestal on the top of the cloud-like puffy architecture as a few fliers approached and gave them an unnecessary escort. They waved at the Duke and she waved and smiled back, seeing the four Sky Elves’ clothes whipping in the wind as they paced the skiff. Her own hair wasn’t moving a bit under the energy screen, but they had no such protection, marking them as first tier and unascended…which was why they were having trouble keeping pace with the skiff, but as it slowed they caught back up and followed them down like attentive children until they came near the proper honor guard.

They shooed themselves off before the others could and the skiff proceeded the last few hundred meters by itself before it landed amongst columns of four different breeds of Elf, three of which were standing on the landing deck, while the Sky Elves were hovering using their Yen’mer psionic in a perfect ring around the landing area.

On the ground were the three Clans/breeds that could not fly, but who each had their own special attributes, and each had an individual here for the ascension. The Sky Elves did not, but since they had enclaves spread across the planet they were always here as witnesses when there was an ascension ceremony while the other breeds were not.

There were 8 in total, with those here today being the Fire Elves, Water Elves, and Wood Elves. The others not present were the Ice Elves, Sand Elves, Earth Elves, and Stone Elves, but this location was open to all of them while technically being in Water Elf territory. There was no rivalry or competition between them, but they did keep to themselves as Davis had originally intended, allowing for 8 different tracks of genetic development as Star Force studied the passage of psionics and other traits from generation to generation.

Zen’zat had never been intended to reproduce, and their genetic code…which was inherited by Humans including Jessica…was not tailored to improvement. Her own psionics had laid dormant within her until awoken rather than being refined by her ancestors one generation after another as the V’kit’no’sat races did.

The Archons, Arc Knights, and Arc Commandos also reflected this, not being allowed to reproduce and transfer active genetics to offspring that were never designed to inherit them. What problems Humanity had had when it first began were lost to time, but Davis had said his best medtechs theorized a lot of problems that had eventually led Humanity to its former state…which was essentially broken Zen’zat. Minor modifications had been made to Star Force over the years to plug some of the holes, but the idea of an entire population with psionics and those psionics being tuned over the generations was something new to Star Force…and dangerous, which was why Project Legolas was being conducted in secret and away from everyone else.

All the Elves before Jessica as she stepped off the skiff were born with telepathy strong enough to communicate with their mothers while still being in the womb. Almost all V’kit’no’sat reproduced via eggs, but the few that did not did not have their younglings with telepathy activated until a later stage of development. Many of the egg layers did and could communicate in a limited fashion with them before they hatched.

Davis hadn’t known what would happen if unborn Human babies had their minds linked to their mothers in such a fashion, for no Human or Zen’zat had ever been born with it. They’d all developed with a ‘silent’ mind then gained the telepathy later while many V’kit’no’sat races did not. They could hear and feel the others while they developed, and the dynamics of that sort of civilization was something superior to Star Force and inexplicable even with their access to the descriptions in the old pyramid database. Humans didn’t have enough common experience to understand, and even the most powerful Archons in telepathy still couldn’t make sense out of everything denoted.

While Jessica had never given birth herself, she’d been told by others that did that the Elves’ births were much easier because they could coordinate with their babies when the time came for their removal. A downside was the fact that the mother needed to stay with the infant for a great deal of time afterward to lessen the transitional discomfort, for after having another’s mind with you constantly for all of your life, taking it away was very disruptive.

Human younglings were taken from their mothers at birth without incident, as were most other races. What Jessica had learned from the Elves was also partly responsible for her predicament with the Zezdi, for she didn’t know if separating them early would be beneficial or not given the efficiency she’d seen in the Elves.

Their maturias were different as a result, but eventually the younglings did get separated from their mothers after joining a Quenya, which was equivalent to a maturia class but much more important. Because their Ikrid blocks had been removed from their genetics, they could share thoughts much more easily and had no automatic defense to another’s mind in their own. As a result a Quenya tended to learn as one rather than each individual progressing at their own rate.

Individuality had to be taught to them later, rather than teamwork having to be taught to individuals within maturias. It was completely backwards to everything Star Force had been constructed on, which was why Davis needed data to work with regarding how they developed in isolation. Jessica was one of only a handful of people permitted to interact with them, and while she did have an Ikrid block, her own telepathy allowed her to communicate with them on their level.

The Elves had a bad habit of not using their voice and communicating only telepathically. That was efficient in a lot of cases, but not when it came to them never developing their voices properly. Because of that, Jessica always made a point of using both her telepathy and voice when she visited them, and today was no exception.

She linked minds with the two Elves that stepped forward and exchanged warm greetings, then spoke when she got within a meter of them.

“It is good to be back, my friends. I hear you have 3 this time?”

“Indeed,” Timan, a Water Elf said with his long blue hair bracketing his pale face. “It is a good sign of progress. All three stand ready.”

“Then let’s not keep them waiting. They’ve worked hard for this day.”

“That they have,” Jorcha, a Fire Elf agreed as he summoned a spark in the slit of his right palm. It briefly grew in intensity until it formed a small orb of orange fire that Jessica raised her own hand to meet. Using her Rensiek so not to get burned, she pulled the heat into her body until the fireball extinguished, then sent it through her arm, across her chest, and up to her other hand that she pressed against Jorcha’s. She couldn’t produce the plasma that a Fire Elf greeting required, but she was able to return to the heat to his flesh, completing the amended ritual with a touching of their foreheads.

Her blond hair brushed up against his red for a moment, then they pulled back apart and began walking through the assembled ranks to the entrance to the city beneath them. The other Elves, apart from Jorcha and Timan, held perfectly still out of respect until she stepped down the first of the stairs and moved out of sight…with her sending a brief telepathic ‘thank you’ to them all, relating her feelings of gratitude and honor in a way that words alone never could.

“It is good to see our Queen once again,” Timan said as they continued down the wide and gently curving staircase.

“She prefers Duke,” the Fire Elf corrected him, “but I concur. You are welcome to mingle with us beyond ceremonies alone.”

“Your Duke Queen has duties to attend to…many duties,” she said regretfully.

“Is there anything we can be of help with?”

“Not today, Timan,” she said affectionately as she looked into his blue eyes…or rather the iris was blue, an alteration that had been made during his own ascension ceremony a long time ago. All Elves were born with brown eyes and brown hair along with limited psionics unique to their breed, but it was the ascensions that increased their power greatly. There were two ascensions for each, but to date no Elf had made it to the third level, for they had their own evaluation system designed by the trailblazers…and it was damn hard.

They continued to talk as they descended, with every Elf they passed stopping and looking at Jessica. Some simply stared, others bowed politely, but all were well aware of her presence before they laid eyes on her, for they could sense a non-Elf approaching and her closed off mind stood out like a beacon amongst the telepathic bee hive she was now within.

Eventually Jessica was led to a modest chamber in which there were about 300 people. All were Elves save for a single Archon Mage. He was one of only three on the planet tasked with helping them train, and she knew he stayed out of their way as much as possible, letting the Elves figure things out for themselves while making sure to nudge them in the right direction. The Archon was here to learn from them as much as they from him, and had she not been available he would have oversaw the Ascension ceremony…but there was no way she was going to miss this short of a V’kit’no’sat attack.

The three breeds of Elf were grouped separately, their clothes similar but with distinct variances between Clan and individual preference. The three ready for Ascension were waiting with them, but nude. Two were male, one female, and aside from the points on their ears they appeared to be fully Human, though naturally hairless…save for eyebrows and head hair. Jessica was the same, but by choice and medical intervention. Elves were born this way, and not a one of them had so much as a whisker of facial or body hair.

All three had long brown hair and brown eyes, but Jessica could tell the Fire Elf because of the slits on his palms. It was a tier 4 psionic only a few elites Archons had called Choratrik, but all Fire Elves were born with it as a natural part of their bodies along with a passive Rensiek that made it impossible for them to be burnt even when asleep…save for insane temperatures. Jessica had to concentrate to activate hers, but it gave her the ability to interact with them and she was thankful for that…and jealous of the Sky Elves, for if she wanted to fly she had to find a skiff or a flight pack. Yen’mer wasn’t a psionic given to the Monarchs, and though she’d never voiced her complaint there were many times when she wanted to ask Davis ‘Why the hell not?’

Jessica left Timan and Jorcha near the entrance and proceeded to walk out into the center of the chamber where there was a short pedestal in the center of an artificial pond. When she approached the edge a bridge formed out of nowhere, barely half a foot wide, and she walked across it carefully to get to the pedestal where she mentally summoned a control dais to raise out of the floor before her feet.

It was pure white, as was everything else in the chamber and looking like it was chiseled from pure snow so hard as if it were stone, but the air temp was not cold like her royal chambers had been. Here things were warm, but not terribly so, and all the white infrastructure was illuminated with a slight inner glow that banished the possibility of any shadow from forming.

Jessica hit a few buttons and three stairwells rose up out of the water and connected to the edge along the side where each of the three nude Elves were standing.

“Those who have proved themselves worthy…step forward and claim your inheritance.”

4

The three Elves stepped forward, each to their own set of stairs, and slowly walked down into the water. The Fire Elf and Wood Elf held their breath as they dipped under, but the Water Elf had no need as she had the tier 3 psionic Lovo’nek that allowed her and all Water Elves to absorb oxygen through their skin, both in the air and in water. She had all the time in the world beneath the water, but the other two were on the clock as they followed the stairs all the way down to the base of the pool where there was a glowing statue.

The Fire Elf’s statue was red, the Water Elf’s blue, the Wood Elf’s green and when they reached out and laid a hand on them the water suddenly became black in a masking field. The moment of transformation was a private one save for the Duke, who was both triggering and monitoring it through her mental link to the medical computer system.

To the assembled Elves the three beneath the water had disappeared from their telepathy as well, for an Ikrid jamming field had been laid over the pool. Those beneath it were cut off from all around them, seeing nothing, feeling nothing of their kin or the Duke, but their statue reached out to them with a telepathic impulse once they made contact with it, giving them instructions for the last brief test of their worthiness.

The Fire Elf held his hand against the outstretched palm of the statue, pressing flesh against synthetic stone, and sent a stream of plasma into it. Small bubbles of steam leapt out from the cracks around his hand and traveled to the surface, but nearly all of the heat was transferred to the statue itself. When a sufficient amount was reached the Fire Elf suddenly went numb, his plasma attack ending and his palm orifice closing on its own. In fact his entire body went numb as the unseen Kich’a’kat tendrils within the statue wormed their way inside his body on a microscopic level and began altering both genetics and the tissue to match.

The same was true of the Water Elf, who spread both arms wide to match her statue and pushed the water around her in a fierce current using her enhanced Lachka that even the Archons did not possess. It had been tailored specifically to aid in swimming and other forms of water manipulation and she used it now to push enough current up and through the statue as her fingers were intertwined with its own that rendered her numb as well.

The Wood Elf stepped into his statue, who had one hand raise before it at an angle. He push his head against that hand while placing his own against the statue’s head, connecting his telepathy to it by touch in wake of the jamming otherwise inhibiting that ability. In mind’s eye there was a massive weight that rose in response to the telepathic pressure placed on it, and once he raised it high enough he too went numb before his lungs started to ache too much from holding his breath.

The Kich’a’kat didn’t take long to do its work, but supplied additional oxygen along with new tissue components so the alterations didn’t sap the Elves’ strength as their ear points elongated slightly, their hair changed color along with their irises, their Ikrid tissue doubled in size, and they gained the psionic Kex that would enhance their agility to almost dance-like levels.

The blackness concealing the water didn’t abate, then almost in unison three glowing heads of hair rose from it. One red, one blue, and one green. The luminosity faded as they came out of the water but the color remained, and the formerly nude Elves were now fully clothed in body-tight ranger garb, each tailored to their Clan’s attributes and colors.

Jessica stepped down from her control podium and across the main floor with the three Elves turning to follow her over to an adjacent chamber that held many weapons, but there were three waiting on ceremonial pedestals for the newly minted rangers. The Duke walked amongst them while the Elves stayed a respectful distance back, then she picked up a short but wide dagger.

“Water flows and constrains,” she said, citing the ceremonial words, “both protecting and inhibiting. Those who guard must move and engage in close range, thus you need a weapon tailored for such an environment. The River Dagger moves as quickly as the current flows and can be just as lethal. It is your birthright and responsibility, Sanfen. Wield it wisely.”

Jessica used her standard Lachka that these Elves did not have and floated the foot-long dagger through the air to the blue haired Elf. Sanfen grasped it carefully and the Duke could sense she was both honored and a bit amazed by the levitation. The Water Elves’ Lachka only worked on water and a few other liquids, but could not be blocked by Pefbar jammers.

When the Elf grasped the weapon she was able to telepathically connect with it, causing the silvery blade to glow blue and its many functions became available to her mind.

“Fire destroys or cleanses, and great wisdom must be applied in its use. Great power and responsibility come with the sacred oath…and great peril to those who break it. You have proved your ability to discern when and how to use your limited power…now you will be granted a counter to Fire Elves’ greatest weakness.”

Jessica floated a long pitch black rod off the center pedestal and took it in her own hand before her telekinetic strength failed and she dropped it.

“Your ability to control fire is nearly limitless, but your ability to produce it is restricted to the amount of fuel your body carries. The Pyre Staff will allow you to recharge your biological levels almost instantaneously, granting you far greater longevity than you possess on your own. It is your strength and weakness in battle…do not let yourself be separated from it,” she said, tossing it over to the red-headed Elf.

Jariil caught it in hand, and when he did it lit up with a script-like decoration that glowed subtly red against the black, then increased in illumination when not only the Elf’s body, but his mind connected to it.

“The Wood is home, brother, and stranger. It cannot exist on its own and requires periodic direction and defense. The ranger is both caretaker and guardian, and while the Wood itself has great power imbued in it, it is not always enough. You must be willing and able to fight beyond it on your strength alone when needed, or alongside it when great peril threatens,” Jessica recited as she floated a bow and quiver that was almost too heavy for her across to the Wood Elf.

“Distance is your ally, but not always yours to command. The Grove Bow will grant this when the Wood does not. Use it sparingly, for your arrows are not infinite in battle.”

Lein grasped each in different hands. Both glowed faintly with green script, but it did not overwhelm the brown textures that looked like they had been grown from the trees themselves, though were in fact purely technological.

“Mastery of your weapons will come with time and training, but they are now yours to make use of with wisdom, compassion, and vengeance as necessary. Before you rejoin the others a time of solitude is required for you to acclimate to your new responsibilities. Elves fight as one, but rangers must be equally able to operate alone on the frontier…so it is there you must go to hone your skills and truly discover yourselves. There is strength in unity, but also a weakness if that unity is relied upon too heavily.”

“When one is first an individual there is no threat in it, but you have lived in each other’s minds since you were born. You have learned to operate on your own…now you must become comfortable with it,” the Duke said, snapping her fingers with a hidden door opening on the far side of the weapons chamber. “You will see your Clans later, for now you must go. I will accompany you on the first part of your journey and bid you farewell from the frontier.”

Jessica, closely monitoring each of their minds, sensed hesitation in all three. They’d expected to rejoin the groups they’d come here with, and this was part of the reason why the details of the Ascension ceremony were kept a secret by those who had taken part in it before…and it was a secret that these three would keep as well once they eventually returned to their Clans.

“Come,” she said, taking on a less formal tone now that the ritualistic recitement was ended. “I wish to speak with you all enroute, and I only have a few hours to do so. Bring your weapons and follow me.”

The three Elves did as instructed, following her through the doorway that melted away back into solid wall once they’d passed through it.

“Thank you for the personal escort, my Queen,” Lein said as he dropped off the edge of the pod-like speeder she’d been piloting to the three different locations the newly minted rangers were being deposited at, with the Wood Elf being the last of the three.

“So few of you have made ranger that I like to get to know each of you by face and name,” she said, walking to the rim edge and looking down at him from a couple meters up.

“It is appreciated,” he said, looking at the sparse trees around him and the grassy plain beyond where the frontier began.

“You’re worried about what you’re going to find out there?”

“No…I’m worried about facing it alone. I’ve gone out with others before, so I know what to expect.”

“Supply drops will be on time, you can be assured of that.”

“Did you have a similar challenge to face?”

“Not like this, but in a way I am always alone. My responsibilities are not shared by any of you, nor anyone on this planet. We work as a team, but my tasks are solitary ones…despite my being surrounded by people.”

“I do not understand. Do not others help shape your thoughts?”

“I don’t allow that. I can connect with others telepathically if needed, but what I have to do requires an isolation of mind. In truth, others would slow me down unless they were my peers…and Monarchs do not share worlds. We are too valuable to overlap our skills.”

“Do Kings and Queens never see one another?”

“Occasionally, when there is a need or when we have time to spare. I have many things to do, which is why I cannot leave this world…and they have tasks of their own.”

“The Great War?”

“The Archons more than the Monarchs. Our tasks are delivering them what they need to fight, and in a way it is a form of combat in and of itself.”

“I have often wondered what it is you do, and what the rest of our vast empire is like…but my path lies elsewhere. That is clear, in the near future at least. Have you any last advice?”

“Live in the moment and do not count the days. Both the combat and isolation will teach you more of yourself…and knowledge of oneself is the key to unlocking even greater power.”

The green haired Wood Elf nodded respectfully. “I will remember your words.”

“Move swiftly, ranger,” she said, pointing to the frontier beyond. “And good fortune.”

“We make our own fortune,” Lein said as he turned and began running…far faster than Jessica could. She watched him zigzag between the few trees while carrying both his bow and survival pack on his back, but he had no armor or clothing other than his ranger suit.

Jessica went back to the control panel and raised the pod up above the trees to give her a better view of the plains as the Elf deftly ran out onto it, leaping across a large boulder as distant spots in the sky began tracking towards him. If she moved her pod just a little further the ‘bots’ would come after her too, so she didn’t let her craft drift that way. They wouldn’t cross the frontier border, but the stun-weapon bearing little drones were vicious by design and would hunt any Elf or craft that crossed into their territory.

They were a creation of the Archons to give the Elves an opponent to face, and one that she’d been reluctant to sanction initially, but the results had proven the Archons to be completely right. The Elves responded to the threats and grew stronger because of them, with peace alone quickly turning into stagnation. Training grew boring if one didn’t have a reason for it, and self-sufficiency wasn’t enough for many Elves to drive themselves onward as much as Project Legolas required.

The bots provided an enemy the equivalent of what the Archons called the ‘Black Knight’ that had terrorized them in their own initial training. They’d told her he would break bones without worry, trusting in the Kich’a’kat regenerators to fix them up afterward. She did not want the bots to do that to the Elves so a different system had been devised, but one that was relentless.

If Lein was to survive out here he’d have to keep moving and fighting them off, otherwise they’d stun him unconscious and haul his body off to a penalty area known simply as ‘EC’ but no Elf knew what those two letters stood for. They had gained a definition in and of themselves, but to the Archons they stood for ‘English Class’ and were a throwback to a time before Star Force. Such a place had nothing to do with language and was place of continual torment…thus the perfect name for the Elves place of torment…and the Archons had truly made it such.

The captured Elves would have to effectively become slaves to work their way free of it on their own via puzzles or be rescued by other Elves…but none knew that Lein was out here, specifically, for he wasn’t wearing a homing beacon. Meaning if he got caught he’d spend weeks, if not months in the EC before breaking free onto to be hunted again.

All three of the Elves had to spend 2 years in the frontier on their own, whether on the run or in the EC, before they’d be allowed to return…and they had to return free. If they were in the EC when the 2 years expired they would stay there until they worked their way out, then they’d be given a final destination point to get to.

The longest it had taken a ranger to complete the Isolation was 3.4 years, but thanks to the bots Jessica and the Archons could keep an eye on them, and from what others had told her afterwards this was going to be a very difficult thing for these three to go through, and not just because of the combat. The lack of having other Elves in your mind was something they’d been able to tolerate for short periods of time, but out here they had to become comfortable with their own thoughts alone.

That was something Humans didn’t have to experience, though she knew loneliness was not exclusively an Elf thing, but for them it was far worse. Some of them had shared memories of their Isolation with her and it was a pain that she’d never experienced before…but it was a necessary pain, for they had to learn to be individuals, otherwise their telepathic unity could become a crippling weakness if an enemy knew how to exploit it.

This was but one of many factors Project Legolas was probing, and this trial was as important for Star Force as it was for the individual Elves. The V’kit’no’sat knew how to manage populations with telepathy and telekinesis, but Star Force did not. Archons were all individuals to start with and chosen for their uniqueness. Elves were born this way, all of them, and even without them having telekinesis the differences were striking.

Star Force had a lot to learn about this higher level of civilization, and the fact that Zen’zat had never been designed to reproduce was in stark evidence every day. The development of the Human race was now up to Star Force, without precedent from the V’kit’no’sat to follow…as far as Ter’nat and Zen’zat were concerned…but there were many other races to study and try to steal inspiration from. It was never enough though, and even if the Zen’zat could be replicated in generational form they wouldn’t have the Archon-level advancement drive.

The Elves needed to become something new, and aside from stealing ideas from the V’kit’no’sat, troubleshooting new ideas was what made the Archons and Monarchs what they were…and the reason why she was in her own isolation here. She had to deliver answers that others couldn’t, and the interdependency that the Elves had was one of her worries with the Zezdi reproduction method.

Individuality had to be the basic building block of all races within Star Force, but it was coming hard to the Elves and even more so the Zezdi who were not even remotely as advanced. She could either try to teach them individuality over time or force it on them initially, and the Duke still couldn’t decide which was for the best…and it wasn’t something she could experiment with a year or two to figure out. It would take centuries to discover if she was right or not, so she had to anticipate and predict this, otherwise she would delay the development or even harm the Zezdi…and the latter was totally unacceptable.

Jessica closed the top of the pod then began to fly it back towards the Elvish city where her skiff and pilot waited. Halfway there she sent a message saying she’d be delayed a few hours and changed course, heading to a small lake north of Lake Nessi and brought her pod down directly onto the water.

No one was immediately around, but she could sense a few Water Elves off in the distance and sent a telepathic ‘hello’ to them, with them starting to head her way immediately.

Jessica pulled the canopy on the pod back and triggered her clothes to retract down into a thick cape that she left puddled on the deck. She dove into the water nude, thankful that Monarchs had also been given Lovo’nek and she could breathe underwater…but she still had to keep her mouth shut to keep it out of her lungs.

She was a pathetic swimmer, but she’d learn to use her Lachka as underwater paddles on her hands and feet to help her move a bit better. That didn’t matter now, because she just wanted to spend some time in the outdoors in the water and mingle with the Water Elves a bit. They’d be happy to see her, and her lack of clothes didn’t matter. She was helpless in the water compared to them anyway, but there were no threats here to worry about so the Duke let herself get immersed in the natural landscape of Eoxion for a while, knowing that returning to her castle command center probably wasn’t going to yield any breakthroughs in the next few hours, so why not a change of pace while she was out here?

It took only a few minutes before the first of the Elves got to her, swimming so fast through the water on their enhanced Lachka that they looked like slow moving missiles. Those that got to her were all brown haired, meaning no rangers, and they were all clad in smooth body suits with their hands and feet exposed. Jessica looked odd amongst them with her naked body, but she wasn’t an Elf anyway and always stood out.

Without being able to talk underwater the following conversations were all telepathic and energetic, with not one of the Elves not glad to see their ‘Ice Queen’ who almost never visited from her polar stronghold. Her being a rock star amongst them was normal, but something she’d always slightly cringed at. Today, however, it was anything but as she opened up her mind and accepted as much of the telepathy flowing through them as she could. They couldn’t reach into her mind without touching her, but she could feel theirs and it was like a warm embrace that never lifted.

Even though she was an outsider it felt like home and she let herself immerse in the sensation as more Water Elves swam towards her from afar. She could feel the unity here and the power within it, and it was an advantage that Star Force was not going to overlook…but how not to let it become a negative was the lingering question.

Right now she didn’t worry about that, and after a half an hour or so she realized she’d been trying too hard. She’d never thought of herself as having many attributes similar to the Archons, but apparently she’d picked up some of their relentlessness. She needed a vacation to recharge, maybe then she’d be able to find a solution to the Zezdi’s problem. Sitting and staring at the walls certainly hadn’t helped her up until this point.

And that vacation might as well start now…if she was going to spend a few weeks or months away from her normal routine who better than to spend it with than the Elves? She hadn’t done a tour of all 8 realms in forever, and she knew they’d be overly pleased if she did again.

When she shared her thoughts with the Water Elves around her they immediately agreed, providing a lot of suggestions for where she could go or stay, offering to take her there. Jessica immediately thought of swimming back up to her pod and grabbing her clothes, but the two Elves that had hands on her immediately disagreed, urging her to come deeper in the lake and travel with them as she was.

The Queen didn’t need clothes or defenses amongst them, they said. She was welcome as is and if she really wanted to disconnect from her normal duties for a while she should leave everything behind for a while…and if she really felt she needed clothes they could provide her with some elvish ones.

Another Elf further off had another idea, which then rippled through them all like a ping pong ball passing from mind to mind.

Why not just disappear for a while? They’d spirit her off away from view and she could move about the Elvish realms quietly, avoiding large crowds and just soaking in the planet that she rarely saw aside from in her chambers.

Jessica quickly realized she’d been sharing more thoughts than she’d expected, and the two Elves touching her broke contact in apology.

No no, it’s fine, she told them. I’m just not used to having others inside my head.

We’ll avoid physical contact then, to make your visit easier.

No, Jessica said, reaching out her hands to the nearest two Elves. I’ll learn. Send a message to the Archons that I’m disappearing amongst you for an unspecified amount of time and have someone return my pod, then you can spirit me off to wherever you like. I haven’t had an adventure in a very long time.

Come then, they said, grapping her gently by both wrists and bending the water around her body in order to provide her propulsion, gliding her through the cool depths smoothly as the rest of the Elves swam in formation around her in a telepathic warmness that was already beginning to loosen her clenched mind up…and far more so than she had previously realized she needed.

The Ice Queen begins to melt…

Jessica smiled as the current pulled her blonde hair back in a trailing streak behind her head, acknowledging that they were right and thanking them in a single thought.

She was in bad need of a vacation, and even as she considered how much the Elves sensed her concern and dismissed it, promising that they’d make sure she opened up enough to relieve her mental oppression brought on by her responsibilities…and the first thing they did was politely forbade her from wearing any clothes for the duration, citing it would help fight her natural habit of closing herself off.

Jessica blanched at first, but with the Elves in her head via the physical contact on her wrists they saw the thought and quickly helped her correct it, teaching her as they went, all in a matter of seconds, after which she relented. She wasn’t going to be doing any mating and they accepted that, pointing out that she needed to open up not just to the Elves but to the planet itself, and serene connection was better than passion.

Jessica thought about it and quickly decided to humor them on this. Her connection to the water did feel better naked, so why not? It was a vacation, after all, and she needed to refresh her mind…and the Elves had a lot more experience with matters of the mind than she did. And that was experience she was able to sip at through their group telepathic bond.

Actually, she thought she probably needed to spend time amongst them just to learn more of it and how it might be pertinent to future developments and the Zezdi…but those things she kept behind a mental wall, for there were many secrets she had that a Monarch needed to keep. Jessica opened the rest of her mind up to them as much as she could, with her habit being to keep pulling back, but the Elves promised she’d get used to it in time, so Jessica decided to fully put herself into their care…with the idea of not knowing where she was going or what was going to happen being quite refreshing.

She had led for so long, it was nice to actually be led for once. That wasn’t a luxury she could indulge in often, but this was a special occasion…and perhaps the spur she needed to break through her Zezdi problem.

5

February 24, 4827

Tauriel System (Seon Region)

Eoxion

Neitti hop/walked along an elevated platform that ran the length of the injector assembly in fabrication center #498, one of hundreds of factories along the planet’s equator that were building parts for the shipyards in orbit. This one in particular was forging warship armor in a lengthy and extravagant process visible to his left as thousands of cubic meters of molten material was suspended in null gravity and constrained by force fields as it was bombarded with Rafna energy nonstop.

The excess Rafna was reflected back in on the molten material, bouncing it around until saturation occurred and not exposing Neitti or any of the other Kiritak workers. If saturation wasn’t met then the armor precursor would harden and the molten material would solidify and essentially clog up the train of alterations occurring to it…the last of which was the combination with a different precursor that would cause the molten material to become immune to the Rafna energy so that a Rafna weapon could not be used to easily penetrate it in combat.

That meant the last stage had the saturated material being mixed with another molten material very fast and very thorough as it was poured into energy molds further down the facility, but Neitti wasn’t headed that way. He was just coming back from his shift break and eager to get to work on making more Teteron cubes…a component of the visible molten slurry introduced earlier in the process.

The Teteron cubes had a bad habit of frying the sensors used to monitor their construction, thus a live person had to be involved in the construction process or the automation would eventually make a mistake. There was a chamber ahead that contained thousands of Kiritak, each with a room-sized workstation where they painstakingly checked the automation and checked each of the fist-sized cubes with an array of equipment, tossing out the components that failed and ensuring pure produce for further down the line.

Given that fabrication center #498 was over 20 miles long, moving up and down the length of the mostly rod-shaped building could be tedious, but there were enough service stations for the crew to take their rest/food breaks in that Neitti didn’t have more than a mile to travel to get back to his workstation…and a mile to a Kiritas was nothing when they used the full power of their legs and literally bounced ten meters at a time with each hop.

Neitti wasn’t going quite that fast, having started back a little early, when he heard a massive screech that curled his ears. It lasted a couple of seconds, then everything seemed to be back to normal.

He stopped hopping, instead standing and looking around at the other Kiritak and a scattering of Humans on the wide pedestrian platform, with no one seeming to know what had caused the noise, then as people began moving again the first boom sounded.

A chain of them followed, and before Neitti could see anything to coincide with the sound the force fields around the molten slurry up and to his left deactivated.

Dread ran through him, along with the realization that the Rafna generators were also offline, because as soon as the long tether of material began to fall the outer shell hardened. Neitti expected it to hit he backup shields just below…but they never materialized. The huge length of now semi-molten material fell to the emergency trench below, cracking the exterior case and spewing bright green interior material out like the bursting of a water balloon.

The trench caught most of it, but the splashes went everywhere, melting through the equipment they touched and causing further malfunctions. Neitti dove to the side as a glob arced up over the side of the platform and came falling towards him, changing from bright green to black as it bled off the Rafna energy in droves, burning Neitti from range like a bad sunburn even before the glob hit the deck.

Thankfully the platform’s emergency shields were still active and caught the physical material over the railing. It splashed open into green brilliance again then hardened quickly over top the shield, forming an impromptu tunnel as more splashes hit and stuck on the physical shield, blocking out partial vision of the catastrophe occurring beyond.

The Rafna energy from the cooling globs was still burning through wherever you could see green, and by the time he had a partial roof over his head Neitti’s skin was beginning to peel off in places…but not the underside of his feet, for the Rafna was coming from above, and his shoes had only burned away on the top.

Or rather partly, for they were still attached to his feet, but his clothing had melted rather than caught on fire, as it was supposed to, leaving him wearing nothing but tatters along with the others who had been spared from the falling material but cooked by its proximity.

His eyes hurt, but thankfully he could still see as he followed the emergency holograms depicting the best evacuation route. He didn’t get far before he saw a Human lying on the ground, her skin black and red in places where it had been burnt. Another Kiritak got to her before Neitti did, and together they pried her up off the ground and, painful as it was, put her over their shoulders and carried her…leaving behind patches of her skin stuck to the floor.

She was dripping her red blood on them, but that didn’t matter…nor did the pain of her body on their wounds. They had to get everyone out, and across the fabrication center the rest of the crew was doing the same. No one was being left behind, and before the pair of Kiritak could even make it halfway out of the facility a squad of armored Kiritak medics rushed up to them and took the Human, carrying her on an anti-grav shield bed that cradled her body far more gently than they had been.

“Stand still,” one of the medics said, coming up in front of Neitti and stopping his zombie-like progress as he continued to follow the evac holograms, “before you lose your foot.”

Neitti finally stopped, not wanting to touch the aqua-colored armor and hurt himself further, and looked down at his feet. His left one was missing one of his toes and what looked like a third of his flesh. He could see bone in a few places between shards of shoe…then the pain suddenly diminished as the medic pressed something to his forehead.

“Temporary hold,” the medtech said as his skin stopped what bleeding it had, regrowing slightly while most of his body went so numb he couldn’t even stand. The armored Kiritak caught him, then a few moments later had him floating on his back.

“Get the others out first,” Neitti complained, but didn’t have the bodily control to physically object.

“You first. You won’t make it another hundred meters with half that foot, and the less we have to repair the better. Off you go,” the medtech said as Neitti stared at the ceiling that was now moving…or rather he was, but the medtech wasn’t with him.

He lifted his head up and looked, squeezing his eyes open and shut a few times to fight the sudden blurriness, then he saw other Kiritak hobbling beside him plus a few more floaters that were being carried on tiny, hand-sized machines that were emitting energy fields to cradle them above in an invisible grip that glowed ever so slightly the same aqua color as the medtechs’ uniforms.

Neitti had to be in one as well, and it was auto-piloting him along the line of evac holograms as he heard even louder bangs and screeches from the direction he’d come, now obscured by ceiling and tunnel as they headed perpendicular to the main construction train through the support chambers to the nearest exterior entrance.

Alarms were sounding everywhere, but they were almost muted by the noise of further destruction. Was the planet under attack? They’d received no warnings of an invasion, and Star Force industrial machinery was too well stacked with redundancies for this to have been an accident.

In fact this should not have been occurring at all save for a warship or mech firing on the fabrication facility directly…and even then the number of backup failures made no sense. What in Helinat’s Grasp was going on?

Neitti thought about it for a moment, then as the shock began to wear off a severe heaviness dragged his head back down and he decided to lay still and let the medical drone carry him off to a medbay or wherever it was taking him. His eyes didn’t hurt so much now, but they were blurry and his lids were now heavy. He knew there was nothing else he could do to help now, so he eventually surrendered to the fatigue and half passed out as he floated on amongst the sea of Kiritas and Humans fleeing fabrication center #498.

ViLord Connor-1381923 was out on the ice plains at the northern pole of the planet wearing nothing but a T-shirt and shorts as he was running across several inches of snow while getting pelted with incoming fire from his left. The Archon took a few hits, then used his own bioshield to block the other snowballs coming at him from the group of Ice Elves who’d been hiding behind a snow bank. He hadn’t seen or sensed them there due to the Ikrid jammer in place on the training field and his promise not to use his Pefbar to cheat, and he was proud they’d gotten a few hits in on him…but they were still going to pay for it.

He slid to a stop, dropping to a knee as his left foot went out from under him in a skid, then with a theatrical wave of his hand the snow around him rose up into the air and condensed into several dozen orbs…that he began firing off one at a time with lethal accuracy, pegging some of the Ice Elves with straight shots while having to telekinetically arc the others to hit when they otherwise would have successfully dodged to the side. Most of them managed to stay on their feet, but two of the youngest ones actually ran into each other and went spinning to the ground on impact.

“Gotta pay attention newbs!” he yelled before pulling up more snow and throwing it over them like a tsunami as the Archon ran past and headed for one of their fort outposts. When one of the Elves stood up out of the snow he’d just blanketed them with, Connor used his telekinesis while still in range and smashed the Elves’ head back down into the snow face first…then issued the most taunting laugh he could as he ran away.

He was having fun…there was no denying that…but he also wanted to make the Elves mad if he could and really show them how bad things could get when they didn’t focus. Forcing them to operate as a team without their telepathy was making this all too easy for Connor, despite the basketball-sized snowball that came flying at him from the outpost cannon. He dodged it and the next two, then skidded to a halt and punched the next one out of the air just for fun as he heard light footsteps approaching him from behind.

He didn’t cheat and look with his Pefbar, so he knelt a bit as he spun, seeing a trio of females running at him. They weren’t carrying any snowballs, but one of them was sporting the white hair signifying a ranger. That one leapt towards him, using her agility upgrade from Kex to become a flying weapon that tried to grab hold of him.

He obliged, holding on long enough for her to tackle him to the ground…then he rolled over and used her momentum plus his own physical strength to toss her the other way. He added a bit of a Lachka push and his telekinesis succeeded in getting her all the way over to their fort outpost where she bodily hit the snow-packed brick wall…with her feet.

The Ice Elf ranger landed in a controlled fashion and jumped off the wall before she could fall, flipping over acrobatically and landing on her feet at a run heading back towards him.

Connor picked up some more snow telekinetically and planted a couple of tightly packed orbs in his hands, then he went hand to hand with the other two female Elves that were trying to tackle him. They ended up with face-fulls of snow as he tossed them to the ground, then one of the cannon balls hit him from the side.

He half fell to a knee, then rolled away before another one could hit him, but not before a cascade of long range snowballs came over the snow bank to the west…except these weren’t orbs, but rather snow arrows. They peppered the ground around him and he caught those that were going to hit in a telekinetic grip…then sent them back so hard they flew through the snow bank and he heard one satisfying grunt as he hit someone on the other side.

The next thing he knew there was someone jumping down on him from above, and as he turned to parry the attack he got hit with a weak Jumat blast that knocked him to the side.

“Stop!” his Padawan yelled, holding up her hands so he and the Elves could see. “Everyone stop now!”

The Elves obeyed instantly, and Connor could now see the speeder she’d flown in on hovering above them a few dozen meters.

“You’re needed, now,” Carrie-1621197 said, her tone indicating trouble.

Connor couldn’t ask her telepathically what was going on with the jammers in place, but he could tell from the way her eyes were squeezed slightly that she was angry.

“Spit it out.”

“Three factories just got hit by massive ‘malfunctions.’ Too many and too severe to be an accident. I think we’re under attack, but there are no orbital or other contacts.”

“Casualties?”

“Many. Most will survive, but we’ve already lost 4 Kiritak and two Humans.”

A distant snowball shot towards them and Carrie angrily knocked it out of the sky with another Jumat blast…a psionic Connor had shared with her early and that she was still learning to use, but at least her aim was spot on.

“Tell the others to stand down and turn the jammer off,” Connor told the nearest Elves, signaling with his hand for them to run off and make it so. Several did, but Carrie just waited for what her Master decided to do…though there was only one choice.

“Let’s go,” he said, with her immediately signaling the speeder to lower via the dark brown armor that she wore helmetless. Before the small bike got all the way down Connor jumped up to it, with Carrie following a moment later and opening the rear hatch while hanging onto the side.

“Hold up,” she said, pulling out an approximate cube of silver/pink material.

Connor took the compact armor without saying a word, getting the clear impression that his Padawan thought he was in danger out here, and as he activated it and had the material fold around him body and encase him in his ViLord Archon armor he felt the Ikrid jammer cut out, allowing him to telepathically communicate with the Elves again.

We have a possible security threat. Cancel all training activities and assume defensive positions. I don’t know what’s going on, but do not let yourself get caught off guard.

With that Connor sat down on the speeder with Carrie behind him and they zipped off across the snowy plains as he commed for a dropship to come and meet them enroute.

“Best guess?” he asked her after they had things set in motion.

“Sabotage, but there’s no sign of it yet. I don’t think 3 massive malfunctions would happen simultaneously. Theoretically one shouldn’t even be able to happen.”

“What kind of malfunctions?”

“The kind where molten material goes places it’s not supposed to and safety shields do not engage.”

“Shit…”

“Exactly. And the Duke is still AWOL. Zander is going after her.”

“There’s nothing she can do right now. This is our job.”

“He’s worried about her being a target.”

Connor mentally frowned, sending the telepathic impulse to his Apprentice. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“It’s early, but some of the sabotage is suspected to be hacking. And how many people can hack our systems?”

“Quite a few, actually.”

“And how many of them would dare blow stuff up at the same time?”

“You have a point.”

“We only have three Archons on the planet. If there are Zen’zat infiltrators here…”

“That’s why we have Regulars, Carrie. They’re not helpless.”

“I’ve still got a bad feeling about this.”

“Just work the problem,” he said, with them staying silent for the remainder of the time before the dropship finally got to them. It didn’t bother landing, rather just flew out ahead of the speeder and opened the rear hatch. The Archons flew inside, then the dropship rocketed off taking them back towards the equatorial cities far faster than the speeder ever could…and the sooner the Archons could get on scene the better.

Especially if there were Zen’zat here that they’d have to hunt down. He almost wished it was internal sabotage, but knew the Star Force crews here were too good for that. This had to be an exterior attack, and if that was the case his Padawan was probably right about it being the V’kit’no’sat.

And if they were all the way out here, it wasn’t by accident. It was because of the work they were doing with the Elves…meaning they were all in considerable danger and totally unprepared for what might be coming their way.

6

February 25, 4827

Tauriel System (Seon Region)

Eoxion

Jessica was laid out on top of a warm rock ledge with the nearest sun high in the sky, bathing the dry, barren landscape with a windless heat as she and 9 Stone Elves soaked up the warmth. The Duke had already started to tan heavily over the week she’d been here, having gotten far more sunlight than she had in centuries. In fact she couldn’t remember being this dark since her early days back in New Zealand long before the V’kit’no’sat had ripped that island chain to shreds.

Her home at that time had been Epsilon Eridani, but even there she was indoors constantly. There was plenty of light indoors…with Star Force having a ‘light’ theme to its architecture. There were strips, beams, orbs, and little bits of light added everywhere to the rooms, corridors, and chambers inside Star Force cities. So much so they ended up not having very many windows to the natural environment outside.

That kept tanning almost non-existent. With genetic alterations people could customize their skin to whatever shade or color they wanted, but the natural tanning procedure was almost an afterthought now. During her time in her first home she and others would use artificial tanning beds to get darker, for New Zealand wasn’t exactly near the equator where you got more direct sunlight, but now there were literally no tanning beds available in Star Force. There was no market for it and no reason, for the Human body tanned as a countermeasure to too much sunlight and the old cities on Earth had people walking outdoors to get from building to building.

Now that wasn’t the case, with undercities that allowed you to go everywhere without setting one foot on the surface, making a city literally one gigantic building with many, many rooms. Gone also was the country living, the farms, the single houses…even the suburbs. No one owned property anymore, merely leasing buildings from Star Force as they designed all cities. That was one of the primary jobs of Monarchs, designing the infrastructure for each planet to make the most out of what they had, and all private citizens and businesses operated off of that cityscape.

Sure, they might rebuild the inside of a factory, but the factory frame wasn’t theirs to change and was leased from Star Force. That meant every factory shell, at least, was built and maintained by the empire. Same went for all land. There was no private ownership, so everyone lived in cities or outposts as Star Force wished, close to security and safety personnel and beneath the protection of energy shields and armor plating on the city exterior.

Those cities also protected from varying levels of sunlight at different latitudes and in systems with different types of stars. That kept everyone inside adapting to the same levels, rather than old Earth where you had Humans with a variety of different tanning levels that were passed in some part to their offspring. That’s why those populations living near the equator had ‘black’ skin and those living further toward the poles had ‘white’ skin. It was the accumulation of tanning, or lack thereof, over the generations.

When Earth developed to the point where people weren’t confined to within 100 miles of where they were born and could move across the planet at will, all the tanning levels got mixed up and you had dark skinned people living near the poles and light skinned people moving to the equator. They didn’t change their base tan, because that came with their inherited genetics, but they did adapt to where they were living and then passed that adaptation along with their base genetics on to their offspring.

Add to that the better living conditions that kept people indoors more and out of the sun less and you had the pseudorace mythology thrown on its head even before Star Force took over and reworked the planet with proper infrastructure…but now it was a moot point entirely. Everyone knew Jessica’s race was Human, and ‘white’ was just a color.

It was also the color of all Humans, now that they didn’t live outdoors and the various tanning levels that had been baked in over the generations had gradually diminished. Now all Humans being born were white…at least until they decided to get some genetic alteration to make them darker, blue, spotted, stripped, bioluminescent, or whatever else they wanted...and those did not pass on through reproduction.

That left natural tanning an obscure thing that only those born long ago even knew about, and Jessica was glad that the Stone Elves had brought it back. She had to make sure not to get burnt with them, for they literally couldn’t burn as their grey-skinned bodies soaked up the energy from the sun and other sources thanks to their tier 3 Beynat psionic that was linked to their Nakane…otherwise known as ‘bioshield.’ Jessica had that one, but not Beynat, which allowed the Stone Elves and the Archons that had it to funnel the energy into recharging their bioshield, meaning that when someone shot them with an energy weapon it would partly recharge their bioshield at the same time.

The Stone Elves differentiated themselves from the other Clans, in addition to their grey skin, with the Mebvat psionic that made their bones so hard they rarely broke. The old adage about jaw bones winning out against knuckles didn’t apply with the Stone Elves, for their tiny hand bones could break jaws when enough force was applied.

But Jessica didn’t care about that, for she wasn’t going to be getting into a fist fight with any of them. They liked coming topside from their subsurface, dwarf-like cities to sip on the energy from the sun, especially when all 3 were in the sky, because they like preferred carrying a little extra charge around in their bodies just in case…as well as using the time laying out as a form of meditation, with all the Elves here not reaching out to the others’ minds as a courtesy.

Jessica’s couldn’t be accessed anyway, and she wasn’t in a prying mood so she just laid out with them…her skin redding far sooner than she liked and causing her to head back down far before the Stone Elves did. Their grey skin didn’t tan at all unless their Beynat failed or was full, so they really didn’t have a time limit out here and would spend several hours once or twice a week to refill their Beynat, only to see it gradually bleed off even if they didn’t use it to boost their bioshields…which operated off a different internal supply.

The Duke’s ring, setting beside her left leg so it didn’t shade her finger and give her a tan line, pinged when its timer expired. Jessica was laying on her chest and slowly rolled over, making sure not to scrape her soft skin on the rocks as she flipped over, turning her warm half downward and exposing her semi-cool front to the sky as her ring automatically reset to give her another tanning cycle without her having to worry about the time, allowing her mind to roam wherever it liked.

And no matter how much she allowed herself to be momentarily distracted, her thoughts would eventually circle back to the Zezdi. While Jessica was feeling immensely better and her mental haze had been bled away by the Elves’ persistent hammering on her to loosen up, her Monarch mind couldn’t get away from work for too long. But at least here she would work on the problem while relaxing, rather than figuratively banging her head against a wall until she came up with something.

This half of today’s tanning session didn’t last long, for a telepathic impulse hit her and the Elves, signaling there was some concern as a ship was incoming. A few of the Elves sat up, but Jessica didn’t. They’d told her she needed to react less and see more, so she used her telepathy to mix with theirs and see through their eyes while she continued tanning evenly.

Eventually the Star Force speeder landed on another flat rock shelf nearby and an Archon jumped out, heading over to the Elves who all stood and padded over the rocks on bare feet to meet him.

Jessica stayed put, seeing that he was obviously coming to her, and choosing to remain as relaxed as possible. He might be here to pull her away on business, but more than likely he had just tracked her down to make fun of her for taking so much time off…or something. Either way, she was going to continue her vacation until she had a reason not to, which right now meant soaking up more sun.

Zander-1538834 walked over to her as the Elves happily surrounded him, then the Mage’s showed crossed over her bare chest as she squinted up at him.

“You’re in my sun.”

“I thought you were the Ice Queen? Why haven’t you melted?”

“If I stay out too long I will. Feel free to strip down and join us.”

“Not why I’m here. We have to go…now,” he said, far too firmly.

Jessica frowned and sat up. “What’s wrong?”

“Not totally sure, but best guess is V’kit’no’sat sabotage teams. Three factories have been hit and people are dead, but there’s no sight of who did it. They have to be wearing stealth suits, meaning they could be anywhere on the planet and could very well be coming after you.”

“Nobody knows I’m here,” she said, standing up to face him.

“I know. Took a while to find you, but I can’t take the chance of one of them getting you. You’re coming with me and the rest of you,” he said, glancing at the nude Elves, “are going into high surveillance and defense mode. It’s possible that you will come under attack too, so get ready. The Duke is coming with me, the rest of you get inside. Orders will follow.”

The Stone Elves were suddenly a buzz of telepathic chatter, with it extending down into the city and exploding there, but they didn’t delay in carrying out the Archon’s instruction and quickly began grabbing their clothes from the neat piles they’d made of them on the stone, then ran over to the subsurface entrances before even pulling them on.

Within seconds they were gone, leaving Zander and a naked Jessica by themselves on a landscape that was without a single living thing…tree, bush, or even insect…other than the two of them.

“Where are yours?”

“I haven’t worn clothes in weeks,” she said, grabbing her ring and slipping it back on while Zander raised an eyebrow. “Elf therapy. Let’s go…I’m not shy,” the Duke asked, softly jogging on bare feet towards the speeder as the Archon protectively kept pace beside her in his armor. “How many people are dead?”

“I feel it,” Belinda said to Tahiri as they ran through The Wood, hopping over a fallen tree and sliding slightly on the mossy ground as their sandal-clad feet hit it, “…but I can’t see it.”

“Same,” the other Wood Elf said, running towards the blankness in The Wood. “I wonder what it is?”

“Maybe an Archon?” Belinda floated. “But we can always see them when they visit. I don’t understand how The Wood can be blind.”

“I don’t know,” Tahiri added, ducking under a branch and making a slight left turn. “Only one way to find out.”

As the two Wood Elves continued to run, they saw what was ahead of them using their Clan’s special psionic. No one else had it, and even Archons couldn’t us it. It was an altered version of Pefbar that not only the Wood Elves had, allowing them to see in the dark and even through some objects, but the trees had it as well.

Not every tree on the planet, but the ones in The Wood did and they shared what they saw with the other trees and the Wood Elves through something like telepathy, but it wasn’t. They had to be in range of their own ‘Wood Sight’ that extended a few meters for the very young and a few hundred for the older Wood Elves, but so long as they were within the ‘sight’ of a tree or another Wood Elf, they acted like relays expanding the coverage.

Belinda and Tihiri could see everywhere in The Wood if they focused their minds, even zooming in on a particular spot if they needed greater detail, but the empty spot moving slowly through The Wood was obvious. It didn’t belong, and the two Wood Elves could feel others more distant heading their way, probably also to investigate, but they were too far away to communicate telepathically. The trees didn’t help with that, but the Elves could see each other and this pair intended to be the first ones to get to and find out what this anomaly was.

They weren’t warriors, let alone rangers, but The Wood was their home and these two brown haired Elves were out on a long walk far from their closest village when the anomaly entered on the eastern border. It was coming further in, but not in a hurry and the Elves were moving with such haste that they were not in danger of losing it…but they still couldn’t see it. It was like The Wood’s sight didn’t exist in that spot.

Sometimes the Archons felt that way, but not always. When they were here the trees could still see them even if they couldn’t touch them, for they also acted like passive sensors and could absorb light, heat, and other things that could then be added to The Wood sight, letting the Elves see beyond the borders without being able to feel what was out there.

But where this emptiness was moving through The Wood there was nothing to see…but it was leaving tracks. Subtle depressions here and there where the ground was soft, and as soon as the emptiness passed The Wood could feel the depressions. These Elves were too young and inexperienced to be able to compare the before and after, but others were not and they were sprinting towards this location from afar but unable to warn these two curious explorers because they were still outside of telepathic range.

One ranger, however, was on the way but unable to see what was happening. She wasn’t a Wood Elf, but a visiting Sky Elf coming out from Tiolla village flying extremely fast above the trees. She didn’t get to them in time, but she did get within telepathic range just before they got to the anomaly.

Do not approach! she warned. There is danger. Turn and run, now!

The two Elves skidded to a halt, but hesitated from turning around. What is it?

Run to me, it comes for you now! Move!

Belinda and Tahiri suddenly felt the blankness accelerate...and in their direction. Not knowing what was going on they took the Sky Elf’s word and began running in the direction she was approaching from with the blankness increasing in size as it sped towards them.

When it finally crossed over them their connection to The Wood disappeared, feeling as if it was ripped from them. Their own little sphere of ‘sight’ was also stripped from them…then their feet were knocked sideways by something invisible and both fell in tandem.

Tahiri looked at Belinda, confusion and worry on her face…then shock as the Wood Elf was pulled backwards, dragged through the short grass and bits of mud.

“Tahiri!” Belinda yelled, but when she tried to get up her legs were frozen in place…but there was nothing touching her.

The other Elf moved about 20 meters before being drawn up in the air, upside down, and hanging by her legs from nothing as she squirmed around trying to free herself.

Belinda could feel her fear and worry, their telepathic bond running strong…but then a poison leapt into it. Tahiri’s mind seized up along with her body and Belinda could feel another mind taking control of her friend.

She did what any good Elf would do, giving her as much telepathic backup as she could, but against this poison their combined strength was useless. If it wanted to take Belinda as well it could, but it didn’t even seem to care that she was there as Tahiri’s memories were being drained and the Elf was interrogated in forceful ways to give up their secrets.

Belinda had never thought the Elvish minds weak, but this was something far beyond them and…

Energy blasts rained down through the wood, burning leaves and branches as they shot into the blankness from the Sky Elf’s Battle Gauntlets as she came into view high up but didn’t descend all the way to ground. Most of the golden blasts hit the ground and exploded the dirt, showering Belinda and Tahiri with hot sprays of vaporized water and burnt mud and grass, but some hit something else and the Elves saw for the first time what was creating the blankness.

It was a person…a huge person nearly 8 feet tall and wearing black/green armor across its entire body. It was bathed in invisibility, but each time the Sky Elf’s shots hit it disrupted that invisibility and let them see what was…

Suddenly Tahiri was dropped and it was the Sky Elf that got dragged down, almost into physical range of the intruder, but the ranger managed to free herself and fly back upward, firing nonstop from both weapons attached to her forearms as her blonde hair free flowed across her shoulders.

Run! she repeated, and suddenly the grasp on Belinda’s feet disappeared.

Tahiri sprinted away a different direction and Belinda didn’t wait either. Both scattered, trying to get away from the intruder, but Belinda was tripped again and ran head first into a tree…but she could feel now, now outside the blankness, and her feet were not locked in place again, so she continued to run as far as she could go while the Sky Elf fought behind her, most of which she still could not see in her Wood sight.

As soon as the Sky Elf demonstrated her Rentar ability the Zen’zat leapt straight up, firing a few Dre’mo’don blasts as he did to disorient her with shield strikes as he got hold of her ankle…then he dragged her down to the ground with him, taking her point blank shots and weathering the storm before punching her once in the gut.

The blow came so hard it penetrate the Elves’ shields, and with her wearing no armor even the slightest hit to the midsection doubled her over, knocking the wind out of her until the following slap to her head knocked her unconscious entirely.

An unnecessary hit, for this Elf had no Ikrid block and the Zen’zat could have taken control of her mind from range if needed, but she was stronger and his domination of her mind might not be instantaneous. More were coming, he knew, from what he’d learned of the other Elf, and he needed to raid this one’s mind quickly…which was easier when she was unconscious and not fighting back.

Ronoken drained valuable information from her, then something that he had not anticipated happened. Several of the trees nearby moved…actually twisting and swinging their branches down towards him. At first he thought it was broken and fallen, then he realized it wasn’t an accident as one swept right into him and tried to knock him away from the Sky Elf.

It was slow and he easily jumped over it, but the branch and others pulled over the prone Elf as if guarding her. A few more reached for the Zen’zat and he blasted one of them apart, telekinetically grabbing a shard of wood and drawing it to him as he sensed more minds on the horizon approaching at decent speed. All were on foot, but he was going to have to act quickly or some of them might get away.

He slid the sample of wood into a slot behind his left shoulder and reached down to the Sky Elf, who was now covered with branches that would have made a decent cage to keep others out, but they did nothing to guard against Lachka and Ronoken easily crushed her skull and scrambled her brains inside, killing her and making it impossible for her to be revived later.

After that he was off running through the forest chasing after the two young ones. The trees seemed to defy him, twisting and swatting and trying to keep him from getting to them but he was too fast and his prey was too slow. He caught and killed the first one with a Dre’mo’don shot to her back, then made her unrevivable with a quick telekinetic jerk before running off the other way and tracking down the other one.

She was moving fast, but nowhere near the speed that Ronoken was capable of. When he got close he telekinetically grabbed her, yanking her back through the air towards him then punched into her back, breaking it with a single blow then leaving her dead and unrevivable as well.

More Elves were coming, and he picked one to go after, engaging his stealth field again and trying to flank the approaching heretic, but somehow he knew where Ronoken was and avoided him. The Elf was obviously trying to buy time for others to engage with, but that wouldn’t save him. The Zen’zat let three of them arrive, then he chased down and forced a fight that left two of them dead and the third held in a telepathic trance as Ronoken searched his mind for an answer to the trees…finding that they had been bioengineered to be a weapon and sensor platform these heretics could telepathically access.

They could see his Pefbar field moving through them…which meant he had to leave. This forest could track his movements, and that was no good. He didn’t want to attract too much attention, so he killed this last Elf and took a small tissue sample that he added to his stash, then ran off back towards the eastern edge of the forest. When he got there he reengaged his stealth and disappeared from Star Force’s tracking again…this time knowing to stay clear of this type of trees.

He’d have to do his hunting elsewhere, otherwise a starship in orbit could target his location and scratch him off with ease or aerial fights could strafe his position…assuming they could coordinate these telepathic sensors with their battlemap technology, and Ronoken wasn’t going to assume they couldn’t.

7

March 2, 4827

Tauriel System (Seon Region)

Eoxion

Jessica sat on her ice throne, now fully clothed, surrounded in status holograms monitoring the cleanup and repair efforts at the now 8 factories destroyed. In addition to that ongoing mess a total of 19 Elves had been killed by what was reported to be a lone Zen’zat hunting them…first in The Wood and more recently on the Ice Plains. All the Elves were now in lockdown mode and armored up so the Zen’zat couldn’t kill them with a mere thought, but they were clearly outmatched and a few of the Commandos and Knights on other planets in this system had been dispatched to augment their defenses.

It turned the Duke’s stomach to think of them being hunted down and killed so easily, but she wasn’t thinking of them now any more than necessary. The Archons were out trying to track down both the hunter and the sabotage parties…but in truth it was the infrastructure damage that was giving Jessica headaches. She abhorred the deaths on her planet, but from a management standpoint she wasn’t going to be short on personnel because of the losses.

But the factory damage was starting to add up and it was imbalancing her carefully laid out production schedule.

In order for a Monarch to get maximum production out of a planet they needed exactly the right amount of material resources being gathered to match the number of factories where they processed those materials into components. Then she needed either exports of those components to other systems or the local assembly apparatus to use them…which meant shipyards for the big stuff or alternate factories for smaller items like clothing, hand weapons, food, etc.

She had a lot of mobile construction teams that could build just about anything on site, and some of them were deployed to the damaged factories to rebuild inside the intact shells, but they didn’t work fast. Even the most elite Kiritak team couldn’t match the output of an assembly line set up to produce exactly the same thing over and over again. The construction teams were meant to get odd work down in odd places, not to crank out produce, and attesting to her supply chain problem Jessica had warning holograms floating all around her head indicating disruptions.

The raw materials coming in from the mining sector were piling up, and while she had warehouses to store them in they were not unlimited. She’d already sent a construction team to start building some additional ones, because if she could not get the factories up and running again the mining produce would eventually overflow the current warehouses and they’d either have to stop mining more or start piling it up on the surface of an airless world called Dantolin where most of the warehouses were.

She knew there had to be a V’kit’no’sat stealth ship in the system somewhere, but if they started piling the valuable resources in plain sight all it would take was a little orbital bombardment to waste weeks’ worth of effort…or another clever sabotage team getting to it, though as of yet no planet in the system had been hit other than Eoxion.

Jessica still had a lot of processing factories up and running, so it wasn’t as if her total supply system was shut down, but the backup was building and the sabotage teams were still out and about. So far none of them had been detected, let alone stopped, and the extra security going up was slowing production a tick on its own.

That meant what was coming out of the first tier factories was greatly reduced…currently down 13%...and that left second tier factories operating below threshold. They needed more refined material but they didn’t have it, so a lot of workers were left just twiddling their fingers as they had nothing to do and wouldn’t until Jessica could get the damaged factories back up and running.

She wanted to kick herself for not having backups, but ever since she’d been given this assignment she’d been building out of panic rather than patient planning. The V’kit’no’sat war wasn’t going to be put on pause while she set up proper infrastructure, so she’d been going for maximum production from day 1 and that left no backups for when something went wrong.

Typically, if she’d been able to build freely, she’d have more factories than workers and have them operating at about 60% capacity. The trouble with that was she’d have to build a lot of excess infrastructure that she wasn’t using and that would be wasteful. She wasn’t the only Monarch in the Seon Region, and their combined exports were already far lower than the other rimward regions due to the amount of supplies their client races required.

The first factory to get hit had been one forging armor plating for the warship drones…which was the #1 priority export for all of Star Force territory. Five out of 7 drones produced in Jessica’s realm were sent to the V’kit’no’sat front, 1 was sent to the rimward front, and 1 was kept locally to gradually build up her defense fleets and to deal with local threats that kept trimming that number down occasionally.

The other Monarchs in the Seon Region were maintaining at least a 50% export rate to the V’kit’no’sat front, with hers at 71%, but the more developed ones in the heart of what was now Star Force territory were all in excess of 87% and producing in far greater numbers than Jessica could even spit at. The trailblazers needed as many drones as possible to replace what they were losing in battle, so Jessica had built up her infrastructure to produce as many as fast as she could, balancing her supply chain damn near perfectly and counting on uninterrupted production in this quiet, out of the way system that nobody really cared about.

But now that’d been wrecked and her shipyards producing the drones were grinding to a halt. The Zen’zat had been smart in the strikes they made, and as of now only one drone hull armor factory was still functioning. She’d had 4 originally, and with 3 down that meant she was at…23% production capacity at the moment. Jessica was waiting for that number to tick up a bit when the first section of repairs were made at the first factory hit, but so far nothing was coming through and even if it started there was no guarantee the sabotage teams wouldn’t just hit it again.

The last intact factory was the primary target and the Archons had it buttoned down tight, but there was no guarantee she was going to be able to hold it, and the shipments of raw materials coming in had to be scrutinized, as did the arriving workers, and that was slowing down output and causing the factory to operate at 94% rather than the normal, smooth flowing 100%.

All of which meant the shipyards in orbit where the drones were being built would continue at 100% until they ran out of armor plating, then they’d have to pause all construction in slips that wasn’t receiving that remaining 23%. Jessica could choose to give a little to everyone or route it all into a few slips, the latter of which was the most beneficial, for when those drones were completed the slips could be cleared and new framework started.

But that left nearly finished drones just sitting in the other slips taking up space as they waited for hull armor to get to them, so she’d ordered those unfinished hulks removed so new ones could begin construction, with the 19 Warship-class jumpships in the system emptying their carrying capacity and having their drones free fly while the unarmored ones were moved to and taken in by those vessels for safekeeping…but they’d fill up eventually, meaning it was only a temporary time saving measure.

Then there were the other factories being hit, one of which was a bioharvest facility. The indoor growth pods hadn’t been damaged, for there were so many stretched across miles of facility it would be hard to do much damage to them without a warship overhead. No, the saboteurs had hit the mechanized part of the process where grains, nuts, fruits, tubers, and other produce was harvested and processed. It was the factory part of the bioharvest facility that had been hit and damaged, which again caused a pileup of raw foodstuffs that couldn’t be dealt with locally.

Thankfully there were manual ways of harvesting the crops and the Duke had assembled emergency teams to keep the flow going and reroute it directly to the cooks who would then have extra duties preparing it. Also, foodstuff supply was one area that necessitated redundancy, so Eoxion was producing more than it needed and laying emergency supplies away continuously from 729 different bioharvest factories on this planet alone. The disruption in only one of them might not seem significant, but it did matter and was one more thing Jessica had to account for as she shifted resources and people everywhere trying to put out figurative fires before they started as the literal ones continued to pop up.

And just now another one did. A warning came across from a drone frame production facility along the equator. Massive malfunctions were occurring and the emergency shutdown procedures were locking the entire factory down at the first sign of a glitch to mitigate the damage, but multiple explosions were being reported internally with no sign of…

Wait. There was something going on. A ‘curiosity’ flag had been pinged on the battlemap indicating that someone should take a look at it. Jessica knew security would be handling it but she zoomed in on the location and saw a string of Kiritak workers leaving the facility…but they weren’t. Rather they were running around in a circle and…

Then Jessica saw it, zooming down even lower, and a group of them were jumping on something invisible and trying to hold on to it as security was running towards them. The Duke saw several of the smaller Kiritak get thrown through the air like cannon balls, but others rushed to replace them and dove at what they could not see but could still feel.

Then several stun blasts were fired as non-Commando security officers in armor ran up and just fired on the ball of Kiritak with enough shots getting through them to disrupt the stealth field beneath. When that happened the computer operating the sensors immediately tagged Zen’zat armor and alarms sounded across the planet for those watching the appropriate screens.

The Zen’zat, apparently knowing his cover had been blown, dropped the stealth and began shooting back with the security officers all but running away as the Kiritak scattered. It wasn’t until the shields of two security officers were breached and they were lying on the ground with holes burnt in their armor did a security Commando finally arrive with a few other non-Commandos with her. Apparently she ordered them to stay at range and shoot while she rushed the larger green/black silhouette.

She didn’t make it far, for another invisible body slammed into hers and threw her aside…then both Zen’zat took off running under a hail of fire.

Jessica wanted to watch but knew she couldn’t, letting it go and knowing the Archons would be organizing everything from afar as she watched the readouts from the factory get worse and worse, finally plateauing at less than full damage as production ground to a halt. With a combination of minds’ eye and the holograms she quickly got readouts on what had been damaged and began calculating time for repair as she immediately sent construction crews there to start cleanup and repair.

The loss of this factory would slow the orbital drone production even more, for with less framework available the slips she was opening up by transporting the armorless drones away would soon begin to go dark as the lack of material finally caught up to them. That hadn’t happened yet, though they were only a few weeks away, and the additional loss of part of this factory would only snowball that in about 3 weeks time.

Jessica slammed her right fist down onto the ice-like smooth armrest of her throne. She wished she had an army of Archons here to hunt these bastards down, or even a few Arc Commandos or Arc Knights who could see through these damn stealth fields with their Pefbar, but all she had was the 3 Archons and herself. No one else on the planet had Pefbar and the reinforcements from other systems hadn’t arrived yet…not to say there were many coming, for the Archons assigned to her realm numbered all of 23 and she had no Arc Commandos or Arc Knights.

Her territory was not on the warfront, V’kit’no’sat or Rim, so there was no point in wasting their presence here when there was plenty of fighting to do elsewhere. Some Archons had to be around just in case, and those here were mainly helping with the development of the Elves, but she was not equipped to fight this type of invasion.

Sure, she had plenty of Commandos and Knights, and if these Zen’zat were visible they could take care of them, but only the security stations, her castle, and a few other valuable locations had ‘Mist’ scanners, which was the common term for technological Pefbar that covered an area with an energy field and could feel anything that moved through it. The stealth fields these Zen’zat were operating with wouldn’t work on the Mist scanner, so she was fairly safe here in her castle…assuming they tried to get in the front door and not go through a wall…but nowhere else on the planet had them.

There were portable units that the Archons had deployed to their best guesses for upcoming targets, but there were far too few and despite her reallocation of resources to start mass producing more there was no way to throw down a wide enough net across all her cities without a decade of prep work…and with this being a quiet system geared for maximum exports she’d never had reason to do so before, but was regretting it heavily now.

Maybe now that a Zen’zat had been spotted the Archons could run them down, but Jessica wasn’t counting on it. The Wood Elves realm was the safest place to be now, for their biological sensory net was programmed to withdraw from the presence of a Pefbar field and that’s apparently how the Zen’zat navigated when fully stealthed. That meant whenever one went into The Wood the Elves could feel the blank spot, as they had initially, though not before they all recognized the threat.

Since then there had been no more incursions there, and Jessica wished she’d planted more of the Ysalamiri trees in the city. As it was there were none save for one in the bottom of her castle. It had been the first one created, and not only did it produce a detection field over 100 meters in radius, it could move its branches like arms when so directed, taking on different shapes to create steps or platforms, or even to hit enemies that were stupid enough to stand beneath it.

Only the Wood Elves could control it, though, and that was by design. Even she and the Archons couldn’t tap into the ‘sight’ of The Wood, though the Elves could pass it onto them telepathically like any other thought.

As bad as this situation was, it could have been a lot worse and Jessica was grateful they didn’t have an enemy fleet over their head firing down on the planet. But while she was responsible for her realm she also had a responsibility to aid those on the fronts with exports, and every attack that happened chipped away at her ability to do so. Eoxion was her major export producer, and if these sabotage teams continued this rampage Jessica was going to have to face self-sufficiency problems of her own…and she did not want to have to ask for support from other realms.

While Monarchs always helped each other out, it was with heavy shame that one became a burden to the others. They were meant to be the ones planning and preparing for the bad days so that they could support others…to become needy meant failure, and Jessica was quite angry to have these invisible little pricks tearing apart everything she’d been building on top of the deaths they were racking up.

Of the 15 regions in what was currently Star Force territory…not counting what was lost in the now Devastation Zone…Seon held a place on the Rimward border, but it was a long territory and Jessica’s realm was in the coreward half butting up against the central Deu and Pavana Regions. Deu connected to the largest Region, simply designated ‘Rim’ because it had originally been the ‘Rim Region’ when Star Force first acquired The Nexus expansion races. A great deal more had been added since, but the Rim Region was now the coreward border, and that fact underlined how much territory was being lost to the V’kit’no’sat.

Which was why Davis had left the name ‘Rim Region’ intact, as a reminder, as he worked out of the Totana Region. It was on rim border and heavily involved in expansion fighting as trailblazer Steve-004 was pushing outward trying to get to the Neerson race…one of the abandoned Nexus races that had long ago applied for membership in Star Force. Yori-007 was with them now, trying to help them survive until the border could reach out to them, with Davis working to integrate and sustain those other smaller races being added to the empire with limited supplies.

The Director was making more out of less in a way that inspired Jessica whenever she checked on his status updates, with all the Monarchs able to watch each other in order to better coordinate resources. There was so much she’d learned from just watching him, and Jessica always took any opportunity she could to communicate with, let alone visit the Director and the Arch Dukes, who all were true masterminds of logistics and civilization creation.

It had been Davis that had personally chosen Jessica for her elevation to Monarch back before that’d even been the official designator. He’d made her a Baron, like he did with everyone else he found worthy of this high position of responsibility, and Jessica was proud to have risen all the way to Duke since, but he’d chosen her from outside Star Force unlike everyone else that had come from within.

She’d always felt that in some way he expected more of her and she’d wanted to live up to that benchmark, and when she’d been assigned as the replacement for Arch Duke Hightower in Epsilon Eridani Jessica felt that had validated her. It was the second most important system within Star Force and she’d been entrusted to guard and cultivate it while the best of the best went rimward to work their magic on the frontier.

When Epsilon Eridani fell it hadn’t been a surprise, but what it did to Jessica had been. She’d felt hollow and useless afterwards…not because of failure, but because her ability to do anything had been stripped from her. A Monarch’s power was in her infrastructure, her population, her cargo fleet, and in a lesser amount her warships and Archons that pretty much did their own independent thing. When she’d lost the second most powerful system in the empire she’d been left with just being Jessica again, and she’d hated that. It was like she’d been elevated to superhero status then had the enemy suck away that superpower.

She’d gone back to being normal…and normal was awful. She couldn’t help anyone, and somehow worse was the way that she’d been eliminated from the action. Jessica was out of the club, even while still being a Monarch, and that had felt so wrong.

The Director had seen it differently, but then again he was never out of the club. He had built the club and the whole of the empire was his to command. After Epsilon Eridani Jessica had nothing of her own to command until Davis had given her this startup…an agonizing process for a Duke who was used to dealing with so much, but it was her chance to get back in the club and she’d been dutifully increasing her industrial power to this day. Even with all her current systems combined they were no comparison for what Epsilon Eridani had been on its own, but this realm was hers again and she was a player on the empire-wide scene...albeit a small one, but entrusted with a project key to Star Force’s future.

Now that project was under attack and her infrastructure was being stripped from her a piece at a time with her unable to do anything about it. The Archons handled security, not Monarchs, and she didn’t blame the 3 here for what was happening. It was fate that she was upset with, that after all this time and effort she was beginning to be diminished again…and with trillions of people on the rim front living or dying by the supplies the Monarchs could export to them, it wasn’t a selfish desire for power that was driving Jessica, but rather the reverse. She needed to be in the game in order to help protect people…and here she was getting booted from it again.

She wasn’t out yet, and it would take a handful of saboteurs a long time to take down everything she’d built across 18 systems, but she could see it happening all over again, this time in slow motion, and the helplessness she was feeling to stop it was making her sick to her stomach as she tried to mitigate the damage and reroute resources and personnel to combat this…but it felt like a hopeless endeavor that she was just stretching out longer.

But she’d do it, if only to give the Archons more time to find and stop these bastards. They might be able to, or maybe they wouldn’t. She didn’t know, but she’d give them and the rest of the people in her realm every advantage she could. That was her responsibility and privilege, and if her power was going to be taken from her yet again she’d go down fighting…if only out of spite to do everything she possibly could.

Davis had taught her that after Epsilon Eridani, for he’d had to watch from afar as his Sol had been taken, including Earth, and she had to admit that was far worse. She’d only inherited Epsilon Eridani, not created it from scratch like Hightower had.

So she was going to fight this to whatever end, for that was her duty and privilege. For the moment she still had power to act with. They hadn’t taken it from her yet.

And if they were going to, she was going to be as stubborn and steadfast as possible, making them rip it away from her with all force.

That’s what Davis had told her to be, no matter how much it hurt in the process. Despair was something she could dwell on after it was all over.

So Jessica sat in her control throne sending out widescale orders and micromanaging even the slightest of others. Anywhere and everywhere she could get traction on this she would, for she was a Monarch and she was not just going to take this lying down…and even one additional drone sent to the front would make a difference, for they needed all they could get.

8

Connor sprinted across the top of an industrial building near to where the sabotage had recently gone down, stopping momentarily to reach back to Carrie, who was lagging behind, with a Bataf conduit. The energy field stretched out between them, linked in battlemeld, and allowed him to pull her towards him…essentially reeling in a solid string connecting them only to use it as a pole vault at the very end and send her flying out ahead of him.

She landed on the roof of the next building with the ViLord sprinting and jumping across the gap, closing in on his slower Apprentice as they managed to stay within Ikrid range of one of the Zen’zat that was now fleeing the brief battle. The Kiritak and security forces had managed to identify and delay him just enough for the Archon pair to get to the approximate location and send out a Neritu pulse…an upgraded version of Ikrid that used both minds combined with a little special tissue added to greatly increase their range.

They’d gotten 3 pings off it, but had lost the other two as they raced on ahead. The dropship that had brought the Archon in had flown in as close as they could, then they’d fallen to rooftops and continued the pursuit on foot with their psionics being the only way the Zen’zat could be tracked within their stealth fields.

This Zen’zat was fast, but Connor was faster. The problem was he needed Carrie with him and she wasn’t…hence the cheating to push her past her natural speed. Unfortunately Connor hadn’t reached Frieza level yet and obtained the ability to fly, making this an even chase, for no Zen’zat had ever obtained it either as far as the V’kit’no’sat database from millennia ago knew and none had been seen in the time since.

Just before he caught up to the Padawan she jumped off the edge of the building, falling partway to the distant street below where the Zen’zat was sprinting through, but she hit something before she got halfway down and angled to the side in the direction their quarry was running. Carrie stepped from one invisible foothold to another as she descended the stairs that the pair had just created with their Qwe’kal psionic.

Connor was producing them for Carrier to step on, but they were firmly locked to their positions even as he ran…then when he fell he landed on one that she produced for him, with both of them literally running through the air downward as they supported each other until Carrie got to ground a few dozen meters behind where the Zen’zat mental signature was…though they didn’t even need it now, for they were within the Pefbar bubble he was using to navigate with and a telekinetic shove partially slowed Carrie down before she pulsed her Rentar to negate it.

But then she stopped entirely and planted her feet before Connor could get all the way to ground. She let him pull a Jedi jump off of one step, then they both let go their Qwe’kal as a new Bataf formed between them. Carrie’s boots skidded on the pavement as she dragged the invisible conduit that felt as firm as a metal pole over her head via her outstretched hands, adding as much momentum to Connors jump as she could.

Both their minds were linked together, so there was no inefficiency in communication as the ViLord was launched ahead of her and landed on the other side of the Zen’zat…where he released a Jumat blast that knocked the 7 foot tall warrior into a sidewall, disrupting his stealth field momentarily before he disappeared again, but not from both Archons’ Pefbar sight.

Using Carrie to help him, the pair emitted a small Yinbi field around the Zen’zat…which was the same as the IDF used to protect starship crews from acceleration damage. On the Zen’zat it negated gravity and his next step sent him flying up into the air and partially out of the IDF. The two Archons altered it slightly, catching him midair and floating forward on his momentum in a slow cartwheel.

Dre’mo’don blasts came immediately as his stealth field dropped and Connor’s shields began taking some hits, but the Zen’zat was missing as much as he was hitting…then Carrie’s strength hit its limit and the Yinbi failed. It wasn’t her fault, for it was a new psionic to her and they hadn’t practiced it much over the two years she’d had it, but they’d managed to catch the Zen’zat off guard with it…and now it was time to use their nearly full arsenal of battlemeld psionics to take him down.

Connor began with another Jumat, knocking him back as Carrie grabbed his feet in a Lachka hold, tripping him up until he too used his Rentar to free himself. Seeing her dark brown armor in contrast to Connor’s pink, the Zen’zat went for the weaker one, pouring firepower into her shields then swinging down towards her head with his left fist as she dropped to the ground and Connor pulled her through the gap in his legs with another Bataf.

When underneath she hit him with her own weaker Jumat, punching him into the air as she became the Anchor and pulled her Master forward on the Bataf, launching him feet first into the Zen’zat’s back and knocking him to the ground ahead of them as another Pefbar bubble came into view behind them, followed by a spray of Dre’mo’don blasts as another Zen’zat came to assist.

Crap, Connor thought as the two Archons stood up back to back charging their next attack as they also fired Dre’mo’don orbs at the Zen’zat from their own forearm gauntlets…but theirs were less powerful and the Zen’zat shields more so, meaning they were eventually going to lose that exchange if it was allowed to persist.

Suddenly the first Zen’zat got their attention, with both Archon minds focusing on it as he emitted a Wequay telepathic lure. Too late they realized what it was, turning their attention back on the other one as he punched Connor in the chest so hard it knocked him and Carrie back 6 meters and sent them sprawling on the ground while both Zen’zat poured fire into their nearly depleted shields.

Both Archons pulsed their Cerden, linking their bioshields and enhancing them greatly to give their mechanical shields a few seconds breather, then Carrie took off, running into the sky on invisible steps as Connor stayed put on the ground. A few seconds later she dropped to the ground on the other side of the Zen’zat that tried to swat at her leg but missed, then the pair emitted their charged Jumatran from a common focal point between the two…that was now oriented sideways to the Zen’zat that had punched them.

The Jumat-like blast formed as a distortion in the air then launched almost immediately into the Zen’zat with such force that he ricocheted off the building wall, leaving a slight dent in the hard material as dust-like shards of it and his armor fell to the ground as the two Archons went after the other one with Connor turning Carrie into a living weapon, throwing/pulling her balled up body into the other Zen’zat, taking a few shots on the way and knocking him back…but Carrie didn’t bounce off. Instead she grabbed hold and wrapped her body around the Zen’zat while she dragged a Lew conduit from Connor.

That energy ribbon hit the Zen’zat, bypassing its armor that wasn’t designed to stop such things because the V’kit’no’sat were unaware they even existed. It impacted the Zen’zat’s body and delivered the predetermined Ikrid command past the mental blocks that otherwise stopped the Archons from doing to the Zen’zat what the Zen’zat had done to the Elves.

His mind froze up momentarily, with him fighting off the effect soon thereafter, but not before Connor and Carrie turned him into a punching bag, hitting him back and forth between them with physical blows with added Dre’mo’don blasts thrown in where they could manage it. Both Archons pulsed their Tavitor, briefly enhancing their physical strength to really hammer some of the hits home, and before the Zen’zat could recover his shields were down and he was taking armor damage.

The other Zen’zat shook off the unbelievably large Jumat hit and came at Connor from behind, but thanks to Pefbar there was no ‘behind’ as far as vision was concerned and Carrie darted off, walking sideways against an invisible wall halfway across the street from where the physical wall was, and curved around behind the second Zen’zat that was hit with what felt like a physical impact as she dragged the Neofen ‘clothesline’ into him.

He didn’t see it coming, for it was an energy the Pefbar couldn’t detect, and it knocked him sideways into a Connor reverse elbow to his dipping head. The Zen’zat fell backwards as Carrie came forward, landing a diving elbow-first Archon Punch into his back that cracked armor. Connor used his Lachka to drag the flying Zen’zat into a bit of curve and got the two to collide, then Carrie poured more Dre’mo’don fire into them as Connor pulled a small rod off the minimal rack on his back. It elongated into a sword with no sharp edges, and he took it to the Zen’zat as they got back to their feet, using the extra range to stay out of their arms’ reach as he went melee into the nearest one.

Occasionally pulsing his battlemeld Tavitor to really hammer a particular blow home, he broke more bits of armor off them as it flowed across their bodies, getting thinner and thinner as it spread out to cover any small holes. Meanwhile Carrie stayed back getting in several more shots until one of the Zen’zat pushed past Connor and went after her…but she just walked up the invisible steps into the air out of his reach and the two exchanged Dre’mo’don fire until a silent object appeared at the far end of the street and moved towards them as tactical data flowed into their helmets.

Carrie pulsed her Yetu, doing a Jedi jump upwards then hung in midair to create an invisible step for Connor to land on as he did the same…simultaneously creating one for Carrie to land on as both Zen’zat beneath them reactivated their stealth fields, but too late. They disappeared from view as the street beneath the Archons was flooded with bright blue flashes of much larger Dre’mo’dons from the skeet that had dipped down to street level and was gliding forward between the tight sidewalls.

Connor telepathically helped the pilot aim at the invisible targets, though it wasn’t needed as their stealth fields fell with even glancing hits. The two Zen’zat ran the other direction, spreading and trying to get distance on the much faster craft as it zipped by underneath the Archons who were leaping from invisible step to step to follow midair. They got a good view of the green/black Zen’zat armor being blown apart and the first Zen’zat going down, but the other made it to a corner and disappeared from view.

Up, Connor said to Carrie through their battlemeld connection, and both began climbing those invisible stairs up to rooftop again to continue the chase but the second Zen’zat target wasn’t able to reengage his stealth, making him an easy target for the skeet once it rounded the corner. He went down as well, this time in pieces, while the two Archons dropped back down to street level and went to the body of the first Zen’zat, knowing that their armor would revive them from even serious damage so long as their head wasn’t hit too badly or the armor too chewed up.

But that wasn’t the case for this one, who’d they’d hoped to interrogate as to the location or targets of the other one or ones. A full quarter of his head was blown off around his missing right ear, meaning he was unrecoverable for either the armor or the Archons’ healing abilities.

“Well done, Padawan,” Connor said as they released their battlemeld.

“I was in over my head and you know it,” she countered, looking at the few melted spots in her armor, all of which had failed to get all the way through to her skin.

“I couldn’t have taken both of them alone, and even one would have been a challenge. I’ve never seen one with Wequay before, and they both at least had Rentar,” he said, citing both tier 2 psionics.

“Thank you for making me look like a badass.”

“We fight as a team, and that makes our linked pairing a badass. I’m proud of you.”

“They are so damn fast.”

“I know. These aren’t low level Zen’zat. I’d guess high-level Zardaku at least,” he said, referring to the second tier of Zen’zat rankings out of 6…with level 6 being virtually unobtainable.

They both saw the skeet reappear over the buildings and resume a patrol hover. Apparently there were no other targets visible, with at least one other Zen’zat still on the loose nearby, but Connor couldn’t sense anything and guessed he was running for his life at this point…and rightly so.

“Two down,” Carrie noted.

“No clue how many more are left. Hopefully this slows down their sabotage a bit,” he said, rotating his right arm around in a stretching motion and encountering a hitch. It jammed up until he lowered it a bit, meaning it was damaged, but it wasn’t too bad and he didn’t feel like heading back to grab another set just yet. Carrie had damage too, but she was still moving well.

“Next move?”

“Patrol and see if we can get lucky. That one is still relatively close.”

“After you, Master,” she said, feeling his battlemeld prompt and accepting it so she could create the invisible steps for him leading up to the rooftops.

Connor took them in large leaps, able to see them thanks to the battlemeld sharing of their senses and skipped several of them, then when he got to the roof Carrie jumped and he pulled her all the way up on a Bataf conduit, leaving the Zen’zat remains for security to deal with as they ran off at slower speeds and began building hopping again while extending their Ikrid range as far as they could hoping to get lucky and get another Zen’zat hit.

9

March 24, 4827

Tauriel System (Seon Region)

Eoxion

Jessica paced around her throne room, cape trailing in the air behind her as she was too focused and angry to sit still. Even with the deaths of two Zen’zat the sabotage had not stopped or even slowed. More and more of her factories were getting hit and another 28 Elves had been killed…but the one Zen’zat that seemed to be hunting them had been wounded and driven away more than a week ago and there hadn’t been another Elf hit since. Hopefully that would hold, but the loss of the Duke’s infrastructure continued.

The damage wasn’t great, but the disruptions in production were mounting and some of the repair work that had been completed had been hit a second time…infuriating her even further. It was like there was no way to win, and even the handful of other Archons and a team of Mavericks that had arrived hadn’t been able to catch any more Zen’zat. They were still moving about freely, and she had far too many factories on this planet to defend…giving them a plethora of targets to choose from.

And there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it other than rebuild, but at the rate the Zen’zat were moving she was losing ground and their ship or ships still hadn’t been located yet despite massive ongoing sensor sweeps. The damage to her factories were being accomplished with explosives and hacking to maximize the damage, but they weren’t obtaining the explosives from here. Her stockpiles were well guarded and mist generators surrounded them now, so the Zen’zat had to be using their own supply.

Were they near to running out or getting additional reinforcements in under her nose? The best time to detect a stealth ship was when it was moving through atmosphere or coming out of a jump and ramming into so much stellar radiation it usually gave off a blip no matter how much it tried to absorb. Star Force had experimented with ways to negate that, but collision speeds of multiple times lightspeed made total capture almost impossible.

But so far there were no arrival pings on any jumpline noted, and Jessica was pumping out more detection satellites to increase sensitivity, but those wouldn’t be in place for months…at least not enough to lock down the system with a fine sensor net.

Jessica was also pouring through the data files coming through the comm grid from the rest of Star Force. Were they also experiencing this and did they have any suggestions of how to proceed?

There was some data on stealth activities, including the Ghostbane sensor, but until Star Force got its own version up and running the V’kit’no’sat were apparently going to have full run of her territory and who knew elsewhere. If their stealth tech had improved to this level then no system was safe.

So why here? Why was her home system the only one under infiltration? The Elves she could understand, but why the sabotage? There were plenty of other systems with more important infrastructure to hit, and a lot closer to the front. So what were they playing at here other than trying to weaken the defenses around the Elves?

Jessica didn’t know. She didn’t know anything and was chasing the rabbit down the rabbit hole day in and day out. The Archons were frustrated too, but at least they were out there doing something. All she could do is wait to see what was hit and try to adjust her production lines to compensate, changing her growth into a holding action at best, meaning the longer these Zen’zat ran free sabotaging what they liked, they were doing far more damage in terms of disruptions than they were worth…making this clandestine attack quite the coup.

No shield generators or planetary defenses had been hit yet, thankfully, for she didn’t trust an invasion fleet not to come into the system and wipe out all the Elves in the most efficient way possible. They had to be the key to this…something to do with V’kit’no’sat edicts or paranoia over misuse of psionics…but aside from the lone assassin that seemed to be hunting them the rest of the Zen’zat were ignoring the Elvish cities and going straight for Jessica’s industrial infrastructure.

That made it personal, and she wasn’t going to sit here and…

Jessica stopped pacing, her momentum pulling her cape forward around her body as she was frozen in thought. It wasn’t an attack, but rather an epiphany. Not to do with the Zen’zat attacks, unfortunately, but what she hadn’t been thinking about for weeks…and that being the Zezdi.

“Damn I’m stupid,” she said, forcing thoughts of the Zen’zat and what she couldn’t do aside and focusing on what she could do…namely solving the Zezdi developmental problem whose solution had just hit her out of nowhere.

Jessica walked back over to her throne and sat down, mentally pulling up her holographic interface ringing her with information. She adjusted most of them to data fields, pulling up familiar research she’d been doing while digging up a related post in the medtech advancements. She’d seen this a few years ago, but only now had it popped back into mind…

There. She had the summary up again, including an update that she hadn’t read concerning Star Force’s ability to write genetic memory. Primary research into that area involved the Paladin, but knowledge had been gained from the V’kit’no’sat database that had allowed them to go even further and pack more information into each of the new Paladin born, making them superior upon release from their growth pods.

The reason the Zezdi held onto their offspring so long was to give them the necessary experience and instruction above and beyond the physical development. That gave their parent enormous influence over the 8-12 offspring they carried on their flanks/back in little nodules with their heads poking out. The spider-like race was extremely hive minded but accomplished it without telepathy, primarily due to this long period of coexistence before the younglings disconnected and became independent.

Jessica had originally thought of them as the ‘spider kangaroos’ when she’d been assigned to oversee their conversion and development, and they’d proved to be very resistant to change due primarily to this method of instruction…for while in this state there was some neural connection, meaning their minds were partially linked and that dependency was something that had debilitating side-effects when not implemented.

Though rare now, in the past when a Zezdi had been killed while carrying younglings some of those younglings could survive, but if they weren’t close to release anyway they became almost zombie-like without the mental link to their parent. Jessica had worked to develop those individuals using the typical maturia system but it had not worked well. The Zezdi were built to reproduce this way, which was why she was having so much trouble finding a way to separate them from their bad habits that literally clung to them generation after generation.

She’d been watering down those bad habits, but until the individuals could be separated from their hive mind they could never take their true place in Star Force. That had been the paradox she was facing, and as it turned out the solution was really very simple in concept, but would be a headache to genetically program.

Replace the learning phase with genetic memory, allowing the younglings to disconnect almost immediately once sufficiently physically mature while mentally developed similar to the Paladin…but just enough to get them free from their parent. Not to turn them into new…

Wait a second, she thought, stopping her perusing through the genetic writing notes she’d pulled up. Why not? They’ll never reproduce as fast as the Paladin, but why not have them fully tricked out with genetic memory. That would increase their productivity exponentially…

Then the downside hit her. Paladin were heavily regimented, limiting creativity and making it a long hard struggle to develop to the point of independent thinking. The very things that made her a Monarch the Paladin did not have, save for the Viceroys, but even they were wearing blinders that had to be unlearned to truly excel. Individuals raised in the maturia system were the reverse, having to learn unity and coordination that the Paladin literally lived and breathed.

The Paladin had been allowed to stay as they were almost as a mercy, but over time their usefulness had been proven more than that. The fear was they’d become tools rather than people, but that had never occurred with Archon oversight. The Viceroys had tended to think that way based off their genetic memory, but that had been modified over the years and, to be honest, the Paladin were truly becoming impressive despite their limited individual status. Their strength was their numbers and rate of building speed, not in their high skill levels.

Humans were the reverse, with individuals like Jessica reaching great heights that Paladin simply could not achieve in any great number. A few of their individuals had overcome their base programming and were on the same path now, but they were rare and far behind where other races were, and Jessica and the other Monarchs didn’t like inhibiting an individual’s growth for the sake of their race.

With the Paladin they’d chosen to work the problem in the opposite direction, chipping away at the regimentation just enough to free their minds a bit without collapsing their entire civilization, but it had been assumed that every other race would use the maturia system.

But in the case of the Zezdi, who already had this debilitating linkage, would a Paladin-like system actually be an upgrade?

Jessica knew it would and didn’t understand why she hadn’t seen this sooner. Maybe she’d just been trying too hard, but right now this was something she could constructively do rather than just pace and spin her wheels regarding the Zen’zat. The truth was until the Archons caught or killed the Zen’zat they’d continue to do damage and the orders she’d give to try and work around the problem weren’t that complicated. She had plenty of spare time, especially if she was stuck in her castle so not to become another victim of the Zen’zat, so why not do something valuable while this played out?

Her mind was abuzz…finally she could do something rather than sit and watch her infrastructure get hit like a punching bag. She was going to need to bring in some specialists, particularly those that had experience with the Paladin, but not the Paladin themselves. They were good at manipulating their own genome, but didn’t show as much innovation when consulting about others. That’s why she’d requested Kiritak workers rather than Paladin when they’d been offered from Davis, despite the Paladin’s greater growth rate.

She’d regretted that many times in the past, but the Kiritak were so solid she hated playing with anything else. She preferred them to the Bsidd as well, but other Monarchs swore by the Paladin for startups and bulk production while Jessica knew the Kiritak were a long term investment and would individually exceed each Paladin down the road, for they learned faster. Now that she had a great number of them in her realm she didn’t regret her decision, but she was going to need outside help, for this type of genetic memory induction into a race that had very low levels to begin with was going to be fraught with problems.

She needed a Mastertech in genetics, and those that had developed the Elves were not based here. Jessica was merely their caretaker, so she needed to find her own expert…or in this case a team of experts. And the sooner she got them recruited the better.

The Duke had no doubt they would come, for manipulating a race on this level wasn’t something they typically got to do…and for that reason she knew she had better run it by Davis. Technically she didn’t have to, but this was a huge alteration to a race taken in from The Nexus. He’d brought all them in individually, and if this was something he wasn’t ok with she needed to know before she started tampering…let alone breaching the subject with the Zezdi, who she knew would resist if for no reason other than spite at the notion of change.

She could handle them in her own way, but Davis had to sign off on this first. Expecting him to, Jessica sent out the invites to many medtech specialists inquiring as to their current availability and interest in the project. By the time Davis got back to her hopefully she’d have a list of candidates assembled. If he nixed the idea no harm done, but if he approved it she’d be able to hit the ground running.

Jessica sent the messages out quickly, then began planning what she could with the medtech specialists she had on planet, bringing them to her castle and having work sessions almost round the clock. The Humans had a hard time keeping up, but the Kiritak were more eager than her to work and they’d got a basic plan set up with all the hard microwork to take place later as she waited for a response from Davis.

He’d sent a ‘proceed with planning’ reply, but that was merely a hold order while he worked on something. It wasn’t an approval, and the longer she waited the more Jessica wondered what was going on. If he didn’t approve he would shoot the idea down instantly. If he did, then what was he waiting for? More data? Did he have serious concerns he was checking on?

Jessica got her answer a couple months later when a special envoy from Davis arrived in the system under heavy guard. Four Warship-class jumpships escorting a cargo ship, with the military vessels coming with more Archons and hunter teams signaling they were going to go after the Zen’zat saboteurs while a smaller group operated as an honor guard for the nameless emissary that arrived in her throne room clad in a deep black robe that covered every part of the individual save for his mind…and one of a race that Jessica could not identify.

“Monarch,” a Piccolo-level Archon said, who was operating as the bodyguard for the individual when they entered as the other escorts were working their way around the castle to further lock it down.

“Archon,” she responded in kind, standing up and walking a few steps toward them. “Who is your mysterious friend?”

“Someone you’ve just received clearance to be made aware of. His existence will have to be concealed from most of your staff, for we can’t risk word of his existence getting out. Only the research team he selects will be allowed to interact with him, and my security team will see that no one else gets access.”

Jessica raised an eyebrow, resisting the urge to take a peek inside the robe with her Pefbar. “A secret race a Duke doesn’t know about? Now I’m really curious.”

“A race of one, hopefully,” Nefron said, pulling back his cloak’s hood to reveal his rough features and pulsing his glowing green eyes. “If you find any others, shoot them on sight.”

“Who are you?”

“I am formerly Protovic. Now I am Chixzon,” he said, seeing Jessica’s eyes going wide. “I possess their genetic knowledge and have studied what you took from the V’kit’no’sat database. If your conversion of the Zezdi is going to be successful, I have the best chance of making it so.”

“Davis sends his approval…and his specialist,” the Archon noted. “He’s one of our few advantages over the V’kit’no’sat…and we can’t let them find out he exists.”

“The inoculation of the Protovic failed?” Jessica asked.

“Only once,” Nefron attested. “I helped create the inoculation so this would not happen to any of the others. I have remained Chixson to use their knowledge against them when they eventually return, but inside I am still Protovic…more or less.”

“Ego exponentially increased,” the Archon added, “but with skills to match.”

“I believe your assessment of the Zezdi is more or less correct,” Nefron said, ignoring the jab and focusing on the Duke. “They must be broken free or they will never truly become part of Star Force.”

“Well damn,” Jessica said, half laughing. “What else is Davis hiding from us?”

“A lot,” Nefron admitted.

“I have no doubt,” Jessica agreed. “Thank you for coming. I assume…” she said, looking at the Archon.

“Ian,” he offered.

“…Ian will handle security. We have a Zen’zat problem and haven’t been able to identify their insertion method.”

“We know, which is why we’re moving him to a Zezdi planet after we get through initial work here. Until then I’m his close escort.”

“My name is Nefron,” the Chixzon offered. “This type of work requires an immense amount of simulation before actual trials to avoid damage to the race in question, so we need to begin soon. Your efforts to rework their race will be on hold without a solid reproductive schedule.”

“Indeed,” Jessica echoed. “I guess I won’t be needing the medtechs I recruited after all.”

“What you have locally will be enough to assist me.”

“Well then, let’s get started…and you can fill me in on how Davis acquired you while Ian screens my medtechs and staff.”

“Happening already. I’m staying put,” the Archon said firmly.

Jessica frowned. “He’s in that much danger?”

“My existence is a fluke not easily repeated. If not for some quick action on behalf of the trailblazers I would permanently be their enemy. The Chixzon programming within the Protovic is very thorough.”

“The others are safe now, correct?”

“Our Protovic are.”

“Good. I have a few in my other systems. Damn you’re ugly.”

Nefron’s eyes glowed briefly. “I receive that sentiment a lot, but few actually speak it.”

Jessica pointed to her hair. “Blondes tend to bluntly speak their mind. You’re telepathic?”

“I am, but I do not have your Ikrid block and my own telepathy is inferior, but we can communicate in that manner if you wish.”

“Useful,” Jessica said, pointing to a nearby doorway. “My personal chambers are in there, and there are a few spare rooms I never use. We can set them up for you and your team. You won’t have to leave the peak of the castle unless you wish it.”

“Good,” Ian said, glancing out the windows. “These are one way, correct?”

“Of course. Not that there’s anyone out there to look in,” she said, referencing the mountains beyond, with the cityscape below so far down that they couldn’t see in anyway unless you were standing on the very edge.

“This will do,” he said, confirming that with Nefron via a simple nod. “He’s all yours.”

“Well then,” Jessica said, waving a hand and telepathically triggering the floor to open up and another ice-like chair to rise out from beneath it as a hologram of the spider-like Zezdi appeared in the center of the room along with a lot of data charts circling around it. “Let me fill you in on what I want done and you can start to troubleshoot.”

Nefron pulled his cloak completely off, dropping it on the floor and flailing his tail around visibly behind him.

“Oh,” she said, causing the back of the chair to ‘melt’ away and leave a stool-like platform behind that his tail could hang over the back of. “That’s cute.”

“Not really,” Nefron said as he walked over and sat down, stretching his shoulder pikes out vertically then around in a circular motion before tucking them back in again behind his head.

Ian frowned with exaggerated disappointment. “Where’s my chair?”

“You can sit on my lap if you like,” Jessica said sarcastically as she returned to her throne. “Don’t you have my medtechs to clear? I’d like them in here as soon as possible.”

“On it,” he said, walking across to the doorway into her personal quarters. “Anything in there you don’t want me to see?”

“No hidden boyfriends, if that’s what you mean?”

“Is there a signup list?” he said with a wink, then disappeared to check out the area that Nefron would be living in for the foreseeable future.

“You’ve obviously gone through the notes I sent to Davis,” she said, turning serious. “Your initial thoughts?”

10

July 13, 4827

Medforjet System (V’kit’no’sat territory on Star Force warfront)

Tivonmenk

Ronoken arrived back at the V’kit’no’sat stronghold along with the remains of the sabotage team, most of whom were still here minus the 3 that had been killed. Their leader, Virrian, was summoned with him to the Rit’ko’sor’s lair with them being sealed behind privacy fields again.

“Report,” Sess’met said evenly as he looked up at the two Zen’zat.

Ronoken telepathically poked Virrian, allowing her to speak first.

“Considerable damage done to their infrastructure, but nothing that can’t be easily repaired. A short term disruption in their supply lines has occurred as expected. We lost 3 Zen’zat during operations, but most of us were never seen.”

“How did those three die?”

“We didn’t observe their deaths, but later saw on the public news feeds that Archons combined with aerial craft took them down once their presence was located by incidental contact.”

“Incidental?”

“Tripping over fleeing crowds most likely. Rather than run, the crowds tried to tackle them and delayed their escape long enough for the Archons to get to them. They can see through our stealth fields the same way we can.”

“No technological penetration?”

“None that we encountered.”

“I did,” Ronoken interrupted. “Two different varieties, one which is biological.”

“Explain the technological.”

“It was in one of their Elvish cities…their new Human variant located away from the equatorial industrial zones. Most had no such detection, but I believe a portable unit was put in place that operated off of Pefbar.”

“Technologically generated Pefbar?”

“Yes.”

“But it wasn’t widespread?”

“I only encountered it in one of their cities on a main approach. I believe it was placed there in response to our attacks. Not preceding it.”

“Do you concur?” he asked Virrian.

“We encountered none in their factories or surrounding areas.”

“Good. Confirming that was part of the reason you were sent. What was the biological source?”

Ronoken reached over his shoulder and pulled a few small vials out of the cargo compartment there that then reduced in size and disappeared, flowing into the rest of the armor and giving him a smooth shoulder blade.

“I retrieved a sample. They have engineered their trees with some sort of detection system. It was not Pefbar, otherwise I would have felt it, but they could track my position whenever amongst the trees. They also were able to move in crude defensive maneuvers.”

“The trees moved?”

“Yes. They tried to both attack me and shield the Elves I was killing. Very ineffective, but totally unexpected. I believe it is another experiment not yet fully developed.”

“With no Pefbar signature?”

“None.”

Sess’met broke eye contact, beginning to pace left and right with his tail waggling slightly with each step.

“They do not include much biology in their cities,” Virrian noted. “Do they suspect our activity on uninhabited planets?”

“Limited use,” Sess’met said, dismissing it as a potential reason…then he stopped and looked at the Zen’zat. “What occurs when Pefbar meets Pefbar?”

“They overlap and you can feel the interaction,” Ronoken answered.

“And Lachka?”

“They do not overlap. One must push against the other in order to reach a target.”

“Which is why we must use tethers to work in concert,” Sess’met added. “We use Pefbar to see where these tethers are even if we cannot reach them.”

“Your point?” Virrian asked.

“If you wish to detect without detection, your Pefbar cannot overlap. What if it was designed to recoil from another Pefbar field?”

“Then it would not have vision…”

“Exactly,” Sess’met said, looking from Virrian to Ronoken. “You were in the trees. Were you using your Pefbar to navigate?”

“I have to while stealthed.”

“Then perhaps they detected your Pefbar bubble and tracked it?”

“Why would I not feel the other field on my periphery?”

“It would have to be structured differently…or perhaps they have created an altogether new type of sensor. If that was the case, sporadic technological Pefbar would not be used in their cities.”

“I believe you are correct,” Virrian answered. “Altering Pefbar would be simpler than developing something entirely new.”

“Regardless, it is clear they are experimenting on more than just their own race.”

“I retrieved samples of that as well. They were easy to kill,” Ronoken said, floating the vials over to Sess’met. “They did not have an Ikrid block.”

The Rit’ko’sor’s neck twitched back suddenly, then he began pacing again and Ronoken could tell he was both surprised and worried. He stayed silent for so long that the Zen’zat began to wonder if they should leave or not.

“They are trying to gain parity,” he finally said. “We are born with telepathy. They have never known this and are trying to ascertain if there is an advantage. They have to remove the Ikrid blocks in order to allow juvenile interaction that otherwise would be blocked.”

“We can still communicate with it,” Virrian pointed out.

“Yes, but not like we do. Our interactions bind us together in ways you will never know. It is not a…simple process to refine. It is a mark of a superior race. They are trying to gain this but do not know how. Thus the experiment.”

“What threat does it pose?” Ronoken asked.

“I do not know. Your race was given much that we were not in order to compensate. You are built to be individuals, but the Archons have achieved more in that regard. Them trying to reverse this could be their undoing…or a great achievement if they could master it. I do not know what will come of this.”

“What have we been given that you do not possess?” Virrian wondered.

“Unlimited psionics and Ikrid shielding. We must rely on mental strength to defend. You are immune. Do not underestimate that.”

“The Humans are no different.”

“They can always add the Ikrid block later,” Ronoken pointed out before Sess’met could answer. “Something that we are not allowed to do.”

“No we aren’t. Ikrid blocks are forbidden save for Zen’zat. You must be immune to be useful servants, but if Rit’ko’sor were immune and Oso’lon were not, we could potentially overpower them. Strength of mind is our way, and your blocks are meant to allow you some parity with us. Star Force is reaching for more than they gained from us. They are not copying as others believe. They are ascending, quietly, while we fight a war we believe we are destined to win by default. They are using our arrogance against us.”

“We will kill them all eventually,” Virrian pointed out.

“Will we? Why haven’t we done so already?”

“That is not for me to know.”

“It is arrogance. We have taken so many worlds from them we expect them to crumble, but they do not. They are like V’kit’no’sat and respond to threats via adaptation. Not surrender. So long as they live they are a threat. If Mak’to’ran was truly wise he would bring the full force of the empire down upon them. It is arrogance that shields Star Force now. It is arrogance that I have to fight to get the ships I need. Thus another path is required. If Star Force does not have Pefbar detectors widely deployed, then we have a window of opportunity.”

“Do you wish us to return?” Ronoken asked.

“Not to the Tauriel System. I need you and many others to deploy to a closer target. If you are able to penetrate their security, I require the seizure of one of their shield generators and as many of their adjacent anti-orbital batteries as possible.”

Virrian starred at the Rit’ko’sor closely. “You think we can create a foothold that will also defend against their orbital fleet?”

“You see…Zen’zat can think when you try. Yes, if you can move undetected then there is a chance. And if we can have their own defense shield protecting our landing zone we can take one of their worlds with far less loss of ships.”

“You have been waiting for this, haven’t you?” Ronoken asked.

“I have. We cannot keep trading losses to take planets, for we have not been given enough resources to stomp this heresy out. We must therefore use guile, and I needed to know if insertion was viable. Better to test it on a world far from the border where you were likely to return to report.”

“The Archons can see us,” Virrian pointed out.

“Which is why we must choose our target carefully and you must move even more carefully. We can use this tactical only once, for they will adapt to it. Where then do you think we should try for?”

The Zen’zat glanced at each other, then both answered in sync.

“Gallifrey.”

“Gallifrey,” Sess’met agreed, “would be a worthy target. One they feel is safe. Getting a fleet there will be problematic, so the timing must be precise. We require reconnaissance first and a slow infiltration. I want both of you there first to hunt for these technological Pefbar devices or these altered trees. If the way is clear, more will come and hide. When the time is right, if we have an opportunity, we will strike. If not, we will withdrawal and try another target. Again, patience is key.”

“We understand,” Ronoken said. “We are not so arrogant as you believe.”

“You still have much to learn, but if you were unbearably arrogant I would not have chosen you. I require subordinates that can think, and unfortunately that means retraining you. Do not allow yourselves to be killed or I will have to start over with others more arrogant than you.”

“We serve the V’kit’no’sat however is required,” Virrian said firmly.

“You are beginning to, and in that I see hope. If only I had drone warships…” Sess’met said angrily. “The empire is eager to learn how to fight the Hadarak better because we know we are inferior, but where we assume superiority we are stubborn and slow to change our ways. I need this attack to be successful not only for our campaign, but to teach others who assume they are my superior. So more Zen’zat and others are not lost needlessly due to arrogance. We must be both lucky and precise. If we cannot have both we must withdraw. It is essential that you understand the gravity of this.”

“Three of my Zen’zat were killed on this past mission,” Virrian answered. “I do not underestimate Star Force. I learn from failure and adapt.”

“That is why you will be in command of the assault force. Ronoken will be in command of the reconnaissance. Use your own judgement wisely. I will not be able to direct you from afar.”

“When do we leave?” Ronoken asked confidently.

“Choose Zen’zat less arrogant than most. 3,000 in total spread over dozens of ships. Leave as soon as you are ready.”

Both Zen’zat bowed lightly out of respect, then turned and left immediately, leaving Sess’met to analyze the samples delivered. His report needed to be sent to Zyrnox immediately, but not his plans for Gallifrey. The upcoming assault was going to be on his own authority…and better not to tell anyone of it beforehand. If successful he would use it to bash some sense into their arrogant heads. If it failed, he didn’t feel like explaining why to his idiotic peers.

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