Star Force: Uriti Strike
Author: Aer-Ki Jyr
Date: 2017-04-19T06:00:00+00:00
Publisher: Archon Lore

1

November 4, 4831

Kasterborous System (Rim Region)

Gallifrey

Aaron-010 casually woke up in his bed. There was no alarm or any sign of trouble, but as per his habit he immediately stretched out his Ikrid to its limits and got pings from the various minds around him in the quartary all the way to the outer walls where his telepathy ended. His range was greater than that, but the walls had been rebuilt with psionic blocks in them after several Zen’zat stealth teams had attacked those sleeping without even entering the building.

They’d used their Pefbar/Lachka to crush the brains of 38 individuals in one night, then accumulated another 137 more, including 2 Archons, before heavy patrols were enacted around the quataries with Archons and Arc Knights. That act alone had pulled so many off other duties that the Zen’zat had managed to hit other locations and set up two raids by the larger V’kit’no’sat camped out under their single captured shield generator. Now that the quartaries had been secured against psionic attacks while people slept the psionically-capable Clansmen were back on the combat front around the captured foothold.

But knowing that there were walls the Zen’zat could not see or reach through didn’t totally put Aaron at ease. He’d trained himself to relax when he did go to sleep, but once he woke up he wanted to pull a quick check and make sure everything was alright within his quartary where over 8,000 Clan members slept.

Not all of their quarters were filled, for they had to take shifts, but even trailblazers had to sleep during combat and the siege of Gallifrey was already nearing 3 years in length. Using their Ghostbane technology the Zen’zat had infiltrated the planet en mass and seized a single planetary shield generator along with 6 anti-orbital batteries on the Clan-only world, but before the invaders could be overwhelmed and the infrastructure retaken or destroyed, stealthed V’kit’no’sat ships began appearing in the atmosphere to reinforce them.

Those delivered their regular ground troops, including Oso’lon, who had held the shield generator and 5 of the anti-orbital batteries. Star Force had taken back one of them, though the V’kit’no’sat had made sure to sabotage it before they lost it. Now there was a small window of clear airspace where V’kit’no’sat ships could operate, and many of them were packed in hover mode over top the shield generator itself, making it impossible for a counterattack without suffering massive losses.

The fleet in orbit was the obvious choice to deal with the situation, but the V’kit’no’sat had Star Force’s own shield generator that they had to beat their way through and now 5 anti-orbital Ardent beam cannons. That wasn’t much compared to the size of the Clan fleet in orbit, but the V’kit’no’sat had also brought in a large fleet of their own that was keeping the Star Force fleet from hitting the ground foothold on Gallifrey…which was the largest and most heavily defended planet in the Rim Region and the current capitol of 17 different Clans including Aaron’s Nova Wolves.

There were no civilians here. Every single one of the planet’s 18 billion people were Clan, meaning they were the best of the best from techs through Commandos, and the V’kit’no’sat had made almost no progress out from their foothold over the past 3 years. That said, Star Force hadn’t been able to remove them yet either, with both fleets in orbit playing cat and mouse games, knowing that a full fight would wipe out most of both fleets and neither side could afford those losses. Hence the Siege of Gallifrey had resulted in a stalled ground war to determine the fate of the planet, and not even the inclusion of 6 trailblazers had managed to break the stalemate as of yet.

Aaron rolled out of bed after getting his Ikrid ‘all-clear’ scan, withdrawing his powerful psionic back into passive awareness mode where he could feel the mind locations of those nearest him in the other rooms and a few down in the cafeteria a few levels below him as he walked over to, but didn’t sit down at his quarters’ terminal. He checked for new messages using the telepathic interface, with a holographic screen rising up to his current eye level.

There were several planetary updates and requests of moderate priority, but there was a non-priority message that got his immediate attention. It was from Master Medtech Vortison, and Aaron immediately pulled it up, resulting in a familiar hologram of a man with a none too pleased expression on his face.

“I’ve reviewed the scan you sent and have come to the only conclusion possible. As we discussed previously, your Ikrid tissue cannot keep getting denser forever and I believe you have finally reached saturation point. Your cranial pressure has pegged out and none of your psionic tissue will increase in size because of that. I’ve analyzed every single cell in your Ikrid tissue and have confirmed they are all level 18 in density. Unless there is a level 19 that we haven’t discovered, which I doubt, you have now reached saturation point. You can no longer improve your raw power output. Your brain is simply too small.”

“Fuck,” Aaron whispered.

“Fine control is another issue that you may, and probably will, be able to continue improvement on, but you now have a power cap. Range will only increase if you are able to better funnel a directional scan, but spherical range is now also capped. I’m sorry, Aaron, but there is no way around this. No amount of training, as far as I can determine, will increase your power output further. I can tell you that your muscular development is nowhere near saturation, but there you have the option of adding more muscle tissue.”

“The size of your skull limits the amount of brain tissue, and unless you want to go with the Knight size enhancements there is nothing else I can do. You’ve run out of room inside your cranium, and if not for the safety measures the V’kit’no’sat programmed in your Ikrid tissue density would start to crush weaker tissue in your brain as it increased.”

“I know you don’t want to increase your body size to Zen’zat levels, and I would advise against only a cranial enlargement, for it would seriously throw you out of balance, but unless you get more room inside your head your Ikrid tissue cannot increase in volume and the density level cannot go any further by my analysis. As you’ve stated before we don’t know if there is another level or not until we hit it, but not a single one of your cells is showing anything beyond level 18 density. You’ve either hit a plateau or a dead end, and I’m betting on a dead end. Let me know how you want to proceed.”

The hologram froze on its last frame, awaiting replay or banishment, but Aaron just let it linger and stared at it. He’d known this moment might be coming, and the research being done with the Elves was partly to probe what happened when one’s brain was allowed extra Ikrid tissue in place of other psionics that the Elves would never have. The results so far were impressive, but no matter how many revisions one made they’d never touch the Ikrid levels of the Oso’lon simply due to their much greater brain size.

Aaron and the trailblazers had constantly been pushing the training element as a way to partially make up for that, but now it looked like Aaron had tapped out. He’d hit the highest level of Ikrid power his body frame would allow, and any further training past this point would result in no power upgrades.

That was the theory anyway, and he’d come up against plateaus before that had eventually resulted in new and unexpected advancement when a way was found to break through, but this was probably not one of them. You could only pack so many molecules together before they became non-functional, and the cellular density the V’kit’no’sat had designed left little room for improvement. If Aaron had Vortison design a denser cell the efficiency level would probably drop, because the components would literally be getting in the way of each other. A level 18 cell was theoretically the best possible, and a few centuries ago it had likewise seemed impossible until Aaron had started spawning them in response to his excessive training.

But according to Vortison no level 19s were manifesting themselves, and despite the ongoing war Aaron was getting in very good and lengthy workouts. If he had nothing but free time to train…which he was tempted to go for simply out of spite…he didn’t expect to make any headway in terms of raw power. He’d studied the microbiology on this issue so much he almost knew as much as Vortison, and he was forced to concur. His cells simply couldn’t get any more dense without losing efficiency.

Bottom line was, after all these centuries of continual advancement, his Ikrid progress…in terms of raw power at least…had finally hit the ceiling for his body size.

That meant the Archon levels they’d design for beyond this point were flawed. Aaron couldn’t reach them, and Archons with a slightly smaller head size than him couldn’t reach his Goku-411 Ikrid level. In theory Arc Knights could, but none of them were even near a Goku Ikrid level. The highest of them was only at Mage 329, for they were hand to hand specialists and only spent time training on things that helped them in that capacity. Most Arc Knights only had Striker-level Ikrid skills and developed them exclusively for ranged tracking and combat within a few meters radius.

And they’d gotten good at that, causing Aaron some unique challenges when he’d sparred with them, but nothing that he couldn’t handle. His Ikrid skills were so far beyond theirs that their larger Ikrid tissue wasn’t a threat. He had more power with his smaller cranial volume, but the Arc Knights had developed a few new tricks stemming from their specialty that he’d gladly learned from.

But even they’d have limits eventually, though it’d take them a lot longer to get to them even if they worked as hard as Aaron at it. The same went for every race, but the larger V’kit’no’sat ones, he doubted, would ever reach their peak. They had so much tissue to pull on their cells wouldn’t densify unless a need was continually present, and he doubted they would put themselves through that kind of training unless a threat arose that required it of them.

There were aspects of Ikrid that involved getting inside another’s head and engaging in combat in a virtual sense…and that was an area that Aaron could still improve on, so not all of the planned Ikrid levels beyond his current position would have to be junked, but they’d definitely have to be reworked. This was the first time any psionic had reached saturation point, but the trailblazers had been aware of the possibility for a while now.

And not just for psionics. A Human couldn’t keep getting faster and faster in terms of running. Aaron had gotten his max speed under standard gravity up to 71 miles per hour. That was his best sprint, but the length of his legs was a limiting factor even if you ignored his muscles. An Era’tran could travel much further with a single step than he could, and they typically could run around 100 miles per hour if they were in decent shape…though they should be able to get a lot faster.

There were limits on the trailblazers’ horizon, and that ran counter to everything that they’d based themselves on. They were literally married to the concept of continual improvement, so the idea of a firm ceiling on even one ability really left a bad taste in their mouths. Their initial reaction was to disbelieve it, and after years of breaking through other barriers they were right to do so, but this one, Aaron admitted, looked to be the real deal and not just an illusion.

His head was only so big, and for that matter his body. Unless he wanted to increase his size there was going to come a point where he couldn’t improve raw power anymore.

But that didn’t mean he was done. Trailblazers were problem solvers, and they’d chart a way forward for the Archons before the mass of them even approached this level. He wasn’t sure how they were going to rework the Archon levels yet, but they’d figure it out eventually.

Frustrated, Aaron dismissed the message and ran through the others quickly before heading down to the cafeteria and filling up on food before donning his armor and running the stairs up to the roof. There he took off in flight, using his Yen’mer tissue that, thankfully, was amongst the newest in his body and had a long, long, long way to go before even thinking about hitting a limit.

Aaron flew off over the building tops as he scanned downward using his massive Ikrid range now that he was outside the building, looking for stealthed Zen’zat infiltrators as he headed for a nearby spaceport. When he got there he jumped into a skeet and flew off with a squadron of regulars across the landscape towards the distant V’kit’no’sat zone where both sides were continually probing one another in a tedious chess match.

The enemy couldn’t get far from its shield generator without getting pounded from the sky, so they had been bringing in smaller V’kit’no’sat generators, ill-prepared to defend against orbital bombardment but more than adequate to blunt most aerial strikes. If the enemy took another building or block of buildings they’d bring them in and creep out their lines…with Star Force counter attacking and trying to take these little footholds back.

But they couldn’t push too far or the parked warships underneath the primary shield would pound them with naval weaponry. Aaron and his squadron couldn’t go anywhere near them, hence the stalemate. Unless the V’kit’no’sat started to win and win big they were going nowhere, and he didn’t understand why they were sticking this out in this manner. They should either cut and run…which was unlikely…or bring in more ships and hammer the breach their stealth infiltrators had created for them.

Their empire had more than enough ships to wipe Star Force off the map if they wanted to, and Aaron knew it was only a matter of time before they sent more, but he was wondering why they weren’t here already. The V’kit’no’sat were stuck, and he and the other 5 trailblazers on planet were going to make sure they stayed stuck, so what angle were they playing? Was it pure ego that they didn’t want to retreat, or were they hoping Star Force would pull in more ships to remove them and leave other systems temporarily exposed?

Aaron didn’t know at this point, but his duties here were clear. The stealth infiltrators had done more damage than anything, and he was the best Star Force had at sniffing them out. Last night another team had been detected but not caught, some 900 miles inside the border, and that’s where he was heading now. He’d get in the vicinity and start mentally scanning, then if and when he got a hit he’d go to ground and his squadron would provide fire support from the sky. They were all Regulars and didn’t have Ikrid, but he could use his own to interface with their minds almost as well as if they had battlemeld, allowing him to call in air strikes with a thought during hand to hand combat.

Aaron had killed thousands of Zen’zat in this manner already, but he couldn’t be everywhere at the same time and the V’kit’no’sat kept spending their little infantry to make hits across the planet while Star Force continually kept reworking its infrastructure with more protection and detection against such strikes.

Others were handling the mech combat on the main front lines, but it was these clandestine strikes that Aaron had been requested to come in and handle personally…and the fact that he could no longer get a power upgrade on his Ikrid through further training was a gut punch as he flew with his squadron across the planet. It wasn’t going to affect his combat today, but down the road he needed every advantage he could get…and according to Vortison he wasn’t going to be creating any more through training.

He was either going to go Knight size or face the limitation, and Aaron wasn’t going to accept that. He needed a third option. Star Force had to continue to grow bigger, better, and stronger if they were going to have a chance against the V’kit’no’sat in the long term. He didn’t doubt Vortison’s analysis, but he knew that just because the medtech was right didn’t meant there wasn’t another route forward. He and the other trailblazers just had to find it.

That was a burden others didn’t understand. Standing and facing an uncertain future. Was there a way or would they just be wasting their time chasing the impossible? One didn’t know until they tried, and tried, and tried. But Aaron knew they were going to have to try something different here.

He didn’t figure it out by the time they got to the target zone, and once he got his first Zen’zat mental ping all thoughts of psionic advancement got pushed to the back of his mind. He went into hunter mode, jumping out of his skeet while in flight and falling to the ground where he angled into a superman-like streak that ended with him head-butting one of the cloaked infiltrators…starting the fight that would leave another 9 Zen’zat dead plus two injured and captured.

Those he would interrogate and find out what their target had been, then chase down more teams he discovered had been assigned to different targets. As large as they were, these Zen’zat couldn’t stop his mind from getting into theirs and picking it apart with remarkable speed…after which they’d be stripped of their remaining armor and dumped back near the V’kit’no’sat lines.

Star Force didn’t kill prisoners, but he knew these would just gear up again and get back into the fight later…but that was a fair enough price for the intel he got. Plus a reminder to the V’kit’no’sat that Star Force didn’t fight their way and never would. This was more than just a war of survival…it was the lightside vs those that believed they were in the right no matter what. Whether or not that made the V’kit’no’sat evil was a matter of opinion, but it definitely meant they were not lightside.

Becoming the enemy to win was not a victory, and all of the trailblazers would rather be killed than go to the darkside.

So the prisoners would be released and Star Force would probably kill them in combat later…but they’d have a choice. The people the V’kit’no’sat were killing in these invasions had no choice, and if and when Star Force ever got around to invading V’kit’no’sat worlds they’d make sure to do so honorably rather than slaughter everyone on sight.

That was the V’kit’no’sat way, and would never be Star Force protocol. It was death before dishonor…rather than dishonor before defeat.

And though he didn’t do so today, Aaron had personally tattooed that sentence on the foreheads of some of the prisons before sending them back, making it clear to the V’kit’no’sat that they were in the wrong rather than the Humans being vermin deserving of execution.

So far none of them had seemed to listen, but you never knew when a simple word of truth might break through.

And the trailblazers were all about breakthroughs.

2

November 11, 4831

Titran System (Uriti Preserve)

Command Ship Kadon

Hera-2574 sat cross-legged on a circular pedestal rising barely a foot and a half off the floor. Her body was perfectly still, but she wasn’t meditating nor sleeping in an upright position. The chamber she was in was small, barely 5 meters wide, and there was nothing in it. The walls were blank, figuratively and literally, as they blocked Pefbar. Hera couldn’t see through and no one else with Pefbar could see within, meaning that Lachka wouldn’t work either. That was necessary so no one could attack her through the walls, though the threat of that was almost nonexistent on a Star Force command ship.

But the extra protection wasn’t lost on Hera, for right now she was very vulnerable to attack. Her mind was elsewhere, linked into the Uriti transmitter built into the ship via the wristbound gauntlet she wore. When in public she always wore long sleeves that covered it, but onboard her own command ship there was no need. Hera wore nothing but short shorts and a tank top now, revealing the intricate golden bracelet that stretched from wrist to just below her elbow.

A green light was lit within a jewel on the surface, indicating that she was in alignment with the device and had a telepathic link to the Uriti. No one was in the room to see it, and even her telepathy was blocked by the walls save for a pinprick on the door behind her that allowed the Arc Knight guard outside the ability to communicate with her if needed, though he had to stand in a specific spot to line up the connection.

The Arc Knight was meant to protect against threats the psionically dampened walls could not, and in the past some of the telepathic races ‘overseeing’ the Uriti Preserve had tried to access the Wranglers’ minds when in contact with the Uriti. With their Ikrid block it was impossible for them to pull information from the Archons, but they could still transmit impulses to them and mess with their minds…with the hope of the others being that they could get their own message through the Archon to the Uriti.

Such attempts had been punished severely, and Hera’s recluse status had not changed with the advent of the V’kit’no’sat war. If anything the attempts made by the others to get access to the Uriti had increased, but the Uriti Wranglers gave them few opportunities to pry. Hera never contacted the Uriti without an Arc Knight guard watching over her and never met with the other races…save for the few times she went out unannounced amongst the ‘tourists’ to try and draw the enemy to her.

Sometimes that worked and they were able to identify and punish those looking for a crack in security, other times she was able to move freely without notice, but always in disguise and never in an Archon uniform.

Star Force still controlled the Preserve, and the Wranglers made a point of that by not always hiding. It was their turf and they’d move around it as they liked, but the majority of the time it was best that they just be ghosts while the Dukes and other Archons handled the obvious duties within the Preserve…while they handled the most important.

There were only 112 Wranglers at present, up considerably from the original 12, and while many of the trailblazers had learned to use the interface technology they didn’t have the time to develop a relationship with the Uriti. Riley-038 was the closest, but most of his time was spent doing trailblazer things, leaving the Wranglers as the only reliable conduit to the giant ‘space monsters’.

That’s how most people who came to visit or snoop around the Preserve thought of them, but that wasn’t even close to true. The Uriti were massively intelligent, but that intelligence was manifested in a totally alien form. Their minds were literally so large that it had been difficult to even establish communication in the beginning, and to be frank it had been the Uriti that had done most of the hard work there. They chose when to talk, and Hera had eventually discovered that was because of the learning curve the Archons had to work through. The Humans had seemed like annoying children unable to utter a complete word…though that was more than the Chixzon ever had bothered with.

A lot had changed since then, and right now Hera was talking to 3 of them simultaneously. That had been impossible before, but she’d had more than a millennia of experience with the Uriti to learn from, and now she was able to half think like them, which allowed real communication. It still annoyed the Uriti a bit, because she wasn’t up to speed with their level of thought, but the relationship she and the other Wranglers had developed with them allowed the Uriti to overlook the inefficiency in light of everything that had happened.

And what had happened was a combination of training and combat. When the V’kit’no’sat had attacked the Uriti Star Force had been there to help defend them, and the Uriti realized they needed Star Force to do it. Previously there was nothing that could touch them, but the V’kit’no’sat could kill them and the Uriti knew it. Not easily, and at great cost to the V’kit’no’sat, but a Uriti could be destroyed and that was something that all these Uriti had never thought possible.

They’d worked for the Chixzon defeating fleet after fleet and wrecking planets without any real hindrance to the point that they’d come to think the ‘little beings’ couldn’t seriously harm them. They didn’t know about the two Uriti that had been killed long ago, because prior to the Preserve the Uriti had never encountered one another before. They knew nothing but their own experiences, which they now shared amongst the 73 gathered here. There were still 43 unaccounted for in the galaxy and there were leads on two more that were being explored by the Knights of Quenar, but inter-Uriti communication and social dynamics were something the Chixzon had never bothered to explore.

Star Force had, not only for their own knowledge, but for the Uriti’s sake. They had been spawned with altered genetics from a single captive Hadarak with one purpose and one purpose only… the Chixzon wanted to use them as a living weapon that few in the galaxy could oppose and had engineered a control system that ensured they would go where instructed and destroy the targets the Chixzon gave them.

It had worked until The Ancients had discovered the sedative chemical that effectively put the Uriti to sleep. Unable to kill them they’d imprisoned all the Uriti, taking away the Chixzon’s ultimate weapon that had led to their eventual defeat, and while The Ancients were wise to do so they never truly understood what the Uriti were either. To them they were the destroyers of worlds, rather than being unwitting slaves held in the Chixzon’s grasp.

Star Force now held the reins the Chixzon once did, but they didn’t use them anymore save for emergencies. The Wranglers had established an independent communications method separate from the command triggers and had explained to the Uriti what they were doing, in essence weakening their own ability to control them, but gaining an increased friendship in the process. As large and powerful as the Uriti were, they were also victims of what had been done to them, and Star Force wasn’t going to continue that enslavement so long as they could ensure that the Uriti wouldn’t take a nap on an inhabited planet and kill a million people in the process.

The power that the Uriti had was feared by many, and that fear led them to react in any manner of ways, but Star Force didn’t fear power and they didn’t fear the Uriti. They understood them better than the Chixzon ever had now, and while wary of what they could do if they wanted, they also knew they were slower than Star Force’s ships…which was why the Uriti needed them to fight the V’kit’no’sat, who were also faster, and used their speed and agility as their primary weapon against the Hadarak.

Combat against the Uriti was quite different, but still routed in the same methods. Star Force had acted as an essential escort when the V’kit’no’sat attacked the Preserve while the Uriti did the heavy fighting…and the bond that had formed there was, in some ways, more potent than the Chixzon command pathways. While ‘little beings’, Star Force was now seen as ‘little brothers’ to the Uriti, and the Wranglers like Hera were their voice.

Star Force still hadn’t told the Uriti about the Hadarak yet, knowing that they would want to go and find them immediately, but the Wranglers were eventually working up to it, sharing more and more of their knowledge with the Uriti and learning from them in return. The biggest secrets that the Uriti had revealed involved the inner nature of stars and black holes…which the Uriti lived in. While right now the three Hera was talking to were in space, they were just as comfortable inside the massive gravity wells and needed to feed there regularly on the energy and materials within.

Less often they needed planetary ‘rock,’ though that was primarily for repairs, spawning, or growth spurts. Stars and black holes contained such material, having fallen into their gravitation grasp long ago, but the material wasn’t as concentrated as it was in a planet, so the Preserve had several half eaten planetoids that Star Force had designated for the Uriti prior to learning exactly what they needed and organizing mining operations to get it out more efficiently.

Those mining operations used both conventional Star Force methods and the Uriti minions, whom the Wranglers had helped refine greatly. They were biological machines rather than people, and two of the Uriti had even allowed Star Force to make genetic alterations so they could grow a new model. That had not gone down well with ‘the others’, seeing as how Star Force could grow an army on command if they liked, but to date none of those minions had ever left the Preserve so they had grudgingly tolerated it.

The Council thought they had more say than they truly did, and Duke Setti had her hands full dealing with them on a regular basis. There were made up of 28 major races with embassies here from across the galaxy…but oddly none from the core. There never had been, which in some ways was due to the V’kit’no’sat’s dominance there, but also due to the fact that the Uriti had never gone there during The Ancients’ war against the Chixzon.

Back then the core had been Hadarak territory, with them roaming and destroying at will. There were many, many races there but no civilizations on the scale of these. The Chixzon had seemed uninterested in confronting the Hadarak, so they’d focused their efforts entirely on the Rim of the galaxy…which was where the Uriti had been defeated, sedated, and imprisoned.

So the races with knowledge of them had come from the Rim, with the strongest three being the Knights of Quenar, the Bocadeem, and the Tsarik. All three had technology that Star Force didn’t fully understand, making it hard to assess their true strength other than when they engaged the V’kit’no’sat. They didn’t have many ships here, but all three had fought to keep the V’kit’no’sat away from the Uriti, as had a handful of others. Most of the 28 major races within the Council had simply observed the combat, not choosing to take part or pick a side. Whether or not they had contact with the V’kit’no’sat was not known, but Hera assumed some did and they didn’t want to make themselves a target.

There were a lot of those races with a tech level similar to Star Force, some slightly less, but many, many more that were inferior and here for more or less tourist purposes. The Uriti Preserve existed to contain and protect the Uriti, but it had become the outer Rim’s top diplomatic position…which was saying something. Star Force had learned a great deal about other parts of the galaxy, some of which were far more advanced and larger than The Nexus was, and nowhere else known were the most advanced races gathered together.

That gathering had attracted many others, despite the ongoing war with the V’kit’no’sat that had scared off some. The fact that the Preserve was still standing attested to the power of the Uriti and that power offered a lure that few major players could resist, so while not all fought in defense of it, the thousands of races with embassies here needed the diplomatic communication offered…along with the inherent opportunities such contacts availed them, even if they had no real play with the Uriti themselves.

The 28 major races did, and saw themselves as Star Force’s watchdog, ready to take action against them if they ever misused the Uriti. Star Force had partly accepted that, but never officially acknowledged it. The Uriti had done so much damage to so many races Hera understood their need to see what was happening and know that the Uriti would never return to their regions of the galaxy again…which was why so many had voluntarily chosen to give up their sleeping Uriti in order to bring them here.

And those that hadn’t had considerable pressure put on them to do so by the others…plus a war or two by the KoQ to forcibly remove those that did not willingly comply.

They were not Star Force’s ally, yet they acted like it most of the time because their goals ran parallel to Star Force’s…but the discussion that Hera was having now with Bahamut, Falco, and Samus was one that she was pretty sure the KoQ were not going to like, let alone the other major races that the Uriti had simply referred to as ‘The Others’ and Hera, having spent so much time in contact with their awe-inspiring minds, had also began to think of them as the same. The Uriti believed they were inconsequential and Hera was starting to agree, but she also knew that the potential of the Others was not fully explored and they could become a significant enemy if pissed off.

But it seemed that if Star Force didn’t do something it was the Uriti they were going to piss off, and if Hera had to choose between them and the Others she was going to side with the Uriti.

The green light on her gauntlet shifted to yellow, indicating that Hera’s mind had gone out of sync with the equipment and her conversation was over. She blew a strand of hair out of her face with a frustrated breath, then telekinetically pulled it back in line with the rest of her short, rainbow ponytail that matched her fingernails and toenails.

She was also covered in sweat, which was a natural side effect of the communication she had been doing. It always stretched her mind to talk with more than one Uriti at a time, or one for a prolonged period, and this conversation had been both, leaving her literally dripping onto her cushioned pedestal as she stretched out now stiff legs and put her bare feet on the carpeted floor next to the pile of her Archon uniform.

Hera took a moment to telekinetically squeegee the sweat off her, pulling it into a small orb that she floated in the air. What had fallen into the carpeting she didn’t recover, but the quarter-sized glob of liquid she floated in front of her for a second before flinging into the wall in frustration where it splattered like a water balloon.

She stretched her legs out and flew her pants on over her shorts, lifting herself up into a flying hover a few inches over the pedestal as her shirt, socks, and shoes followed. She set foot back down on the ground fully clothed and marched out of the small chamber, almost pushing the Arc Knight aside when the door opened.

“Dismissed,” she said simply, letting him get back to whatever else he was doing, but apparently Hera’s voice betrayed her foul mood.

“What’s wrong, Archon?” he asked, standing in full armor with an opaque faceplate that hid his own features.

Hera glanced back but continued walking away. “The Uriti are calling us out, and I’m having a hard time finding excuses to deny them.”

“Deny them what?”

Hera stopped walking, and turned back to face him. “A chance to fight alongside us.”

“Beyond the Preserve?”

“Yes.”

“Will the other races allow that?”

“It’s not up to them…and apparently not up to us either. The Uriti are going to help us whether we want it or not.”

“Is that not a good day then?”

Hera hesitated before she answered. “I don’t know. It could end up being that, but there’s going to be a lot of bitching going on…and maybe some shooting.”

“If they are truly our enemies in disguise, better to reveal them now and get it over with.”

“I’ll remind you you said that if this ship starts to get blown up,” she said, a bit lighter in tone, as she turned and walked off. In truth she didn’t know what the Others would do, but she didn’t think she was going to like it.

But better to have them pissed at you than a Uriti. That was one relationship that Star Force could not afford to burn.

3

November 30, 4831

Alamo System (Uriti Preserve)

Warden 8 Station

“Ok, what’s up?” Travis-098 said as he walked into the ultra-secure lounge on the Star Force-only station, having come straight from his command ship after receiving a high priority but unspecific summons for the closest trailblazer to the Preserve…which had been him. He’d left his patrol fleet on mission and had come here directly, but he still didn’t know what was going on as he looked at half a dozen Wranglers and the three Dukes that operated the Preserve.

“I made a promise that you need to sanction,” Hera said with a crooked smile on her face, as if she knew she’d overstepped her bounds and was now trying to make it right.

“Uh oh. What did you do?” Travis said, sitting down in the only open oversized chair in the impromptu ring formed by more of the single seats and a couple of couches.

“Bahamut again,” Peter-2576 said with a shake of his head.

“My favorite Uriti,” Travis commented lightly. “What’s he up to now?”

“He says that the Uriti are not going to stand by and watch while Star Force is destroyed,” Hera explained. “They’re going to fight the V’kit’no’sat whether we like it or not…and they’re asking for a ride.”

“Did he now?” Travis said with a smile, but Hera could see the wheels working inside his mind at lightning speed. “Why the change?”

“They’ve been wanting to help for a long time and we’ve kept saying no, it’s not their fight unless the V’kit’no’sat come here. From their point of view we’re the weak ones that need protecting and they think we’re about ready to break.”

“You’ve been updating them on the war status?”

“Sure,” Jeen-2572 said. “The more they talk with us the better, and that’s a subject they’re curious about.”

“Do they know about the Hadarak?”

“Not yet,” Hera answered.

“So they’re adamant about fighting the V’kit’no’sat to save us?”

“It’s a little more complicated. That’s part of it, but they also don’t like sitting on the bench while the freshman team plays.”

“Ouch. We don’t even rate as JV?”

“We’re the ‘little beings,’ remember?”

“Didn’t realize we were that little. What’s this about a ride?”

“They know they’re really slow, and it’s a long hike over to Tarric 3. They’d prefer if we carried them there.”

“Stargate?” Travis asked. “Is that your suggestion?”

“No, it’s theirs. I ran out of excuses to say no, so I said we needed some time to get a fleet together then we’d take them there…that’s the promise I made, and I really don’t see another option without pissing them off.”

“Because they’re right,” Peter added.

“They’ve wanted to help before?” Travis asked, glancing at Duke Pryon who was in charge of the Preserve.

“They’ve wanted to go after the V’kit’no’sat in response to their attacks, but this is the first time they’ve told us what they were going to do rather than asking.”

“Not my point. They’ve been wanting to help?”

“They were built to fight,” Logan-2522 pointed out. “And we’ve been training them…for what? They’re self-sufficient by default and don’t understand the point of individual improvement for the fun of it. They see it as a gradual development for a purpose.”

“Can’t argue with them there,” Travis agreed. “So they’ve thought they’ve been training to fight eventually?”

“Ever since the first attack that’s been their priority,” Hera explained. “And they’re tired of sitting and waiting for the V’kit’no’sat to come back here while we’re getting our asses kicked elsewhere.”

“Who said we’re getting our asses kicked?” Travis said incredulously. “Our asses aren’t getting kicked.”

“We’re losing more systems, even if we’re in a more or less stalemate. Compared to what we used to be up against it feels like we’re holding our own, but from the Uriti’s perspective we haven’t taken a planet back yet, so we’re still losing despite the number of V’kit’no’sat ships we’ve destroyed. They also know we can’t handle more if they send in another wave of reinforcements.”

“That’s debatable,” Travis cautioned. “What kind of strategic sense do they have?”

“Fairly good. They’ve got a long history of killing our little ships.”

“We’re dug in,” Logan went on, “and prepared to fight to the bitter end. The Uriti are sitting on the sidelines, watching and wondering when we’re going to use them, and can’t understand why we’re waiting. Bahamut, especially, is starting to question our sanity.”

“And our trust in them,” Hera added. “If they’re fit to fight, which they proved here already, why aren’t we using them?”

“Because we promised not to,” Duke Yetti, Inquisitor of the Preserve and the mouthpiece for Star Force with regards to the other races set up here, said warningly.

“The Uriti made no such promise, and do not care,” Hera said firmly. “They think we’ve gotten stupid and are going to save us from ourselves. Our credibility is beginning to get tarnished, and it would only have gotten worse if I told them no.”

“If we take orders from the Uriti, this situation is going to explode,” Yetti warned.

“I can see why you called,” Travis said, rubbing his chin as he sat back and rested his head on the chair cushions. “Why Tarric 3?”

“They know we’re concerned about collateral damage. We’ve been hammering them over accuracy in their training, and there’s this big fat enemy fleet sitting out in the open. They don’t have to be accurate to smash it, and they’re wondering why we haven’t used them there already.”

“But they decided to go on their own?”

“They’re not flipping us off, but they’re not putting up with hesitation anymore. They know accuracy isn’t an issue there, so they see that as a good spot they can help us with and see no reason to sit here and wait. The only reason they’re waiting now is because we can offer them faster transport. If we deny them that they’ll go on their own.”

“But we can order them to stay,” Yetti insisted.

“I won’t do that,” Hera said, with the other Wranglers nodding their agreement. “We don’t use those commands except under emergency situations where time is of the essence and the Uriti will see we were right after the fact. If we use it in conflict with reason…bad things may happen.”

“You said they’re already questioning our reasons?” Travis asked.

“Yes and no,” Jeen answered. “Uriti thought is…odd. We communicate best when the subject matter can speak for itself. Lies will get nowhere with them.”

“What have you told them the reason is that we’re not using them?”

“A combination of their not being accurate enough and that we’re trying to protect them. They almost laughed at the second part until Nami got hurt. They’re not used to losing fights, and every single Uriti here never failed to carry out orders. The two that were destroyed never had access to the others to share experience with and the Chixzon never bothered to inform them of such things. All they know is winning, and each time the V’kit’no’sat have come here we’ve beaten them…but they know it was a team fight and that they kinda need our help. The V’kit’no’sat move too fast. They need us to pin them in place so they can whomp on them.”

“If we told them about the Hadarak, would they mutiny and go look for them?”

All three Dukes blanched at the mention of that, but the Wranglers looked at each other curiously until Hera answered for them.

“We’re not sure. It would be a huge revelation and they’d definitely want to find them. I don’t know if they’d leave or not.”

“Then we’d have to use the command override,” Pryon pointed out.

“I think, if I’m reading this correctly,” Travis said cautiously, “the Uriti have grown up enough to start asking questions that need answering. They’re not shell-shocked victims anymore?”

“Exactly,” Logan confirmed.

“Then the status quo isn’t maintainable,” Travis agreed. “If we force the Uriti to stay here then the situation is only going to get worse.”

“We can’t let them leave,” Yetti said, aghast, with a few smiles from the Wranglers oddly following her statement.

Travis inquired of the other Archons telepathically, and they responded with a running joke about Yetti being Claire Dearing from Jurassic World. The trailblazer’s memory on that movie was a bit groggy after a couple thousand years, but the Wranglers knew it well and filled in the gaps. Claire was all about controlling the Dinosaurs as property while Owen Grady cited that he didn’t have control, he had a relationship with them. The fact that Yetti looked like Claire added to the joke, and her attitude towards the Uriti kind of fit as well…though Travis knew her concerns were with the Council races’ reactions and not totally unfounded.

“Am I right in saying that you think we need to renegotiate our relationship with the Uriti?” he asked, with the Wranglers immediately agreeing. Yetti did not, but Pryon and even Ander were not in agreement with her.

She looked at Duke Ander, who was in charge of the tourism part of the Preserve, and gave him an exaggerated frown. “Traitor.”

“What the galaxy truly wants is the threat of the Uriti controlled, and how we do that doesn’t really matter,” he explained.

“The Council will,” she countered.

“If we have to choose between the Council and the Uriti…” Hera floated.

“We go with the Uriti,” Travis finished.

“We have a pact with them,” Yetti pressed.

“To not use the Uriti on offensive operations,” Travis reminded her. “This entire war is defensive, and though we haven’t used the Uriti outside the Preserve doesn’t mean we don’t possess that right to do so according to the pact.”

“Technically accurate, but the fact that we’ve never done so will have repercussions regardless. How well we fought alongside them here caused a pushback, because they fear the power we possess. The more we use it, the more fear there will be.”

“So we’re supposed to put the Uriti in a bottle because of the ‘little people’s’ fear? How is that fair to them?”

“I’m not saying it is. I’m simply stating that there will be trouble…and we’ve got enough enemies already as it is.”

“And the best allies in the galaxy that we are not allowing to help,” Hera countered, looking at Travis. “Was I wrong to promise them what I did?”

“No. If they’re really going to go anyway, better that we help them get there quicker.”

“So we’re going to allow this?” Yetti said, wide eyed. “We’re not going to use the override?”

“We’ve been kind of teaching them to ignore it anyway,” Eaton-2503 admitted. “If they’re adamant about something, they might be able to override the override.”

“You’ve done what?” Yetti all but yelled, and even Pryon looked aghast.

“Teaching them about where the control command originated from allows them to understand it,” Travis said, guessing as to the Wrangler’s intent. “Keeping the Uriti ignorant is how the Chixzon controlled them.”

“And they had very little communication,” Jeen added. “Basically point and destroy. They never gave them an order they truly opposed.”

“Which is also why they kept them separated,” Hera continued. “By helping them develop we’ve helped them slip the leash a bit, and there’s only one way to know for sure how much slipping has been done.”

“Which is to piss them off then tell them no and see what happens,” Logan said pointedly. “Which we’re not going to do.”

“Of all the…” Yetti said, standing up and walking out of the circle angrily.

“We don’t throw anyone under the bus,” Travis reminded her. “Uriti included.”

“I’m not arguing that we should, but we’re playing with fire here,” she said, then saw Hera hold up a palm and ignite a plasma flame in the slit…then toss the orange glob from one hand to the other.

“It’s what we do, Duke,” Logan said, accepting the toss from Hera and squelching it in his own hand.

“My point is the Uriti are more powerful than the V’kit’no’sat and we can’t control them. If the Uriti start thinking for themselves they might decide they don’t even like us…and our only real leverage is that control override. Even if we never use it, we need to keep it in place for a rainy day.”

“We’re not the only ones who can pull that lever,” Jeen pointed out ominously.

“Are the Chixzon back?” Yetti challenged.

“One is,” Travis pointed out. “Thankfully he’s on our side, but if another emerges beyond our territory and feels like giving contrary commands to the Uriti, we need a way to override the override.”

“How do we do that?”

“By making friends,” Hera said quietly, knowing how flimsy that sounded.

“If the Uriti go rogue now, we may not survive to see another Chixzon arise,” Yetti said, crossing her arms over her chest as she stood behind her chair looking at the others.

“Worst case scenario?” Travis asked.

“All the races here turn on us.”

“Regarding the Uriti?”

“They go back to default and destroy everything like Hadarak do…only with enhanced weaponry.”

Travis held up a finger. “I don’t think you’re reading this right. If we tell the Uriti about the Hadarak and they go rogue…whose problem will they be then?”

Pryon smiled, though Setti did not. “If they head to the core to find the Hadarak, they’re the V’kit’no’sat’s problem.”

“Which would take them away from the Rim where all these races call home. Problem solved, from their point of view, whether the Uriti survive or not. I, however, care about what happens to the Uriti, even if they don’t. And if we’re going to continue to be allies, then we need to start acting like allies and not caretakers. Risky as that is.”

“So we tell them?” Logan asked.

“We explain why we’ve been hesitant to use them, and why we didn’t actually want to ‘use’ them. We have to get our credibility back, regardless of what it costs us with the Council races.”

“They’ll never approve this,” Setti warned.

“We don’t need their permission…which is why we’re going to have our talk with the Uriti first, Council second.”

Setti covered her face with her hand, pinching the brim of her nose as she already could predict the forthcoming reaction.

“The Uriti are the ones we need to be considering,” Travis told her. “If we have to choose, would you really choose the other races against the Uriti?”

“We have a workable system. I don’t see why we’re messing with it.”

“The Uriti, apparently, are outgrowing it. We have to adapt. If we don’t, then we truly will lose control.”

She stood there for another moment, then reluctantly walked back around her chair and sat down.

“I wish I could argue that, but I can’t.”

“Is Bahamut still our primary contact?”

Hera nodded. “He’s the most talkative.”

“And the best coordinator with us,” Logan added. “If we’re going to Tarric 3, I suggest we take him and him alone.”

“One thing at a time,” Travis said, though in agreement. “We have to have a chat with the Uriti first, and I want in on it.”

“Hera made the deal,” Eaton pointed out. “You’d better talk through her.”

“Where’s he at presently?”

“Titran,” Hera said, “but he wasn’t the only one inquiring.”

“We’ll start with him and see where this goes. How many are at Titran?”

“Six,” Pryon said.

“Bring him to an empty system,” Ander suggested. “If he takes the news badly and bolts, we can at least keep him from telling the others.”

“I agree,” Yetti said instantly. “If this goes south we can at least minimize the damage.”

“It won’t work,” Logan insisted. “They’ll eventually want to know what happened to him if he does bolt for the core or comes looking for the others and we move them around to avoid him.”

“No,” Travis said firmly. “We’re not playing games with them. We’re going there now and laying out everything. If this alliance is going to work in the long run it’s not going to be by playing games and running rings around them. It’s going to work off of respect, even if we don’t share every single secret we have with them.”

“And if it blows up in our face?” Yetti asked.

“We point them towards the core and let the V’kit’no’sat deal with them.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Ander said supportively. “I’m hiding here in case they blow up something, but good luck just the same.”

“Typical Monarch,” Jeen said, though she knew he was half kidding.

“Live to build another day,” he echoed, looking at Setti.

“Just give me a heads up before let the others know about this. We need to be as diplomatic as possible even if the Uriti are playing nice. We don’t want the Knights of Quenar shooting at them if they don’t like the change in protocol.”

“One problem at a time it is,” Pryon decided. “Do you need me with you there?”

“No,” Travis said. “We can handle it…one way or another.”

“I’ll stay here and get ready for the diplomatic scuffle.”

“Scuffle?” Yetti said with a huff. “That’s putting it mildly.”

“Hera, looks like you’re my date,” Travis said, standing up. “Let’s get going.”

“Mind if we tag along?” Eaton asked.

“Does multiple minds have a negative effect on the communications?”

“We can listen in without participating, but no, it doesn’t seem to.”

“The more the merrier then.”

“Take my ship,” Hera said to them all. “That won’t draw suspicion, and you being here at all is going to arouse questions that Setti won’t want to answer. Yours doesn’t have a transmitter anyway.”

“Done,” Travis said, heading out with the other Archons racing to follow him, leaving the three Dukes behind.

“This is going to explode,” Setti told her peers.

“It might,” Pryon admitted. “But we can’t put it off any longer or we could create more problems.”

“I think we’re creating a huge one now, even if the Uriti don’t freak out,” she warned.

4

December 27, 4831

Alamo System (Uriti Preserve)

Babylon 382

“That is…totally…unacceptable…” the Bocadeem ambassador growled in English through his mechanical faceplate that contained the hydrogen atmosphere that his gecko-like race breathed. “If the Uriti will not remain in place, and you cannot control them, then they must be destroyed! There is no other option.”

“No, they won’t be,” Travis said firmly, seated on a slightly higher bank of seats on one side of the pentagon-shaped council chamber. Beside him sat Duke Yetti and a hologram of Hera, for she wasn’t allowed to be in physical contact with the other races for security reasons, but everyone else was physically here as the revelation of the Uriti’s new deal with Star Force was forthcoming. “They have the same right to exist as you do, and unless they go on a murdering rampage we’ll defend that right.”

“You have no right to do this!” the Neeten ambassador yelled before the Bocadeem could respond. “You gave us your word and now you break it?”

“They have not,” the Knight of Quenar said so calmly it drew the gaze of all 27 ambassadors here to their side of the pentagon.

“How is this not a violation of their oath?”

“They promised no offensive action. This is an operation within their own borders against an invader. It is defensive regardless of how long the V’kit’no’sat have occupied it. Furthermore, any strike against the V’kit’no’sat in any of their systems is also defensive. Star Force promised not to use the Uriti to attack others, but held a caveat for self-defense that applies here. Your argument is without logic and your tone insulting.”

“You are ok with this?” the Bocadeem asked.

“It is not a violation of their oath, and if cooperation is necessary to maintain control of the Uriti then it is a wise step forward when the status quo cannot be maintained.”

“They have claimed,” the Vitas ambassador pointed out, “that they have the ability to order the Uriti as their creators did. Now they claim their control is failing. How is that logical? Either they have control or not.”

The KoQ didn’t answer, merely swiveling its head towards the Star Force contingent.

“We can influence them heavily,” Hera answered via hologram. “To some that is the same as control, but we cannot actually command them as we would a drone. They have to choose to follow our orders, and have been designed to do so by default, but they are still independent beings such as yourselves. So far we have never given them an order that they were strongly opposed to, and I for one do not want to try. Most of our commonality with them is due to wisdom. Denying them their request because you have concerns is not wisdom, it is folly. They do not take orders from you and neither do we. You are observers, so observe and shut the fuck up.”

Yetti and Pyron cringed when she said that, but Travis half smiled. He didn’t glance in her direction, though. Instead he kept his eyes on the ambassadors gathered here, though psionic barriers were preventing him from reading their minds. The room appeared to be open, but there were shields in place between the Star Force delegation and the others for security reasons. It blocked every known ability of the KoQ and others, including Travis’s Lachka, from reaching across the barrier…including microprobes that many of those races here had previously tried to place on Star Force personnel in the past.

“We have a right,” the Tsarik said evenly. “We gave you possession of our Uriti. We are not mere observers here.”

“Aren’t we?” the Shanwen scoffed. “They provided the solution that none of us could. They’ve maintained the Uriti. Researched them. Given us the data. We have contributed nothing and have had these dangerous beasts taken from our realms. They have done us a service. We are observers.”

“Some of us have fought to keep the V’kit’no’sat away,” the Polensav countered. “We have bled to protect this place, so do not say all of us have not contributed.”

“A small action,” the Shanwen admitted, “that pales in comparison to what Star Force has done.

“We are partners,” the Sety interjected, here representing The Nexus as a whole, “but without Star Force we have no options. They hold the key to controlling the Uriti. We do not.”

“Because they haven’t shared it,” the Yion snipped.

“That knowledge cannot be shared,” the KoQ said, his words dripping with lethal intent. “Star Force has a proven record of reliability. That is why we have helped bring more Uriti here. We do not trust any of you to that extent, and should Star Force share control with any of you we would intervene.”

“You threaten us?” the Tsarik challenged.

“If such events were to come to pass…yes.”

“No one is getting control,” Travis said, waving away the notion with his hand. “And you’re missing the point. The Uriti are not possessions, they’re peers. We are treating them as such while holding the control option in reserve in case something happens. If we overuse it they may find a way to disobey, so it’s best if we operate through dialog and mutual respect.”

“The bottom line is,” Duke Yetti continued, “the Uriti are going to be around indefinitely and we have to prepare for long term control. We can’t burn our influence in the short term to satisfy your demands. The longer the Uriti live the more they develop, and the interaction between the Uriti was something the Chixzon never had to deal with. We do. Our relationship with them must adapt in order to maintain control, and how we maintain control is of no matter to you so long as we are successful.”

“If you misuse them it is of great concern to us,” the Horocov said amicably. “While this proposed mission is not a technical violation of your promise to us, it sets a new precedent that is disturbing. The Preserve is meant to be a containment region, not a base to launch attacks from. We are legitimately concerned.”

“We should destroy them while we have the chance,” the Bocadeem reiterated. “We can sedate them again.”

“How is that destruction?” the Tsarik challenged.

“Because when we sedate them we can use the void option.”

“It didn’t work before,” the KoQ pointed out, citing an early attempt by the Ancients to strand their first sedated Uriti in interstellar space…deliberately jumping it out in a containment vessel on a course that would intersect no star. It was meant to starve to death lost in space, even after waking when the sedative ran out. They thought they’d succeeded until 93 years later when Bwersiom reemerged at a random star.

That should not have been possible, for the course set kept it far enough away from all gravity wells to prevent it from reeling itself back in. The Ancients’ calculations had assumed three times the power of the Uriti’s biological gravity drives than they believed Bwersiom to possess, yet somehow, in seeming defiance of physics, the Uriti had managed to navigate out of the void.

It was calculated to have cost 26 trillion lives to get Bwersiom resedated, in the combat required and the planets wrecked leading up to it. After that the Ancients deemed any further attempts at destruction not worth the risk, so sedation and continual containment were mandated even while many theories for their destruction were floated. None were further tested, as far as was known, because a failed attempt would be too costly. Many races in the Ancients’ alliance had been destroyed in the efforts to sedate the Uriti, and they weren’t going to sacrifice any more to test a theory.

The Uriti known as Bwersiom was now in Star Force hands and renamed Boomer after its boomerang-like return from certain death. Analysis of Boomer showed massive internal trauma that had not healed during sedation. Though what happened was not precisely known, Nefron thought that somehow Boomer had been able to cannibalize large sections of its body in order to both sustain itself and to grow additional gravity drives once it found itself stranded too far away from any gravity well to get a decent pull on them.

That’s why it had been able to survive its deliberate exile, but at great cost to it. Some of that damage Star Force had helped it repair with specific supplements given to it in far greater numbers than the other Uriti, but its internal configuration had not fully returned to normal. Part of those extra gravity drives had been maintained while others were deconstructed/digested to make room for other organs that had been reduced or sacrificed.

Travis was still ticked with that. If you were going to kill someone you did it fast, you didn’t cause them to starve to death. The Ancients were being slaughtered by the Uriti, so you couldn’t totally blame them for striking back in whatever way they could, but what they had done wasn’t right in response to things the Uriti had done that weren’t right…except that the Uriti were following the orders of the Chixzon and that made them victims as well, which further ticked Travis off, but he was glad that Boomer had found a way to survive.

That said, the tactic wasn’t flawed, and the void option that the Bocadeem were referencing would actually work…though Star Force hadn’t shared that data with them, nor the impact velocities required to kill them if they tried to throw them into a star or black hole. That was another theory the Ancients never tested, nor did they have the necessary engine power to do it, but Star Force did if they really wanted to make it happen…assuming they could be sedated again.

“The Ancients did not send them outside the galaxy. If we take them to the edge and throw them into the void, they will not be able to return. We can do this now if we can sedate them or Star Force can trick them into transport. Such a long journey would require sedation, I believe, but they could be sedated while in the transport ships. We can do this and end the threat here and now.”

“This is folly,” the Xaritn argued. “The void option failed, which is why the Ancients did not try again. We cannot experiment on such things when failure means the death of untold planets.”

“We need not experiment, it will work.”

“In theory…and in theory the first void option should have worked, but somehow Boomer was able to return. Do you know how? If not, then sending them out beyond the galaxy is not a guarantee of destruction.”

“Why destroy them at all?” the Sety argued. “Ever since Star Force took possession there has not been a single incident. So long as that remains the case, why seek their destruction?”

“They are too powerful to be allowed to exist,” the Bocadeem said firmly.

“Some would say the same of you,” Hera pointed out. “Should we kill all Bocadeem because of your potential for destruction?”

“She’s right,” Travis said before the Bocadeem could respond. “We don’t fear power, and destroying the Uriti out of fear is not right. It is ego to assume power yourself and deny it to others on the grounds that power alone is justification for destruction. Presently the Uriti are our allies and they will be treated as such. Destroying them is out of the question.”

“If they obeyed us rather than you, would you still be so supportive?”

“I’d be less comfortable, but I wouldn’t call for their destruction.”

“Our situation had become much more favorable, and you all are missing the real implications of the deal Star Force has just struck,” the KoQ said.

“Do elaborate,” the Tsarik asked.

“We face two threats. One is Star Force using the Uriti as a weapon against us. The other is the Uriti running free and attacking who they wish. The latter threat is now significantly reduced.”

“How so?” the Bocadeem challenged.

“We now know where the Uriti will go if they escape Star Force’s control.”

“And it won’t be to the rim,” the Gorchen said, catching on. “They’ll go to the core to find the Hadarak and away from us.”

“And they will fight the V’kit’no’sat. If they are destroyed, then that solves our problem. If they survive, the V’kit’no’sat will be weakened, which also favors us. Our previous problem becomes theirs, and if we indeed have to resedate or kill them, it will be much easier to do so when they are damaged from combat with others. The change in the status quo is to our favor, and we support the upcoming strike.”

“You support Star Force using the Uriti?” the Bocadeem asked, clearly surprised that the KoQ would agree to that.

“We fear Star Force being destroyed and the Uriti running free in their absence. As for their intentions, if Star Force wished to use the Uriti as the Chixzon did they would have done so before now. They have kept them here, safely contained, while half their territory was lost.”

“Until now,” the Chokdron noted.

“The difference is the Uriti requested this rather than being ordered.”

“And what if they request to attack someone else?”

“Then we use our control to say no,” Yetti said firmly. “The Uriti want to fight the V’kit’no’sat because they have already seen combat with them and they want to assist us. If the threat of the V’kit’no’sat ever ends, we will help them get to the core to seek out the Hadarak. That is where their ultimate focus is, not on you, and I highly suggest no rogue attempts at sedation be enacted…otherwise you could gain their focus in none agreeable ways.”

“If we only observe we are not threatened,” the Polensav said pithily. “And a rogue Uriti now goes straight to the core. The Knights of Quenar are correct. Our situation has improved.”

“Assuming Star Force keeps to its oath,” the Bocadeem reiterated. “If they order it, the Uriti will strike at whoever they want.”

“Even if it takes them away from the V’kit’no’sat and the Hadarak?” the Tsarik floated. “That begs the question how much influence they actually have and whether or not it is diminishing.”

“The new arrangement functions as a backup to that eventuality,” Travis added. “The Uriti have been used and abused, despite the damage they inflicted on others. They were created as tools of the Chixzon, and it is the Chixzon that bear the ultimate blame. The Uriti have proven they can coexist with us, unlike the Hadarak, and now that they have a purpose other than following orders, that purpose is more useful than their destruction with regards to keeping them away from your territory.”

“Agreed,” the Sety said, along with similar sentiments from several others.

“Assumptions,” the Bocadeem growled. “The only way to be sure their threat is eliminated is to destroy the Uriti. This Preserve is only a temporary hold.”

“Why then did you send yours here?” Hera asked.

“To study it in an active state.”

“And to remove it from your territory,” the KoQ added. “Do not rewrite history. Star Force has taken an immense burden off of you, as they have all of us. Now you seek to repay their generosity with dissent.”

“We seek an ultimate solution, as all of us once did. Why has that now changed?”

“Forget the Uriti,” Travis said, drawing several odd looks from the ambassadors. “What about the Hadarak?”

“What about them?” the Bocadeem asked.

“Why aren’t you fighting them? Why aren’t you sedating and flinging them off into the void?”

“They are not our concern.”

“Why not? Because they’re not on the Rim, and even in the past before the V’kit’no’sat pushed them in, they never reached the Rim. They’re not in your territory and therefore not a threat, so you don’t care. Correct?”

“We have claim on the Uriti. We brought it here and assisted with the others.”

“But they’re no longer in your territory,” the KoQ countered. “They could return to it the same as the Hadarak could. The threat is equal, yet you are unconcerned with the greater one.”

“The Uriti are far more powerful than the Hadarak.”

“But limited in numbers. The Hadarak are the greater threat. The truth is you are drawn here by the power Star Force now possesses and you want to deny them that. The Uriti are no longer a threat to you on their own any more than a Hadarak expansion into your territory. Star Force has removed that threat. The only one that remains is the betrayal of their oath.”

“And you do not fear that?”

“We are here to insure that they do not break it, and if they should we will take necessary action against them. So far they have not, and this new arrangement with the Uriti does not violate it. We will wait and watch, but the status quo has improved because of the deal they have struck. That logic cannot be denied save for an absence of sanity.”

“So you will back them?” the Bocadeem said, strain in his voice.

“As they have stated on numerous occasions, they need no backing. We are observers. We will continue to be observers so long as they hold to their oath, but we will advise them as we deem necessary. Our advice now is to pursue this deal, for it is wise.”

“And already concluded,” Travis pointed out. “I am informing you now because the movement of the Uriti has always been broadcast ahead of time and us taking one off without telling you might appear to be us breaking our oath…but my informing you of this means you have knowledge of an impending strike against the V’kit’no’sat that must remain secret. If they are forewarned there will be complications. You will maintain secrecy or there will be painful consequences. I trust I do not have to elaborate further?”

“May we accompany this strike force as observers?” the Tsarik asked.

“For those of you with stealth technology, you don’t really need to ask, do you? As for the rest of you, we will allow one ship to accompany us…no more. This is a military operation and we will not be hindered with an observing fleet to coordinate with. We will supply a vessel for any ambassadors to travel on if you wish, along with a small staff, but we will not allow any others to follow. I trust that will be adequate?”

“One ship? How is that enough?” the Dojka asked. “The first time a Uriti is used in offensive action against an enemy is a monumental event. There should be far more witnesses than a single ship.”

“This is not a sightseeing expedition,” Hera all but spat.

“No, it’s not,” Travis agreed. “This is war, and I am allowing a single ship, take it or leave it.”

“How soon are you departing?” the KoQ asked before anyone else could make stupid comments.

“As soon as we assemble the necessary escort fleet. The V’kit’no’sat know how to kill Hadarak, so we’re not sending Bahamut in alone.”

“Bahamut?” the Bocadeem asked.

“He is the one we agreed upon for this strike.”

“You’re only taking one Uriti?” the Killechad asked.

“Do you hear the idiocy of your own words?” the Sety asked. “A single Uriti is capable of destroying star systems.”

“We fought here with multiple ones,” he countered.

“And the V’kit’no’sat were massacred. Why not take two or three and spare yourselves more ship losses?”

“If there are two, they have to restrict their weapon discharges to avoid damaging one another,” Hera answered. “We don’t have the ships to screen for two of them if they’re widely separated. The V’kit’no’sat will either run or fight, and if they fight they’d concentrate on one anyway. There is no point in taking two for this mission.”

“Why Bahamut?” the Tsarik asked.

“He has the best coordination scores,” the Jei noted. “He’s probably the most reliable for a mission that is partly an experiment in and of itself.”

“Exactly,” Hera agreed.

“So you risk the pack leader by taking only one?” the Bocadeem challenged.

“If Bahamut is destroyed you would be thrilled with the outcome,” the Sety scoffed. “What is your complaint?”

“We don’t trust Star Force’s judgement, and insist that this mission be canceled and normal containment operations continue. If the Uriti will not accept that and risk going rogue, then we must sedate and send them into the void at a rate of speed that they will not be able to return from no matter what tricks they may continue to hide.”

“Neither of those things are happening,” Yetti said calmly. “The mission has been agreed upon with the Uriti and will proceed. The only question is whether or not you’re going to interfere with it using more than words.”

“We will not look kindly on an act of sabotage that will threaten Star Force’s relationship with the Uriti,” the KoQ stated, essentially killing any rebukes from the other ambassadors, though the Bocadeem didn’t quite relent.

“We will do what is required to keep the Uriti contained.”

“As will we,” the KoQ echoed.

“I’ll let the two of you deal with each other then,” Travis said with a cruel smirk on his face. “If any of you want a ride, get your delegations assembled within a week. We won’t be leaving that soon, but we’ll go the moment we’re ready and you need to be as well. If not you’ll be left behind.”

“About time,” the Oion said, flapping its gill puffs. “You should have used the Uriti long ago. I don’t know why you waited this long.”

“Because the word V’kit’no’sat means ‘hunter of Hadarak.’ They know how to kill them, and we were not going to order the Uriti into battles that were not their own. They never understood the real threat because we had never told them of the Hadarak. Now they know the score and they’re demanding that they be allowed to fight with us, we’re not going to turn down that help. We didn’t tell them earlier because we were afraid of them running straight to the core and getting killed along the way…which some of you would welcome…but they’re our wards and their wellbeing is our responsibility.”

“Apparently no longer, if they’re giving you orders,” the Tsarik pointed out.

“Our relationship has altered,” Travis added. “They want to be our allies, and we’re going to treat them as such while looking out for their best interests. They don’t fly in ships, and whenever they take weaponsfire it’s their bodies that get hit. We don’t like fighting that way, but it’s how the Uriti fight. A defensive battle is one thing, but if we’re going on the offensive we’re not going in even and put them in a situation where they have to take massive damage.”

“Which is why you should take two or more,” the Sety reiterated, “to spread out the damage.”

“How fast we kill the enemy fleet largely dictates how much damage the Uriti will take,” Hera explained. “And trust me…taking Bahamut in solo is the best way to knock down a single target as fast as possible.”

5

February 27, 4832

Dumbo System (Meintre territory near Grid Point Stargate)

Stellar Orbit

Kara-317 came through the jumppoint in the first of the Clan Ghostblade ships to arrive from the Devastation Zone. When the call had come through her fleet was split up into dozens of segments off hunting V’kit’no’sat supply convoys and playing with their escorts, but now it was condensed down into three fleets. Two of those were taking other routes to Tarric 3, but they were scheduled to arrive at the same time to force the V’kit’no’sat to defend three different jumppoints in addition to the Canderous sedas that would be coming out from the grid point itself.

That meant reinforcements coming into the system from 4 directions all the while the transport with Bahamut tucked safely inside would come through last. Kara had him with her fleet, and now that they were inside friendly territory again he’d be making one last star plunge before the last bit of their journey. The Meintre had some 18 star systems nearby the grid point that held almost a third of their entire population, and so far the V’kit’no’sat had not tried to assault any of them…nor the three held by the Albos, or the two by the Gfatt, or the 9 held by other Nexus races.

All were so fortified that they would have hurt the V’kit’no’sat badly if they attacked them, but the blockade fleet in Tarric 3 had done considerable damage without them having to fire a single shot at The Nexus systems. The grid point was their link to the rest of The Nexus, and the blockade of it had caused numerous problems. Now ships had to go through the Devastation Zone to get to Grid Point Annsa in H’kar territory, and the V’kit’no’sat had not left them alone.

The up side was that many of these systems possessed massive shipyards that were producing warships for use elsewhere in The Nexus, and without the ability to send them through the grid points they were piling up here waiting for crews that likewise couldn’t get to them. That meant there was more military might here than normal, though undercrewed. This system in particular had some 8,300 Meintre warships on station in addition to numerous defense stations protecting the shipyards and other vital structures.

There were 6 planets here, all packed with the elephant-like Meintre, but Kara’s fleet wasn’t heading to any of them. They were just passing through and waiting here a bit to sync their invasion timing perfectly. They had two jumps to make to get to Tarric 3 and they wouldn’t be stopping at the next one. Hopefully if the V’kit’no’sat had scout ships that had detected their movement they’d see them coming here and maybe not the grid point just yet, for the size of Kara’s fleet wasn’t large enough to take it back by any stretch of the imagination.

She didn’t know what their odds of getting to Tarric 3 undetected were, but if they had to fight their way into the system they would…though she expected the approaching sedas coming out from the grid point to get the bulk of their attention, for if those got into position they were going to be hard to remove. Stopping them from pooling together at the jumppoint was key for the blockade fleet, and she expected that to be the big distraction needed to get the fleets in without getting chopped apart at their arrival points.

Bahamut’s carrier was coming in last to protect it, as well as to get the V’kit’no’sat fleet fully engaged before they revealed their surprise…though it was possible they would know what was coming from surveillance of the Preserve and they might just leave prior to their arrival, but Kara hoped not. She wanted to neutralize as many of those enemy ships as they could so they couldn’t be used elsewhere against Star Force.

That, and she really wanted to see Bahamut kick their asses.

A signal from the Meintre defense fleet came through to her within a few minutes of the leading edge of her fleet arriving and beginning to pool nearby, which she took in the command nexus on her flagship Yi, with a small hologram of the very large Meintre appearing over her control board.

“Welcome Ghostblade fleet. How may we assist you this day?” the computer translation said in English.

“Just passing through, though we will need to borrow your star for a bit.”

“Our star? For a mining operation?”

“Sort of,” she said with a coy smile. “We’re launching an attack against the blockading fleet at Tarric 3 and we need to recharge our primary weapon using your star.”

The four tentacles on the Meintre’s face clenched with surprise, for they hadn’t been informed of the upcoming attack, nor had anyone in The Nexus until now.

“How many of our ships do you require?”

“None. We’re going to take them down on our own.”

“You want no assistance?”

“Not this time. We’re employing a Uriti, and we’re not quite sure how well it’s going to work. We don’t want anything other than drone warships working in concert with it just in case its weaponsfire isn’t as…accurate as we hope.”

“You’re bringing one of the beasts here?”

“Yes. It’s at the end of this convoy in a transport ship. It will need to disembark and soak in your star before we leave. We want it fully charged when we engage the V’kit’no’sat.”

“You’re bringing one here?” the Meintre reiterated, aghast.

“Just passing through, as I said. There won’t be an issue.”

“You have that much faith in your control over it?”

“We’re not controlling it, we’re working with it. The Uriti want to kill V’kit’no’sat for their own reasons, so we’re helping each other out.”

“What distance do we need to keep from it for safety reasons?”

“When it’s inside the transport there is no worry. When outside stay further away than our fleet is from it. It’s just going to dive into the star, soak for a while, then reboard the transport. Then we’ll be on our way at timestamp 22:38. We have other fleet components meeting us at Tarric 3 simultaneously, so we have a slight delay before we can depart. A Nexus representative is accompanying us in a vessel that will arrive shortly, along with others from the Preserve that want to witness the event. I’m sure the Sety will be able to answer any security concerns you might have.”

“Frankly, we take your word to be more legitimate than that of the Sety, but if the Uriti should attack us we have little to defend ourselves with against it. Which one have you brought?”

“One of the bigger ones…and also one of the more reliable. There will be no issues here with Bahamut, I can promise you that.”

“And what of our stellar mining operations?”

“He will take care not to hit them. It’s a big star, after all.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing, both here and at Tarric 3. We badly need that grid point open again.”

“I know. If this works you’ll have transit passage within the week.”

“Do you think they will flee?”

“I honestly don’t know.”

“I will pull our fleet back from the jumppoint now that you have arrived and inform our other vessels to give you a wide berth.”

“Thank you,” Kara said as the Meintre ended communications. All things said, he’d taken the news fairly well, but if she’d been a Meintre living on one of the planets here Kara doubted she’d feel too comfortable with a Uriti arriving in her system…especially when this sort of operation had never been done before.

When Bahamut’s ship eventually arrived it dwarfed even the Star Force jumpships. It was over 80 miles long and 40 high, carrying the Uriti inside a hollow chamber with the rest of the massive vessel comprised of gravity drives and shield generators. There was no crew onboard, for it operated as a drone flown by a nearby jumpship, and once it came out of the jumppoint and moved off from the fleet down to almost touching the outer atmosphere of the star, shields ablaze with radiation pouring off them, the transport spit open along the front, looking like an alligator opening its mouth, and inside of it the prone pale yellow Uriti stirred.

Having held still for weeks and tolerating the confinement that they did not relish, Bahamut pulled itself out of the transport and accelerated down into the stellar atmosphere, happy to be within the outer tendrils of it while the transport looked to hate even that ‘light’ contact. Though he flew through space like a ship the Uriti was vastly alien to the construct, with the latter moving up and further away from the star to a holding orbit as the Uriti sank so deep that it eventually dropped off sensors to take a quick bath and soak up a decent charge. Bahamut only had 6 hours, but sitting and doing nothing didn’t drain his reserves much, so this was just a topping off venture and would be accomplished well before they had to leave.

As much as the Uriti hated the confinement of the transport they preferred it to traveling between stars on their own. Not only was this faster, but they didn’t have to expend the energy to accelerate and decelerate when the ship did it for them. Hanging in interstellar space unable to move but a very small amount on stars too distant to really pull on, the jump between systems was a hated necessity that confined them as much as being within the transport.

It was where they were the most vulnerable…and oddly where they were the safest, for someone attacking them during a jump was almost impossible. They weren’t concerned about that anyway, but they could be damaged if they didn’t decelerate enough at the destination point or couldn’t correct their course if they tried for a really long jump and ended up a bit inaccurate. That was why Uriti preferred shorter jumps, and being carried around by Star Force, while not something they liked, was highly preferable to doing it on their own…which Star Force had them do time to time for training purposes anyway.

But this wasn’t training, this was a mission and they needed Bahamut as strong as possible when they engaged the V’kit’no’sat…and right on time the Uriti came back up out of the star and into communications range with Hera onboard the pacing jumpship. They had a brief conversation and he reported he was ready…with her ordering the transport down to him. Bahamut entered without incident, to the relief of the watching Meintre, and the pair of ships headed for the outgoing jumppoint where the Ghostblade fleet was already leaving through and had been for the past several hours.

Kara had gone through first, as had Travis in his command ship. Hera would be linking up with him through the battlemap system later, which she could use while in communication with Bahamut. Her own psionics wouldn’t work, for the most part, due to the concentration required, but the computer systems that connected directly into her nervous system would, allowing her a semi-battlemeld link to Travis rather than having him here holding her hand so they could coordinate properly.

The plan was to have already engaged the V’kit’no’sat when she arrived, fighting a losing battle that was believable enough to make the enemy think they were trying to thin the blockade fleet without getting themselves killed in the process…then when Bahamut arrived everything would change, one way or the other, and Hera could feel the Uriti’s anticipation as it sat cradled inside its transport.

Bahamut had been built to attack, and had not done so since it was revived from sedation. Bahamut had fought in one of the V’kit’no’sat attacks on the Preserve, but that was still a defensive action. Bahamut had previously been a destroyer of systems, and Hera could feel his urge to put his skills to use helping Star Force kill the ‘little beings’ that were hunters of his Hadarak kin.

Star Force had never met a Hadarak, let alone attacked one, so their relationship was not tarnished, but Hera could feel that the Uriti would side with the Hadarak against Star Force if it ever came to that choice. Friends they were, but Star Force was still ‘little beings’ and the Hadarak were peers. Hera could feel the anger Bahamut held for the V’kit’no’sat, and she knew Star Force could never let themselves be put in a similar situation. They needed to help the Uriti fight the V’kit’no’sat more efficiently, and thus, in a way, help the Hadarak…who might very well try to kill the Uriti if they ever met them.

Hera didn’t know…no one knew what would happen when that meeting eventually took place, but right now it was a moot point. The V’kit’no’sat were here, trying to kill both Star Force and the Uriti, with both having plenty of work to do in the near future just to stay alive, but the Uriti were no longer going to be spectators or protectees. They were going to become war buddies, and this mission was going to set the precedent for everything going forward.

Jeen was here as a backup, on another ship should something happen to Hera’s, but this was all on her and Bahamut and how well they could work with the Star Force fleet…and if Bahamut would keep his cool or go wild when he saw the V’kit’no’sat, now that he knew what they truly were.

6

March 4, 4832

Tarric 3 System

Stellar Orbit

When Hera’s Warship-class jumpship finished its deceleration and linked in to the Star Force battlemap in the system she saw the battle with the blockade fleet already heavily underway. The 284 Canderous sedas were clumped up around the jumppoint to Grid Point Stargate, with the V’kit’no’sat having hit them already but now pulled away from the much larger space stations to engage the smaller warships…who were not grouping with the sedas.

There were Canderous warships and others from the Grid Point with the sedas, but the attacking Star Force fleet had mostly recombined from its numerous arrival jumppoints and was engaging the larger blockade fleet in more than just probing action…with the V’kit’no’sat deciding to smash it first then go back and get the sedas. If they hit the sedas first the big stations would soak up too much damage, allowing the Star Force fleet to get free shots off at them. That meant Star Force needed to group up and force that fight…but they weren’t, and the V’kit’no’sat were going to make them pay for that.

Hera smiled dangerously. Everything was going as planned, and even though Kara’s fleet was taking a beating, the Queen of Diamonds knew how to drag out a fight like this long enough to get their heavy hitter in…and to keep the enemy from running. By now Kara already would have given the ultimatum to leave…which the V’kit’no’sat obviously had ignored…and now was the time to see if word of Bahamut leaving the Preserve had made its way to the V’kit’no’sat yet.

Some 40 seconds after Hera’s ship arrived the last in their convoy came through, that being the massive transport ship that dwarfed the Wrangler’s vessel. Jeen was already here and engaged in the fighting along with the other jumpships, guiding drones that were doing the actual attacking while the control ships dodged any attempt by the V’kit’no’sat to get to them, and that’s where Hera’s ship was headed now as she stood in the command nexus onboard her warship. Linked in to the battlemap network she ordered the transport to begin opening up as she focused and triggered her gauntlet to connect to the massive transmitter onboard her ship, giving her a telepathic link to Bahamut.

It’s time, she said, in a mix of thoughts that weren’t quite words but a type of shorthand they’d developed over the centuries. Follow my lead and I’ll get targets for you to kill. Do it just like training and be mindful of your targets. I need as much precision from you as possible.

Bahamut signaled he was ready as the gator-like doors continued to crank open, exposing the Uriti inside as the transport continued to move closer to the battle. Hera wished she could see the V’kit’no’sat’s reaction…especially as Interdictor-class drones in the fleet began pinning various ships in place and stacking up the massive blockade fleet so it couldn’t run as well as normal.

Go, she said when they were finally in range.

Bahamut surged out of the transport, slow for a starship but fast considering the speeds he used to be capable of. Star Force training had enhanced all the Uriti, but Bahamut was the one that had taken to it the best. Somehow he understood the wisdom in it and had come to trust the Wranglers’ direction, with him now letting Hera guide his movements almost as if she was remote controlling him, though that wasn’t truly the case. She would give him direction and he would fight within those boundaries…hopefully. Hera could feel his anger at the V’kit’no’sat, his wish to utterly obliterate them for what they had done to the Hadarak, so the Wrangler focused on helping him do that in the most effective way possible.

Their goals, Human and Uriti, overlapped today, and Bahamut was savvy enough to let the little being do her job as the 52 mile wide space beast moved towards the rear of the Star Force fleet, passing by the jumpships sitting safely behind the fighting and heading for the ‘smashed sphere’ formation the V’kit’no’sat were now trying to break out from. They’d fought enough Hadarak to know this was horrible positioning and that they had to making strafing runs against it from afar…fighting in close melee range was a death sentence, and many Star Force drones were sacrificing themselves to keep a large portion of the enemy fleet stuck in position.

At Travis’s urging, Hera had Bahamut maintain speed rather than slow down, knowing that the V’kit’no’sat were not going to be held in place for long. Many were slipping out already, but there was a clump of Kafcha-class vessels and other large ones pinned between Star Force ships and their own vessels, and there was a moment of opportunity that was not going to be squandered.

Bahamut did as directed, plowing through the Star Force drones that couldn’t get out of the way in time, having to sit still and keep their IDF fields on the outer V’kit’no’sat vessels even as they were being destroyed by the enemy fleet. Almost half of what Bahamut plowed into was debris of what had been drones, but it didn’t faze the Uriti. The impacts slowed him a bit, then he hit the first of the V’kit’no’sat vessels, smashing them on impact even as he began to decelerate on his own.

Before he could get completely slowed down there were thousands of stings to his body, which Hera could feel, but it was insignificant. The V’kit’no’sat couldn’t kill him quickly, but the reverse wasn’t true. The physical impacts were buffered somewhat by dampening shields, but they couldn’t stop the Uriti’s mass quick enough to save the first few ships that broke apart like piñatas on impact. The heavy armor they possessed was nothing compared to the Uriti’s own flesh, plus the V’kit’no’sat vessels were essentially hollow with living space for the crews.

Bahamut was solid through and through, and by the time the V’kit’no’sat’s dampening fields brought him to a full stop he was a third of the way to the center of their fleet.

Boom, Hera thought, with Bahamut running through a quick charging routine that had yellow energy forming over his two wings. It became so bright it appeared to be a star within the V’kit’no’sat fleet, then the upper and lower portions of his wings discharged similar to a Jumat blast, only this energy was something vastly different.

The golden glow wasn’t plasma, and it wasn’t Jumat. It was faintly reminiscent of Ta’lin’yi, but just as deadly to shields as it was physical matter. In a few seconds a double nuke cloud formed, rising above and below while sparing those ships off the flanks, with the V’kit’no’sat vessels disintegrating on impact along with many smaller Star Force drones further out. The debris and what was left of what the Chixzon called a ‘Torronna’ discharge took down shields, damaged hulls, and knocked ship against ship in a domino effect that didn’t quite make it out to most of the Star Force drones. Some had been destroyed, but most were blocked by other V’kit’no’sat ships around the perimeter, allowing them to continue holding some of the enemy fleet in place as Bahamat launched his second attack.

It wasn’t a Torronna, for that was a planetary assault weapon that could not be repeated for more than an hour, but Bahamut had many weapon systems built into his genome. While missing the tentacles that Hadarak had, they still possessed Lachka-similar energy fields that allowed Bahamut to drag ships towards it and create localized gravity fields to crush weaker vessels against his sides.

That wasn’t going to work here, for the V’kit’no’sat vessels were too strong to break without tentacle help, but the Chixzon had given Bahamut something else. So when the Uriti moved forward and towards the intact enemy ships he closed to range on a clump of them and fired a massive directional energy blast from his ‘head’ lump. A huge blue beam that could outrange very weapon the V’kit’no’sat possessed save for a Tar’vem’jic hit another Kafcha that had suffered shield loss and some minor hull damage, punching through its 36 mile wide mass after a few seconds of burn through.

The remainder of the beam hit another two ships below and a Star Force drone further off while bits of it escaped the battlefield entirely. The Varot cannon did not move at lightspeed or greater, but was a cloying matrix that acted much like plasma…only far greater in degree and Bahamut could repeat that attack every 15-20 seconds.

That meant a ship killing blow with each shot while the V’kit’no’sat weapons only scratched Bahamut’s own hull/flesh. Meanwhile the Uriti continued to collide with intact ships and elicit mine-like discharges that were mere ripples compared to the Torronna earlier, but of the same energy. That left Bahamut’s ‘body’ as the weak link, to which the Chixzon had given him a proximity discharge that allowed a red lightning-like strike against anything within a few miles range…which the V’kit’no’sat were trying to clear away from, but their own debris and Star Force’s now encircling fleet tried to delay their escape as long as possible.

There were too many V’kit’no’sat ships to control, with chunks of their formation breaking away and circling around to attack the Star Force drones in order to open up more pathways out of the blast zone. They didn’t know that Bahamut couldn’t release another one for a while, because he hadn’t used this attack during combat in the Preserve. Too many friendlies had been nearby and the enemy fleet never got close enough to him for it to be effective, but even if they had known they would have been wise to run, for his other weaponry was enough to deal with them all if they stuck close.

Even in their panic the V’kit’no’sat continued to take shots at the Uriti in specific locations, trying to punch a wound through its thick outer skin, though the flesh inside wasn’t all that much more forgiving to energy weapons…but such a wound, if inflicted, would not heal very fast. At least not compared to shields that could come back up in full within minutes or hours, and Hera had wondered along with the other Wranglers how much more powerful the Uriti would be if they had bioshields…a biological technology that the Chixzon had never acquired.

On Travis’ command every ship holding position with the sedas broke free and accelerated towards the battle, being several minutes away at top speed, but the trailblazer needed every intercept possible to run down the fleeing V’kit’no’sat vessels and force them to either stop and fight or abandon their other pinned ships. The sedas couldn’t move fast enough to engage, but they didn’t want to get near the Uriti anyway so they held position offering a safe haven for Star Force drones to run to if needed.

Most of Hera’s focus was on her link with Bahamut, feeding attack orders from Travis to the Uriti, but she could also see the battlemap data and how the V’kit’no’sat responded was a mix of awe-inspiring and terrifying. They didn’t break ranks, didn’t panic, didn’t scatter and run. Their fleet morphed quickly, attacking where they could as they created channels outward to evacuate the others…leaving the wounded behind but doing damage to both the drones and Bahamut as they maneuvered. Their fleet was more than strong enough to defeat everything Star Force had brought to bear except the Uriti, and their response was…

It wasn’t normal. This wasn’t how the V’kit’no’sat normally fought, and it wasn’t until a comment from Travis…who was partially in her head to help coordinate Bahamut’s strikes…pointed out the difference. V’kit’no’sat claimed dominance over everyone save for the Hadarak. They knew they were the inferior in that fight and approached it differently in response. During the attacks on the Preserve the V’kit’no’sat had been hesitant and probing, but not like this. This was them fighting from behind, much like Star Force had learned to do through loss after loss over the past millennium.

Then it clicked, and she thanks Travis for the insight. The V’kit’no’sat were used to dominating their opponents, often not losing a single ship, but there was another side to their psychological coin that she was seeing now.

They were used to fighting and dying and scraping out hard wins against the Hadarak, and these V’kit’no’sat were slipping into that mode of fighting instantly in the power shadow of the Uriti...who in many ways were even stronger than their coreward kin.

Before the Archons could do anything about it, 6 fleet groups emerged outside the containment radius and ignored every drone save for the Interdictors, trying to peel them off to allow others to escape the rampage that Bahamut was on inside the perimeter…a place that no Star Force vessel could have survived more than 30 seconds in. The V’kit’no’sat vessels were so powerful and so closely stacked together that it would have been suicide for the Star Force drones to try to go in there, but a Uriti was another matter entirely and Bahamut was right where he wanted to me.

With Hera’s help he was targeting specific ships and getting the most out of the opportunity until there were no more intact ships remaining in close range. Holes formed in the drone curtain around the area allowing Bahamut to fire at range using his beam cannon, hitting more of the larger ships and taking them down in single shots…though a few intact Kafcha managed to survive one hit with their shields and most of their armor sucking up the massive amount of energy.

The battle quickly devolved into several strands of enemy ships running away like giant snakes with the drones chasing after to harass or grab, with those ships snared swarmed by other drones or held in position long enough for Bahamut to target them. Hera saw several drones go with the V’kit’no’sat ships, for the Varot Cannon blast was over 3 miles wide, and even if it didn’t hit the drones head on the destructive blast from the enemy hulls vaporizing would take them out.

That was an acceptable loss because there were no people onboard, and ton for ton the exchange was heavily beneficial, but Travis quickly tagged several pinned vessels as ‘safe’ from being Bahamut’s targets. The Uriti didn’t understand that and almost fired at one anyway, with Hera about to use a command override if necessary, but she didn’t have to. Bahamut, consumed in battle fervor, pulled back enough to take the Wrangler at her word and focus on the other targets given to him…which were rapidly diminishing. The V’kit’no’sat were far faster than the Uriti, and now that they weren’t massed around it his kill power was becoming non-existent.

Hadarak and Uriti both used minions to go after enemy vessels and drag them in range, but today that tactic wasn’t being used. The Star Force drone fleet was, and was better at it than Bahamut’s minions ever could be…especially since he didn’t have to focus on controlling them. Uriti were telepathically powerful and smart, but they weren’t the naval tacticians that the Archons were. This arrangement had proven best in training, and now in their first successful strike even Bahamut was pleased, comparing this to others he had done in the past on Chixzon orders and giving Hera a lengthy but quick analysis of how much better this worked.

Bahamut was also very happy that Star Force had tricked the enemy fleet into range for his primary discharge. Only the stupidest of the Chixzon’s foes had ever gotten that close in those numbers, and Hera was likewise pleased…and somewhat appalled…at how much damage the Uriti had done in that single attack. She could imagine being on a planet when that hit the surface, and hated the Chixzon even more for what they’d done and the cowardly way they fought. It was effective, but wrong, and slaughtering people randomly turned her stomach.

But now Bahamut was under Star Force’s guidance and his weaponry was being used for legitimate purposes…though now Hera had to convince him to stand down and not kill the remaining debris, for Travis wanted some of the damaged ships saved to put survivors on to send back to V’kit’no’sat territory. He didn’t want to kill them, and he didn’t want to take the responsibility of imprisoning them…for that had proved very hard to do in the past. Patching up some of their lost ships and sending them home was the best method, as well as providing eye witnesses to what happened here.

When Hera passed on that reasoning, so that the ‘little beings’ could flee and tell the other V’kit’no’sat how they should fear the Uriti, he understood but didn’t wholly agree. He would have preferred just killing them all, but had no problem letting Star Force deal with the scraps the way they wanted. With the amount of damage he’d done to their fleet…which was in excess of 60% when all things were done…Bahamut was satisfied enough to request a dip in the star that Hera granted. He was not needed for the little bits of battle left as the V’kit’no’sat ships fled to the nearest jumppoints and ran with Star Force ships chasing them all the way out.

A few battles broke out as the V’kit’no’sat tried to take advantage of some mismatches, now far away from the Uriti, but only 12% of Kara’s drones had been destroyed and they were massing to put the final damage into wounded V’kit’no’sat ships…meaning the enemy had to get out of here despite still having the ability to do a lot of damage.

Hera could tell they didn’t want to run, but between Travis and Kara they eventually gave them no choice after some intense fighting at two jumppoints. As more V’kit’no’sat vessels left those remaining were in a worse and worse position, with many having to flee across the system to other jumppoints because they were having to wait in line.

Most of them got out, but a few were caught and disabled, adding to the captured fleet that would be taking the survivors back.

As for Hera, when Bahamut sank into the star and began soaking up energy and hunting for materials deep within the gravity well, she lost contact but knew he’d be in there for a while as his regeneration sequences began to heal the cuts he’d received. None had made it all the way through his outer layer, but that hard material didn’t regenerate as quickly as Hera would have liked, though in comparison to other biologicals it was almost magically fast.

Add in the fact that the V’kit’no’sat couldn’t do much to one within a star and Bahamut had a safe haven to flee to no matter how badly damaged he was. Hera knew that was a constant problem for the V’kit’no’sat in their ongoing war with the Hadarak, but thankfully that tactic hadn’t been necessary here…and never would be, as far as she was concerned. They’d never launch a strike that put Bahamut or the others into that kind of jeopardy by choice, but in defensive efforts it could come in useful.

As she was monitoring the cleanup effort and not yet ready to leave her post in case Bahamut wanted to talk, a notice came through the battlemap from Travis. It wasn’t to her specifically, but a wide notice to all of Star Force and its allies that would be transmitting through the comm network to the neighboring systems and all the way out to the most rimward Star Force colonies.

The blockade of Grid Point Stargate was broken, and the trade routes were now open again.

Hera smiled, thinking of but not sending a signal to Bahamut that probably wouldn’t reach him anyway if he was too deep within the star. The status quo of this war had just changed, and changed drastically. Now she wished that Star Force and the Uriti had come to terms earlier, and she was glad they had forced their hand by demanding to help the ‘little beings’ whether they liked it or not. Bahamut was worth ten Mach’nel at least, and now that they’d proven they could work together without some catastrophe occurring, Star Force was going to make good on their word to the Uriti and incorporate them into the war whenever possible.

And that, Hera knew, would be bringing a smile to many Archons’ faces when they got word of the success here, including Davis. She hoped he was proud of what the Wranglers’ had accomplished and mentally tipped her hat to him. He was the master of long term investments, and this was probably one of the largest in galactic history.

How the other Uriti would integrate with the Star Force fleets was still in question, but Hera knew Bahamut would school them once they were reunited. For now though they were going to camp out here and gloat. For they’d been playing a game of capture the flag and finally took one of their own back from the V’kit’no’sat…and this one they were going to keep, not evacuate and run before they could get hit again.

Where she and Bahamut would end up beyond this she didn’t know, but their work was done for now and it was time to manage the victory…with Hera watching through the battlemap as V’kit’no’sat survivors were located and pulled off their wrecks of ships whether they liked it or not. She wanted to be on those boarding parties kicking some ass directly, but knew she couldn’t risk it. There were only two Wranglers in the system, and while the transmitter could be used by others, particularly Travis, they didn’t have the personal relationship with Bahamut that she did.

So Hera had to sit this out and watch, but that was ok. This war was a team effort, and while she didn’t like it, sitting and watching was easy. The hard part had just been done, and she couldn’t have been more pleased with Bahamut, who continued to surprise her.

A few hours later he contacted her and expressed similar sentiments, happy with the help Star Force had provided and asking how many ship losses they had suffered and if any of them had been mistakes on his part. His professionalism was extremely welcome, and Hera was right to have chosen him for this first strike. This was truly an alliance now, and Bahamut was the best friend a space navy could have.

And as Paul had said many times,

Naval beats everything.

7

May 29, 4832

Alamo System (Uriti Preserve)

Stellar Orbit

When Hera returned to the Preserve with Bahamut she stayed linked into the Uriti telepathically to observe what happened. She couldn’t eavesdrop on their conversations between each other, but she could monitor their activity, biological stats, and make herself visible to them if they wanted to communicate.

And communicate they did. There were only 8 Uriti in the system at the time for Bahamut to converse with, and their telepathic comm channels lit up in a firestorm of activity. A mix of anger and pride flared in the others, almost simultaneously, as she assumed he was telling them what had happened at Tarric 3.

It didn’t take long after that before she was the focus of the conversation, with multiple Uriti other than Bahamut asking her when they would get their chance to fight, what combat options they had given their unique weaponry, and a lot of technical aspects that many people probably hadn’t thought about yet.

Since the communication was in images and feelings rather than words, she got glimpses of what Bahamut had sent to them, including his tactical impressions of strengths and weaknesses in the V’kit’no’sat fleet, possible effectiveness of each of the other Uriti here, and the level of damage he had taken coupled with his assessment of how that would have affected the others of smaller size.

Even tiny Papa Smurf, at only 1.7 miles long, was expected to own a fleet of similar size without taking too much damage, and the youngest of the Uriti collected to date was pounding Hera with questions along with the others about when they would get their turn. Now that the combined strike formation had proven itself in combat they didn’t see a reason to wait and wanted to start hitting the V’kit’no’sat hard in multiple locations.

Hera put the brakes on that, reminding them that they needed large Star Force fleets to protect them and help snare targets, otherwise they’d run away and strafe the Uriti over and over until they were hurt so badly they’d have to retreat to a nearby star to hide and heal. That was unacceptable as far as the Wranglers were concerned, with Hera insisting that they were hunting victories and not just combat.

A few other Wranglers’ minds popped up and joined the conversation, but not soon after it began an unusual one joined them. He wasn’t a Wrangler, but he was known to the Uriti and now drew their full attention as he started floating hypothetical formations and tactics…that they immediately responded to with their own alterations in a back and forth that left Hera somewhat confused and trying to keep up.

That shouldn’t have surprised her, at least not on Paul’s part, but the fact that the Uriti were possibly better naval tacticians than her and somewhat in The Admiral’s league was shocking, so she just sat back and absorbed as much as she could. The idea of using minions to replace Star Force drones was eventually floated, but Paul said they’d already simmed them against the V’kit’no’sat and they had neither the longevity nor speed needed to ensnare the enemy ships. Hadarak minions were different because they were alive and didn’t require remote control, but Uriti minions were different and could not operate tactically without a nearby controller.

Sure they could fight on their own, but no better than a preprogrammed machine…which is what they were. Biological machines with nobody at the helm, much like Star Force’s drones. Hadarak minions were living beings that could think and adapt on their own, and the V’kit’no’sat knew how to fight them…making Uriti minions not optimal tools for combat against this formidable enemy, but could possibly play a support role as they did in the Preserve when the V’kit’no’sat had attacked. That was because there was a large number of them already here, and shipping them to a target system didn’t make logistical sense.

The Uriti had been designed to beat up on races that couldn’t kill them, so they were going to have to fight the Star Force way rather than just bully their way into systems and dominate. The Uriti understood this clearly now, but Paul was warning them about the enemy’s ability to adapt and that they needed to be cautious, but he did have one mission for them already in mind…a small one. In fact it was only a single shot that needed to be fired, and he needed a Uriti with enough discipline to do just that and a weapon that could hit a fairly precise target.

That eliminated the area of effect weapons, and the Uriti here quickly decided that Bahamut was the best suited. Oddly they didn’t quarrel amongst themselves as to who got to go next, which Hera found relieving. They were showing the professionality that they’d hinted at over the years in exchanges with her, and it was impressive to see how they worked together now.

She was also glad the trailblazers had another mission for them, for she didn’t want to tell them otherwise and to just ‘sit and wait’ until something came up. She should have known the trailblazers would be on this and have a course charted forward before they got back, and Hera was glad she didn’t have to chart that course. The Wrangler much preferred being the middle man and figuring out how to carry out broad orders given to her, because charting the course of the Uriti was troubling enough even if you had a destination point already marked out.

The conversation between Paul and the Uriti continued for hours, at the end of which he called for Hera and Peter-2576 to transfer to his fleet, with her coming onboard the Excalibur…which apparently had already been refitted to carry a Uriti transmitter. Peter’s command ship also came with them, but Hera’s stayed here and she joined Paul onboard his flagship where they began heavy co-op training, with the trailblazer trying to get a feel for how the interaction between her and him would work in more intense combat where split seconds stretched into eternity.

It wasn’t as beneficial as he wanted, with Hera having to tune her mind to the proper procedures to interact with the Uriti without using the override commands. Those were easy now, even using a wrist-mounted relay, but their alliance with the Uriti meant they would only use those as a last resort, and after what had happened at Tarric 3 he wasn’t predicting any trouble with Bahamut despite the limited role he wanted for the upcoming strike on Gallifrey.

Jas’tul was on the surface of Gallifrey when word came down that a Uriti had entered the system. The Oso’lon wasn’t engaged in combat at the time, but was coordinating the constant front-line probing attacks that had been going on for 3 years now. Little progress was being made, but Star Force hadn’t been able to evict their very cheaply won foothold on the planet and if they could only maintain it then the attrition of the war elsewhere would eventually work back to this world and the resistance would lessen…opening up the planetary conquest that most V’kit’no’sat saw as inevitable.

The breaking of the blockade at Grid Point Stargate had changed everything, and right now the battle on Gallifrey was in a holding position. No one knew what was going to come next, and what many had dreaded happening was now here…a Uriti had been brought into this system to fight or bully away the V’kit’no’sat fleet in orbit, and once that happened the orbital bombardment of the Star Force fleet would begin. The few captured anti-orbital batteries and the smaller ones the V’kit’no’sat had installed wouldn’t stop an unopposed fleet…and the only choice before them now was to force a fight with a Uriti in order to cover the ground troops.

They didn’t have enough ships to do that successfully, but when the demand for them to cease fighting and withdraw from the system came through from Star Force’s premier naval commander, Paul-024, stubborn pride caused them to refuse the generous offer. He was not demanding they surrender, only stand down from combat and leave. In retrospect that would have been the preferred option, but old habits ran deep in the V’kit’no’sat, once of which was that they dictated the course of galactic events and were not dictated to.

Even as plans were being made to start evacing the ground troops the V’kit’no’sat refused to the deal, having expected the Uriti to park in orbit and dare their fleet to come in close and stop the Star Force orbital bombardment that would follow…but that’s not what happened. Rather the Star Force fleet stayed above weapons range of the planet while the Uriti sank in lower over the foothold point, its bulk visible in the sky, larger than any ship in both fleets, as it hovered over the atmosphere and rotated around so its wings were pointed downward at them while taking ineffective hits from ground-based weaponry.

The captured Ardents and the smaller portable ones of V’kit’no’sat manufacture scratched the yellowish mass, causing small bits of damage that would only matter in time if it held position and allowed the attack to continue…but it didn’t. With the Star Force fleet much higher up and away from the Uriti the V’kit’no’sat almost attacked them while there was a gap between the two, but they didn’t have time before the Uriti known as Bahamut fired a bright flash of a discharge in only one direction.

The attack didn’t rise from the top of its wings as it had in the battle against the blockade, rather it only fired down onto the planet…something that Jas’tul and the others thought would never happen with Star Force troops so nearby. The Oso’lon was able to see into the sky from his vantage point on a large promenade as he walked between buildings to get to one of the grounded warships first in line for evac when the strike came. It blinded him with sensory overload as the wave of energy slammed down into the protective Star Force-made shield above him and overloaded it within a second across a 36 mile wide area.

That then caused the entire shield to collapse, with the remainder of the blast pushing through and hitting the surface where the V’kit’no’sat had their foothold…and only hitting the foothold. Jas’tul was smashed into the ground as his personal shields flared and failed, with his armor and body burning as he lay cratered into the stone beneath him in a stunned state. It wasn’t until minutes later that his armor’s Kich’a’kat restored enough of his sanity for him to carefully stand up half naked with his armor leeching out to cover his exposed areas. As it stretched very very thin he saw the limited damage to the buildings around him…along with bodies from the dead and wounded, of which there were about half and half.

The smaller V’kit’no’sat races that were caught out in the open didn’t survive, with every Zen’zat in sight being little more than smear marks on the ground with a bit of burning flesh and broken armor remaining, but Jas’tul’s Oso’lon bulk had saved him as he stood up and glared at the Uriti far overhead. It wasn’t firing at them again, and the Ardent attacking it had thinned to only a third of their previous number, but soon there were little dark specs coming down all around it that the Oso’lon’s recently regenerated eyes could see were Star Force’s drone warships…and they were firing at targets on the surface.

The grounded warship that Jas’tul had been headed to was still intact. Its shields had protected it after the main planetary shield had soaked up most of the blast…which had been far too accurate a yield. It had broken the Star Force-built shield with only a small amount of excess getting through, otherwise Jas’tul would have been dead. He had no idea a Uriti could be that precise, but it was clear now to him that Star Force had done it on purpose to spare most of those V’kit’no’sat on the surface while now swooping in to eliminate their defenses.

The Oso’lon knew the fight was lost, so he sat back down on the quickly cooling ground as molten bits here and there resolidified and gouts of steam rose everywhere a body had been hit like little pyres marking the location of the dead or wounded. Jas’tul’s own pyre was out now that his flesh was no longer burning, and with the only dominate act he had left available to him he calmly held his position as the warships buzzed over his head firing on anything that fired back at them. The Oso’lon waited and horrifically watched as their foothold was reclaimed by Star Force troops, all the while staring up at the Uriti above him that remained ominously silent.

The message was clear, and Jas’tul wasn’t going to contest this Star Force victory. If past actions proved precedent, then he would be captured rather than killed so long as he didn’t fight back, so he let the Star Force mechs surround him and deactivated his armor on command when instructed, all the while staring up at the Uriti as if in acknowledgement that they, born of the Hadarak, were the V’kit’no’sat’s only true bane. Not Star Force. Not these little heretics that were being systematically exterminated.

So Jas’tul let himself be captured with the knowledge that it was the Uriti that had been the game changer, and that so long as Star Force held control of the Uriti the V’kit’no’sat could not fight them short of a massive, bloody war the likes of which had not been seen before. It was true there were less Uriti than Hadarak…far less, in fact…but these Uriti had powers that not even the Hadarak had, and Jas’tul had felt the effects of one first hand. These Chixzon who had designed them long, long ago had incorporated the strengths of both the Hadarak and a warship into one massive strategic and tactical advantage that Star Force now exclusively wielded.

This day was lost, and had they known this was going to happen the V’kit’no’sat should have accepted the offer of withdrawal. Instead Jas’tul became Star Force’s prisoner while others fought to their death. There was no winning this fight today, and ego was not sufficient reason to die here when they could survive. The empire was now in more peril than it could have imagined, and the only thing Jas’tul could do to help the V’kit’no’sat now was to survive and hopefully one day return to them with the knowledge of what happened here and the precision with which the attack had taken place.

They needed to know, and even if they found out through other means they were going to need every fighter they had in the coming centuries to wage this new war. One that Jas’tul did not know how it would end, or even how they would combat it, but foolishly throwing away his life was not beneficial. He understood that, along with many others who allowed themselves to be captured after the shield fell.

All of them were coming to grips with the new reality of the transition taking place…and the fact that the V’kit’no’sat were no longer unchallenged beyond the Uriti. Star Force was now a power to be reckoned with, not mere scraps of heretics to be exterminated as they had been promised. Someone had made a massive mistake, and it was one the empire was going to have to pay for.

They should have eliminated Star Force quickly and with overwhelming numbers from day one. Now they had a growing monster on their hands that they could not control.

8

December 12, 4832

Yavarris System (Totana Region Capitol)

Nexchi

“Do you understand?” Davis asked Roger-009 from across the Director’s desk as the two men shared a rare personal meeting.

The trailblazer nodded. “We’ll buy you time, at the minimum.”

“Time and planets,” Davis amended.

“If Sonic and I get along, I think we can do a lot of damage with sufficient ships. We can’t build a surplus in the near future, though.”

“I know. Spend what you need to, but get me some breathing room as soon as possible.”

“How long before you think they send a real fleet to smack us down?”

“Hard to read. They should have done so long ago and decided against it, so I’m not entirely sure what’s motivating them.”

“They did try at the Preserve,” Roger pointed out.

“And it scared them off? No, I don’t think so. They respond to fear with overwhelming firepower. Something else is in play and I can’t put my finger on it. It’s clear they had decided to leave the Uriti until they killed the rest of us so they wouldn’t have escorts enhancing their combat ability, but even that was a timid move combined with the lack of ships sent.”

“Not that they didn’t send plenty, but I agree it’s far more than they could have sent. You’d think they’d stop underestimating us and just get it over with.”

“I suspect it has more to do with ego, but that can’t account for it all. Regardless, this is going to provoke a reaction. Possibly a huge one. I don’t want you holding back because of it. Poke the tiger straight in the nose and we’ll deal with the consequences. Cementing this alliance with the Uriti is our priority at the moment, and we need combat for that.”

“It’s a gamble, but I don’t disagree.”

“Which part?”

“It’s a gamble on multiple fronts, but I was referring to the rim.”

“There is always going to be one system more just beyond our reach with people in need of help, and letting them fall is never going to sit right with us. This plan is the best way I can see to help the most people in the long run. If we don’t stop our planetary losses now our heavy industrial worlds are going to get hit and we snowball in the wrong direction. We’re going to have a problem outgrowing this if the V’kit’no’sat get into H’kar territory.”

“Squeezed on all sides…how is that not normal?”

“We always knew this was a war we would probably lose. I for one am tired of losing but fighting well. I feel like winning for a change while we still have our core industrial territory intact. To do that I need the V’kit’no’sat defending, not advancing. Gallifrey was a turning point, now I want you to hit them hard and fast before they can fully understand the new order of combat.”

“I still don’t like leaving you shorthanded here.”

“Has to be done. We don’t have enough fleets to cover multiple Uriti strike teams.”

“Technically we only need one,” Roger said before Davis threw him an odd look. “Ok, we’d like more, but we can get by with only one.”

“I don’t want you to get by, I want you to soar. Go do your thing. I can handle things here with the others. We won’t lose ground.”

“But we’ll lose more of our neighbors,” Roger said, standing up from his seat at the desk. “I hate that.”

“Give me some breathing room and we’ll be able to grow faster than now. If that can happen, we’ll help a lot more neighbors in the coming decades.”

“Won’t help those that die in this one,” Roger said, arguing with the galaxy more than Davis. “You sure about Rajch?”

“I am.”

“Time to meet my new buddy then. Thanks for the visit.”

“Some things can’t be handled via hologram,” Davis said, rising to match his height, though his own Striker-level Archon skills paled in comparison to Roger’s Goku level. The trailblazer could break Davis like a twig if he wanted, but the Director held a higher skill level with regards to the overall empire. He was the top Monarch, but his also being an Archon and the creator of the empire put him in a unique position that all the trailblazers’ respected enough to seek counsel from when needed, in addition to loyally carrying out whatever missions Davis wanted. He knew Roger would get this done, even above and beyond the other trailblazers, due to his naval skill that was going to be badly needed for this raid.

“Don’t break the empire while I’m gone,” Roger said, turning to walk towards the door.

“May the Force be with you,” Davis added, drawing a sarcastic frown from Roger.

“I’m not Paul.”

“But you’ll still need it.”

Roger’s humor bled away, with him catching onto the Director’s meaning. “Understood.”

After that the trailblazer left Davis’s office and then the system, heading across Star Force territory enroute to the Devastation Zone and then the Uriti Preserve where another mission was already being launched from.

Jason-025 stood in the command nexus onboard his flagship, the Sanguine Blade, as he was locked into the battlemap system and directing both his guardian fleet and the Uriti known simply as ‘Claw’ while Paul-024 and Riley-038 led their own fleets that were engaging the V’kit’no’sat and keeping them off of Jason, for the most part, as they assaulted the planetary shields of Tivonmenk in the Medforjet System. It was one of three systems that the enemy had claimed right under Star Force’s nose, but after this battle that would no longer be the case…assuming everything went as planned.

Right now Claw was taking Tar’vem’jic fire and Jason didn’t like it. It wasn’t a big weapon, but it had been putting shots into his fleet as they approached and now Jason couldn’t shield the Uriti from it with his drones anymore, for it was firing back at the planet with its orb launcher and needed a direct line of sight. The Tar’vem’jic was doing more than scratching the Uriti, but Claw’s mass was protecting him even as his outer skin layer was being penetrated in a key spot near his primary weapon array.

Jason had ships as close as he could to it, but the V’kit’no’sat’s aim was spot on and the orange beam was chewing through the outer armor and getting into the slightly softer interior…but the saving grace was that the Uriti was so big that it amounted to little more than a bee sting without the backup of the system defense fleet. What the enemy was trying to do was damage the orb launcher so it would stop firing its barrage of glowing white Arkko energy that was doing considerable damage to the planetary shields.

They didn’t ring the planet yet, covering only a huge chunk of the planet and allowing for troops to be deployed around the perimeter if desired, but Jason wasn’t having any of that. Claw was going to get him in the front door and he was going to use it to take out the outpost so long as he didn’t take too much damage in the effort. Paul and Riley were doing a good job of keeping the very large V’kit’no’sat fleet busy while Jason’s own ships took hits from the conventional anti-orbital weaponry and flanking warships trying to come up from underneath them through the planetary atmosphere.

His fleet was in good position while the other two were getting chewed up badly, but as Claw dropped orb after orb on the shield at a rate of one every 7 seconds he knew he was almost through it and only had to hold on a little longer. Through Logan-2522 he could feel Claw’s damage, like a spike of pain near its ‘mouth’ that was little more than a gap in its ring-like body. Thicker on the backside and thinnest near the tips, it had a gap that made up the firing chamber that was otherwise exposed to space, and in that gap the Arkko energy was gathered before being released, making it look like it was crying tears that would hold in place then randomly drop down to the planet.

When they hit they didn’t do nearly as much damage as Bahamut’s wing blasts, but their higher firing rate partially made up for it in addition to the Arkko energy being a partial shield penetrator, and despite the heavy generators the V’kit’no’sat had installed in recent years they weren’t going to be able to hold off the Uriti for more than a few more minutes…and in those minutes there was no way for the V’kit’no’sat fleet to fight through Paul and Riley to get at him.

That meant Jason was going to get through, and when he did Claw’s very accurate energy bombs were going to target specific structures and pluck the planet’s defenses away from…

His attention caught a comm channel activating from the planet, directed to his ship and asking for Jason specifically. Multi-tasking as he was capable of, the Archon received the holographic message that in returned showed Jason but not Logan who was standing beside him and linked into the same console as he guided Claw.

The image of a Rit’ko’sor appeared, and Jason could tell by the way his lips crinkled that he wasn’t too happy.

“You will be through our shield in moments,” Sess’met admitted calmly. “There is no need for further combat. The planet is yours if you will honor the offer you made earlier and allow us to leave.”

“It is,” Jason said just as calmly. “Call off your fleet and we’ll cease bombardment…after which the shields must be lowered and stay down.”

“Agreed,” the Rit’ko’sor said, with Jason seeing an instantaneous alteration of the battlemap as the enemy fleet began to disengage and retreat to a higher orbit. Paul and Riley let them go, having seen the comm between Jason and the Rit’ko’sor, and not wanting to lose more drones anyway.

“If there is any mischievousness in the pullout your safe removal will be revoked,” Jason warned.

“Mischievousness?”

“Sabotage, subterfuge, explosions…”

“We are deleting our database, but the buildings I do not care about. They are yours now.”

“Including the Tar’vem’jic?”

“If it will secure our safe departure, it is yours as a spoil of victory.”

“Generous of you.”

“You allowing us to live is more generous, and there is no need to not reciprocate. You have beaten us.”

“Finally a wise V’kit’no’sat. There are so few of you.”

“Unfortunately true. May I ask a question?”

“Without a guarantee of answer, yes.”

“Have you always had this capacity with the Uriti?”

“We chose not to use them in this manner previously.”

“What changed?” Sess’met asked curiously.

“We didn’t want them fighting our war for us. They decided otherwise.”

“You do not control them then?”

“We have a relationship and an alliance. They now know you are the sworn enemy of the Hadarak, whom they see as kin, and they hate you for it. They want to fight you. We are now obliging.”

“Why did you not do so before? Why wait until so many of your planets were destroyed?”

“They are our allies, not our tools or possessions. You know how to kill Hadarak. The Uriti believed themselves to be nearly indestructible based on their previous battle history. Their protection is our responsibility. Now they are more than our wards. They have chosen to be our allies.”

“I do not understand. You had the ability to command them to do this earlier, yes?”

“We did.”

“And you did not because you feared for their safety?”

“We were not going to order them to do something they did not wish to do. Now they want to fight you, so situation solved.”

“So you sacrificed your own people, by the billions, to protect a Uriti that needs little protection to begin with?”

“Is doing the right thing so alien to you?”

“How is it the right thing to lose a war you could be much more effective in waging if you used the obvious tools available to you?”

“That’s the key point here,” Jason said as he relayed the order through Logan for Claw to cease firing on the planet now that the anti-orbital batteries were now also silent. “They’re not tools, they’re people, and they don’t have ships to fight in. They take the weaponsfire to their bodies, and while they might survive, we are not comfortable with that type of combat. The Uriti made the choice for us, and we respect that choice, but we will not order it. They have to choose it, and now they are.”

“You did not tell them of the Hadarak earlier?”

“No.”

“You feared they would leave to find them?”

“We did, but that fear was unwarranted. We are united now against you, so take your people and ships away from this world and tell the others they need to leave as well. We’re taking back everything you took from us, one way or another. I’m glad you’re choosing the easy way here.”

“Don’t expect it elsewhere. Their ego may prompt them to stay and fight. Are you willing to kill them all if they do not relent?”

“Have you studied our war history?”

“In great detail.”

“Then you know we had to deal with intransigence against the Li’vorkrachnika.”

“Which is why I know opposing you further here is illogical and wasteful. You are not bluffing, you are waging war on your terms.”

“Now a question for you. Why are you the first Rit’ko’sor we have encountered in this war?”

“Our race is still under populated and not fully trusted. Our specialty is in fighting the Hadarak, so that is where most of our contribution to the V’kit’no’sat is devoted.”

“So why are you here?”

“You were costing them too many ships. I was here to give them other options.”

“You were responsible for Gallifrey?” Jason guessed.

“I was. Unfortunately you had a counter for that strategy that I did not deduce. I assumed if you could use the Uriti in this fashion you would have done so long ago. I still do not understand your reasoning, but I clearly miscalculated. I do not believe I will have another chance to correct my mistake. My tenure on this warfront will be terminated.”

“Killed?” Jason asked.

“No, I will not be killed. But my reputation will be stained with failure, as you have stained many others.”

“What will your leaders do now?”

“If they are wise they will bring the full might of the empire against you.”

“Why have they not done so already?”

“They continually underestimate you, not wishing to admit to your danger. You are heresy, and heresy is meant to be weak and squashed. Your death was meant to occur at Terraxis, with cleanup actions afterwards, but that was not a deathblow to you as it should have been. There have been many deathblows that you recover from, and now you unleash a power the V’kit’no’sat have never faced before. Expect a strong response.”

“But not a full one?”

“That depends on those higher rank than me.”

“And there is no chance of you just leaving and letting us live beyond your borders?”

“No. You are too steeped in heresy. You must be eliminated.”

“Odd thing to say when I hold the power to obliterate you right now.”

“I assumed you sought honesty. Would you prefer convenient lies?”

Jason smirked. “Honesty is always sought. And here is a bit for you. The V’kit’no’sat started this war, you are in the wrong, and you had best figure out why before you insist on continuing a fight that does not have to continue.”

“You seek an armistice?”

“No. We’re never going to sanction you mother fuckers after what you’ve done, but it is you that are pressing this war into our territory. You would be wise to pull back to your own borders and leave us be.”

“Only to let you grow stronger? I think not. That would be utter foolishness.”

“So you’re committed to our destruction?”

“It is not personal, but we are.”

“I find that highly personal.”

“What I mean is that it is not in regard to what you have done, but to what you were born to be. You didn’t personally choose to be the offspring of Zen’zat. But offspring must be destroyed.”

“Because you have a rule that says otherwise…and you can’t see how flimsy that logic is?”

“It is not flimsy. Zen’zat are not designed to reproduce, as you have probably realized.”

“Not a reason to kill us.”

“The reason is to maintain the natural order, with Zen’zat remaining individuals and not a race.”

“Odd thing for a Rit’ko’sor to say.”

“A bit of irony, for sure, but our war was over the natural order not being honored. There are still…revisions that need to be made in the empire, but the perversion has been eliminated. Save for you.”

“Best you get going before I decide to shoot your dumb ass,” Jason said, letting a bit of his anger show through.

“As instructed,” Sess’met said politely, but with a grit that made it obvious that he was only doing so because of his disadvantageous position, then his image disappeared with Paul’s and Riley’s popping up to replace it.

“Arrogant little punk,” Riley noted.

“He did just save us a lot of drones,” Paul pointed out. “Nice score there for diplomacy.”

“Even when they’re losing they won’t relent,” Jason said with a shake of his head. “They’re going to come back hard, sooner or later. They won’t let this vendetta drop.”

“Did you expect otherwise?” Riley asked.

“From a civilization as advanced as they are…yeah, I expected that some of them would wise up eventually. After we kicked their asses, at least.”

“They’re as loyal to their dominance as we are to the lightside,” Paul suggested as all three saw the first evacuation ships begin to lift off from the surface. “I wouldn’t expect them to change their ways.”

“I hope you’re wrong.”

“But not betting on it?” Riley asked.

“No,” Jason said with finality. “I think we are going to have to kill them all before they give up the fight.”

9

June 12, 4833

Rajch System (V’kit’no’sat Hatavera Region, Brat’mar territory)

Stellar Orbit

When Roger’s command ship, the Diadem, entered the system out of its interstellar jump Admiral Charrit already had their foothold in enemy territory secure with a ring of jumpships and their deployed drones protecting the incoming ships. Typically Roger would have come through near the head of the fleet, but not with the Diadem being one of two ships carrying Uriti Wranglers.

He trusted the Admiral enough to let him get the first taste of combat, and he wasn’t mistaken in seeing that there were some Brat’mar ships poking holes at the Star Force lines while most of their system defense fleet was in transit out to the jump point. As expected, they didn’t know they were coming and Roger had packed his fleet in extra tight on this last jump so the leading elements could emerge closer together.

That was a relief, as were the battlemap reports that no ship had suffered anything more than shield depletion. That meant the full incursion of his fleet into this system was not going to be challenged here, unless the Brat’mar were really feeling stupid today, and they’d wait for Star Force to attack one of the 7 planets or orbital installations that made up this valuable star system 1200 lightyears in from the V’kit’no’sat frontier. Fortunately there were plenty of systems between those claimed by the V’kit’no’sat to sneak through, and as Roger had also guessed they didn’t have a good detection system this far out through the ‘useless’ territories that they barely patrolled.

Rajch, however, was not useless, and was a major frontier shipbuilding center. Six of the seven planets were mining centers with the last being a standard colony and home to over 900 million Brat’mar. Add in their Zen’zat servants and the population rose to 2.2 billion on Zatarax alone, giving the entire system a combined population of 7.8 billion and plenty of breathing room to grow, but only the two races were here, for it was not a shared system.

There was also a plethora of orbital stations, including a pair of stellar mining platforms. Having two around one star was atypical for the V’kit’no’sat, but instead of building a larger model they’d chosen to go with two smaller ones. It was a stepping stone along the path to greater infrastructure that this system was taking but still able to produce the flow of solari that the system required to maintain its exports.

It was what was considered a ‘safe’ shipyard, far from the Hadarak and any of the annoying powers that the V’kit’no’sat had to occasionally deal with, including Star Force. It didn’t even border the Devastation Zone, but was spinward of it a great deal, having taking Roger’s fleet nearly 5 months to get here on a route that took them clear of the Devastation zone entirely. They’d crossed through systems that only scouts had entered, and now they were on the V’kit’no’sat’s doorstep spilling warships into the system and starring down an undersized defense fleet for what he was bringing…even without the Uriti.

But the planetary defenses were strong, very strong in typical Brat’mar fashion. Their disc-shaped ships were formidable enough, but their building planning always erred on the side of extra defense before expanding other areas. That made Brat’mar worlds hard and costly to take, but Roger wasn’t going to try that today. He was here on Davis’s orders for a more important strike mission…one aimed directly at the ego of the V’kit’no’sat.

With a thought Roger accessed his command ship’s database and pulled up one of Paul’s favorite battle songs…the Imperial March. He set it playing across the command circuit that linked him to his four Admirals and all other Archons in the fleet, save for the Wranglers. They had enough on their minds not to need the distraction, but he wanted the music as a reminder of why they were here…and Davis’ suggestion that the Force be with him made it fit perfectly.

By the time Sonic’s ship arrived his fleet numbered at 12,834 Warship-class jumpships and 238 command ships…vessels that had all been pulled off the rimward side of Star Force’s territory and not from the fight against the V’kit’no’sat. That wasn’t a decision that Roger would have made, but Davis was convinced that they could weather the storm for the year that the trailblazer would be away on this mission, though he was counting on most of them making it back intact. That, second only to the V’kit’no’sat’s reaction, was why Roger was going to need the Force with him today.

The V’kit’no’sat defense fleet numbered 4,721 vessels, which did not leave them with a clear advantage in a straight up fight. Sizing up the tonnage and weapon capabilities through the battlemap Roger saw that he in fact had a 3 to 1 advantage over the Brat’mar fleet and he expected they knew it too…but throw in the planetary defenses and he’d lose most of it in order to get a foothold on the surface of one of the planets to begin an invasion.

But he hadn’t brought any troop ships with him…not that he’d need them. At first it would appear that this was a raid rather than an invasion to the Brat’mar, but when the Uriti transport arrived and the 9-armed Sonic was released the enemy commander had to realize Roger had more than enough firepower to simply overwhelm the planetary defenses and bombard the surface without needing to bother with a ground invasion.

Just to rub in the fact that they were now in control of the system, Roger had his escort fleets reform into a parade stance that had the Uriti dead center and the jumpships lined up around it in bars with the drones coming in to fill in additional ones. They weren’t all quite touching, but given the size of the ships involved it looked like they were from afar as a giant Star Force emblem was created out of the fleet as it headed around the star to the location of the first stellar mining installation that was even now beginning to head away from them on its own engine power…and it wasn’t moving slowly, meaning this was one of their interstellar-capable models that were fully mobile.

A pit that. He’d wanted to take those out too, but he wasn’t going to go chasing after them and force a conflict with the defense fleet. That wasn’t the goal here, so he began heading towards the first band of shipyards, of which there were three, somewhat near the third planet. He set course and speed for the fleet at a minimal rate that would give the V’kit’no’sat plenty of time to see them coming and evacuate first.

“Attention V’kit’no’sat,” he said over an open comm, specifically using their empire name rather than their racial one to make a point that this wasn’t personal with them, but a consequence of their alliance’s actions. The Imperial March continued to play in Roger’s ears, but wasn’t audible on the other end. Only the trailblazer’s voice was, along with his holo, as he stated his demands.

“In case you haven’t been informed, the Uriti have now agreed to an alliance with us against your empire. This means we are no longer simply defending our Preserve as a base of operations and sanctuary for the Uriti, as we have done previously. Now knowing that your empire was forged to hunt and kill Hadarak, whom they consider their cousins, the Uriti are no longer willing to sit and wait for you to attack and have offered their services in combat beyond the Preserve.”

“Several strikes have already been made in the war zone, and if you have received word of them you know what is about to befall you. This Uriti alone is enough to breach your planetary defenses and allow my fleet to bombard your cities into rubble strewn fields, just like you did to ours. We now have that power, but we’re not going to misuse it as you have. I am not here to kill you, I am here to deny you the tools to kill us. You have 45 minutes to abandon the shipyards we are currently headed towards, along with all others in this system. We will be eliminating them all. If you wish your crews to live, get them out now. If they are still onboard when we arrive we will not care. You have a chance to save their lives. If you do not remove them, the shipyards will be destroyed regardless.”

“And if you wish to retain your defense fleet, keep it out of weapons range…unless your arrogance blinds you so much you cannot fathom the thought of standing by while we destroy your shipyards. If you are that stupid, then please come forward and we will do your race the service of eliminating your stupidity from your genetic pool. If you are wise, save your ships in case we assault the planetary shields. It will not stop us, but it is strategically your best option to do the most damage. Such a strike will not occur because we do not seek slaughter, but make no mistake that we can bring the war to you as easily as you brought it to us…and with the Uriti as our allies, you are badly outgunned.”

“If you have not received reports from the warfront, then you are about to get an education in how the Uriti are superior to the Hadarak. Stay out of the way and live to learn from the lesson. Get in the way and you will die as you fathom the sheer firepower they possess…and that is at my power to command. There will be no further communication. Evacuate your shipyards. This is your only warning and only opportunity to do so. When we arrive, they will be promptly destroyed.”

And with that Roger let his fleet creep forward slowly, not knowing what was going on behind the scenes with the Brat’mar, but the mad rush towards his fleet by theirs on a suicidal ego-driven attack did not occur. The two stellar mining platforms were covered in their retreat and the Brat’mar fleet kept its distance as a spattering of small craft began to leave the shipyard complex first on his ‘to-destroy’ list…

Tarsi was waiting on the hangar deck along with the last few Zen’zat techs on slip 34 of the Brat’mar shipyard complex as the defense stations opened fire on the approaching fleet. They could see out the open doors through the atmospheric shield as the Star Force fleet held its odd formation. The Zen’zat didn’t know the significance of the shape, and many of them barely knew the name Star Force. While they weren’t on the other side of the galaxy from Terraxis, they were enough lightyears away to be out of the loop and not connected with the invasion in any way. Even the ships produced here didn’t go to that fight, so the idea of it landing on their doorstep was considerably unnerving.

But what was unnerving the most was an altered Hadarak heading their way and not enough drop pods to get everyone off the shipyard. The evacuation hadn’t started in mass until a wave of craft had come in from the defense fleet and other ships in the area, for the nearest planet was too far away to get to them in time. The shipyards were deliberately in null space where attacking craft couldn’t get to them quickly without having something nearby to break upon and that was hampering the evacuation considerably.

Then there was the fact that many of the partially constructed warships were being given priority for evacuation, leaving the Zen’zat not nearby one stuck as they waited for a return trip of the drop pods…and now the fighting was beginning with the enemy fleet not even bothering to break formation to deal with the 6 Imenta-class defense stations and the one massive Barkod that stretched 840 miles wide. All of the stations were flat discs, and even the shipyard complex was a cluster of disc-shaped slips connected to each other by massive ‘scaffolding’ that was on its own miles wide.

Heavy shield strikes began hitting the enemy fleet, then a single blue beam leapt out from one of the arms on the Uriti, emitted from the semi-flexible tip, and it drilled into the shields of one of the Imenta, failing to penetrate them, but a few seconds later the Uriti began to slowly rotate and fired again from its next tentacle-like arm.

It took only four shots before the hull of the Imenta was hit, then the Star Force formation finally broke and their drones swarmed the 104-mile wide disc, targeting weaponry, shield generators, and any other sensitive systems while the Uriti held position and fired on the next closest Imenta. The fleet took ranged shots from the others and the Barkod continued to pepper the attacking ships, all ignoring the Uriti as thankfully another drop pod eclipsed the Zen’zat’s view of space and moved into the hangar.

Tarsi ran with the other techs onboard, cramming in tightly to fit everyone, then they were flown away from the shipyard and deposited on a nearby cargo vessel along with other evacuees. Less cramped here, they Zen’zat clustered around each other giving the larger Brat’mar as much breathing room as they could, while they watched the tactical displays as the cargo ship eased away from the fighting.

Oddly the defense fleet was not engaging along with the defense stations…leaving the crews on them to die as a wave of displeasure rippled through the Zen’zat and Brat’mar. That telepathic sentiment was eventually countered by clarification…the defense stations were probing the enemy’s strength, and if feasible the defense fleet would assist them…but if not they were going to hold their firepower for an assault on the planetary shield.

Many Brat’mar didn’t care for such a cowardly tactic, and the Zen’zat shared their displeasure at having to stand by and watch while their kin were overwhelmed on the defense stations. Even the Barkod, which was more heavily armed than a Mach’nel, couldn’t stand up to the Uriti’s firepower as it easily knocked down the shields and allowed the Star Force fleet to swarm over its surface, losing many of their ships in the process but doing little to diminish their overwhelming numbers.

Numbers that could have been countered by the defense fleet, but Tarsi’s displease didn’t run into stupidity. Her expertise was not in combat, let alone fleet combat, and she hoped that the Brat’mar’s uncharacteristic hesitancy was the right move…but she couldn’t help thinking about being one of the Zen’zat on those stations, as she had just been on the shipyard before being pulled out. It wasn’t fair to them, but then again maybe they hated the idea of just sitting by and watching the shipyards be destroyed. It didn’t seem to be worth their lives, but perhaps that was the very reason for withholding the fleet.

Even if potentially wise, it didn’t sit well with the Brat’mar here and she could feel their ire…which made the Zen’zat keep a few extra steps away from them so they didn’t get stomped in a temper tantrum…but their anger and helplessness twisted into something else as the battle progressed. Other than knocking down the defense stations’ shields, neither the Barkod nor any of the Imenta were targeted again. In fact they were deliberately sparred other than for their defenses and weaponry, with the Star Force fleet swarm passing away from them and leaving their bulk behind…along with what was hopefully their crews, inside and intact if they’d kept away from the outer hull.

The swarm of enemy ships did the same to all the stations, leaving them floating helpless before the Uriti as its slow spin had gradually accelerated, throwing its arms out in a star shape until it was moving alarmingly fast…then it began to travel, maintaining its spin, towards the shipyard where Tarsi had been just before.

The shipyard’s shields were still up when it got close, but before the spinning mass of a 30 mile wide Uriti could impact the dampening shields the blue beams reappeared, strafing the shipyard with precisely timed discharges so they didn’t spray everywhere in a 360 degree arc…but they did penetrate the shipyard’s defenses and then some, slicing through deck after deck with ease as explosions followed and a few drones dashed in to target the dampening shields that would have brought the Uriti to a halt no matter how much mass it had.

Those drones left as quickly as they arrived, then Tarsi, the other Zen’zat, and the Brat’mar got to witness the power of the Uriti put on display with the Star Force fleet patiently watching nearby and staying clear of the debris field that was soon to be born.

The Uriti’s spin had increased even more by the time the first rotating arm hit the station. The armor of the Uriti was akin to what the Hadarak grew and was the inspiration for the Yeg’gor that made the Mach’nel so formidable in battle. When the Uriti’s arm hit the sturdy construction of the station it tore through it like tissue paper, pulverizing material with each hit as it continued to spin and move forward through the much larger construction. The shipyard was so huge that it dwarfed the Barkod at more than 6,000 miles wide, though most of the interior space was empty to accommodate movement and work crews.

The Uriti tore through it like a buzz saw without firing another shot, slowly moving around and just hitting everything in sight with its rotating arms that barely seemed to slow with even the most brutal hits…only to increase in speed again afterward. It was a sickening sight to watch, but at least the crews had gotten off in time. Or at least hers did. If anyone else was still there…

No, everyone had gotten off before the first impact. That was the telepathic sentiment flowing through the group as others were obviously thinking the same thing she was and someone with information answered the question for them. So there was that, at least, but she and the rest of the V’kit’no’sat were being forced to watch the destruction of their painstakingly built shipyards at the hands of an enemy that should never have been here…and one that controlled its own Hadarak of immense power.

Power that the system defense fleet couldn’t counter. Power that even a Barkod couldn’t counter. And a power that, for the first time in her life, made Tarsi feel inferior…and that was not a sensation that the V’kit’no’sat had ever believed possible. They dominated this galaxy and fought the Hadarak on their behalf, but no one other than that galactic menace could stand against them…until now.

10

June 30, 4833

Yewren System (Hadarak Border)

Asteroid Belt (Assault Fleet)

Mak’to’ran was onboard his command Kafcha waiting off the main Hadarak patrol path until his full fleet arrived when sensors picked up an incoming jump. It was neither a Hadarak arriving nor another fleet segment, but a Voro’nam Kaeper that immediately transmitted a query for the V’kit’no’sat fleet.

When Mak’to’ran received it his ships were hidden behind the largest asteroids but not totally invisible, so they sent an affirmation ping with their location and the courier vessel traveled to them at high speed…too high for a typical run, suggesting that whoever was onboard was in a hurry, and that did not bode well, so the Era’tran went down to the hangar bay to meet the dropship when it came across the void of space to the much larger vessel.

Off of it strode one of his senior commanders, the Voro’nam Zyrnox who was supposed to be out on the rim finishing the extermination of the Humans and their broken but still defiant little empire…not here in the core. Mak’to’ran emitted a displeased telepathic aura and the hard bulge on the Voro’nam’s head dipped lower in shame, meaning something had gone wrong…yet again.

“Explain why you are here,” the leader of the V’kit’no’sat said evenly, but with anger seething behind each word.

“I have failed, I do not deny that, but the status quo has changed to accomplish that feat. We were making progress, taking more worlds from them with regularity. I admit our progress was not effective enough, and for that I bear the blame, but the Humans are now using the Uriti in offensive missions. They have the power to breach our planetary defenses. I cannot hold the systems we have taken. Two have been reclaimed and the third is likely to come under attack soon. Terraxis will follow, I fear, and I do not have the ability to stop them.”

“They have struck beyond the Grid Point?” Mak’to’ran asked, knowing of that loss but nothing further, having been out of communications range for some time with the only updates coming from ships being added to his constantly shrinking fleet.

“They are engaging in planetary assaults using a single Uriti, and we cannot stop them. The Uriti are far more dangerous than the Hadarak. I do not think the planetary defense station on Terraxis would be enough to stop one, and the Humans are escorting them with massive fleets that prevent us from engaging them as we would the Hadarak. I do not know what to do other than pull back and spare us needless losses.”

“I was told this would not happen,” Mak’to’ran said, walking forward and past the Voro’nam, his anger now spread in multiple directions. “Analysis said that if they had this capability they would have used it previously. What has changed?”

“Our spies say a new relationship with the Uriti has been formed and they are willingly attacking us…not being ordered to do so by the Humans.”

“So they do not have firm control?” Mak’to’ran wondered, spinning back around to look at Zyrnox as a small crowd had gathered around them, but were keeping a respectful distance.

“It is rumored that they have gained an ability to communicate with them beyond the firm controls the Chixzon implanted them with. It seems they are reluctant to use the latter, for reasons I do not fully understand.”

“Their philosophy hinders them constantly,” Mak’to’ran pronounced, having given Star Force much thought over the years as he was busy fighting the Hadarak and other problems. “They will not use slaves in any way, shape, or form. Even if it was to save themselves. The Uriti are far more formidable than their own fleets, yet they protect them in battle as if they were invalids. That is clear from our attack on their Preserve, but you’re saying they have now hit planetary targets?”

“They have…and it gets worse. On my way here I received an update of a strike beyond their territory. They hit the shipyards at Rajch, destroying them all, but sparing the planet and the defense fleet. They delivered a message then left, but they had the numbers and firepower to destroy the system if they wished. They chose not to, and they wanted us to know that they could and can at will if they decide to change their minds. They told us to stay away from them in the future.”

Mak’to’ran grew deathly still, and Zyrnox was fearful of a backlash from the powerful Era’tran, as were the others in the hangar, but none came. He was frozen as if a statue for some time, looking at the ground as his telepathic aura was compact and almost unreadable. Zyrnox did not interrupt whatever thoughts he was contemplating, and eventually the stillness was broken by a slow but jarring head turn towards the Voro’nam.

“The failure is not yours. Not on the part of the Uriti. That failure is mine…for trusting the fools who did the analysis. If there is some form of diplomacy present between the Humans and the Uriti that is a factor that was never considered…and it would explain a great many things. Why they have not used them in this manner before. Why they would fight at the Preserve and nowhere else. Why there is such a great interest in them from around the galaxy. We assumed they were merely powerful tools, and in our possession we would have used them in the first stage of the war. We had to learn the hard way when we invaded their Preserve and were dealt the humiliating losses.”

Mak’to’ran began to pace around Zyrnox, but the Voro’nam no longer felt threatened. He knew he did bear some blame, but it was clear that Mak’to’ran did not want an excuse, he wanted to get to the truth of the matter.

“If they have been playing a longer game and buying time towards it, then we are the fools,” Mak’to’ran floated. “If the Uriti are truly more powerful than the Hadarak, and they have a working alliance with them, they now possess a power that we do not…and if they manage it in typical fashion, they will refine and hone it to exacting degree before putting it into use. And if they have struck at us beyond their bastardized realm then they are going beyond self-defense. They have become bold and flaunt us with their mercy at the same time. Tell me, did they destroy everything in the planetary assaults?”

“No. They warned us and let us evacuate where we agreed. Where not, they killed those who fought up until the end, then they captured the last few and sent them back to us in disgrace.”

“They are continuing to tell us that they are in the right and we are in the wrong,” Mak’to’ran said, wishing this mess had been resolved long ago, but no one had expected this heresy to be so resilient. “And reminding us that if they wanted, they could fight by our terms and do an immense amount of damage.”

“How can we defend against this?” Zyrnox respectfully asked. “We have too many systems to defend with the numbers needed.”

“Indeed. If they are willing to strike at our proper border then we are vulnerable. How close were you to breaking their fleets before the Uriti strikes began?”

“Very close. Both they and us were stressed in terms of ships, and that slowed down the scale of conquest, but a Rit’ko’sor subcommander of mine found a way to circumvent the problem and nearly handed us their strongest system on the warfront. We had a foothold on the planet without requiring a planetary assault, but then they brought in a Uriti and took down their own captured shield generators with a single, precisely calibrated shot. One discharge from the Uriti and even the Humans’ own most powerful shields couldn’t stand against it. No Hadarak could do the same.”

“Wrong. Some could simply by landing on it,” Mak’to’ran said, knowing that was beyond the point. “We cannot let them damage us with impunity, nor can we assume that the loss of more planets is going to weaken them enough undercut their escort fleets, correct?”

“They do not have an unlimited amount of ships, but they do have strong planetary defenses. We can’t pluck their industry from them without high cost.”

“And in the meantime they can hit anything they want with the Uriti. No, this situation is untenable and must be countered forcefully.”

“We would have to redirect the fleets from the Hadarak front,” Zyrnox floated. “We must truly have so many ships that the Uriti cannot flee. I urge you not to underestimate the damage they can inflict.”

“I am not,” Mak’to’ran promised. “I have been given assurances that the Humans would be destroyed so many times I would not believe it now even if it were true.”

“Then we must mass our full strength against them. I can see no other way, and even if we do we will be badly hurt. I do not see them splitting up the Uriti to allow us to assault individually. We might catch one or two alone, but…”

“No.”

“No?” Zyrnox asked, not sure what exactly he was referring to.

“The fleets on the Hadarak border will remain unless absolutely necessary.”

“We will have to pull system defense ships away from station. That will leave us vulnerable across the empire.”

“To whom?”

“A calculated risk then.”

“I do not like it either, but we do have that option. However, we will not take it…at least not as of now.”

“What else can we do?”

“We fought a war with the Rit’ko’sor because we did not treat them with the proper respect. They had to be fought, do not mistake my words, but the way we handled it was poor and we deserved the damage we took. We have been assuming these Humans are inferior and would fall eventually. We’ve taken away their capitol and all of their primary systems and yet they still persist…”

“In truth, they have grown stronger,” Zyrnox corrected him.

“That they have, despite the illogic of it. They are steeped in heresy and must be stopped, but we are through underestimating them. They wanted to deliver a message to us with Rajch…then I am accepting the message and taking it at face value. They want to be an enemy of equals, and that status I will grant them.”

“Should I evacuate Terraxis?”

“If they attack, yes, but not yet…assuming they haven’t in your absence. How did your Rit’ko’sor capture their shield generator?”

“Stealthed Zen’zat dropped on the world. He did not think the tactic could be repeated again without the Humans creating a counter for it.”

“How did Zen’zat take a shield generator on their own?”

“Getting them to the surface was the difficult part, but once there they could move about with impunity. Detection of stealthed units is sparse within their cities and reserved for high security areas only. They overwhelmed the shield generator and other installations simultaneously, with the assault timed to coincide with our fleet’s arrival. We flew our ships down underneath the shield and delivered reinforcements almost instantaneously.”

“I want to review those records closely.”

“I brought them and all pertinent information with me, but I do not have as detailed files on Rajch.”

“Who is this Rit’ko’sor?”

“Sess’met, and he is highly arrogant, even for a Rit’ko’sor, but he proved effective.”

“And what does he think of the Uriti threat?”

“I have not asked him. He surrendered his world rather than fight the Uriti when it arrived. He has been subject to much shame in that regard.”

“Could he have held it?”

“There was no chance of that.”

“So why fault him for avoiding an unwinnable fight?”

“He could have reduced their warship count.”

“Enough to be worth it?”

“Every loss they suffer has an effect.”

“As do ours. We have a vast empire but our ships and personnel are not infinite. I would think that after all this time fighting the Hadarak you would understand that by now. We can’t afford to waste resources.”

“Others do not like surrender.”

“If the Humans allow it without penalty, then it is probably wise to accept the shame rather than the quantifiable losses. Send this Rit’ko’sor to my ship.”

“To this system?”

“No,” Mak’to’ran scoffed. “The Hadarak combat will continue without me. I am heading to Terraxis and dealing with this situation myself.”

“With what fleet?”

“A few escort ships only. I will determine there what is needed. Until then the fight against the Hadarak will not be slowed.”

Zyrnox looked at him disbelievingly, then dutifully nodded regardless.

“We will not waste more ships throwing them at an enemy we do not know how to defeat,” Mak’to’ran explained. “The Uriti are not Hadarak, and we must learn what it will take to kill them.”

“How do we do that without combat?”

“Every time they strike at one of our systems we will have data to analyze…that should be obvious.”

“Are we to let systems fall to gather data?”

“You said they did not attack beyond the shipyards at Rajch, correct?”

“Yes. You think they would hold to that protocol going forward?”

“I think they want to negotiate and feel they need to have an advantageous position to do so…but they don’t want to enflame us with slaughter. They have positioned themselves carefully, and are showing restraint even while they demonstrate their superiority. It is a message to me, and I will not do them the disservice of sending someone else to Terraxis. I will go myself and deal with them directly.”

“To negotiate what?”

“That is for me to decide, but at the very least it is time I had a talk with them…again.”

“Shall I accompany you?”

“You will not be remaining here in shame, Zyrnox. This is our mutual problem and you are going to help me solve it. You can release your Kaeper to other duties. I’ll take you back on this ship directly.”

“As you wish, but I recommend a larger fleet in support.”

“Why? Can the Uriti travel as fast as us?”

“No, but the Humans carry them in transport vessels that are nearly our speed.”

“Can they force combat on us if we do not wish it?”

“Only by striking a planet.”

“Then we will remain safe as long as we are mobile.”

“What of the border worlds?”

“We will quietly begin to reinforce them, but as you have stated we do not have enough ships to spread across every system. We have to know where the Uriti are and where they are moving. Do you have scouts tracking them?”

“We do.”

“Then how did one make it to Rajch without warning?”

“The escort fleet was so large that they were able to make a second jump before we could arrive in the destination system. Our scouts ended up chasing the tail of their convoy, but it diverted to another route and we lost the Uriti.”

“Clever. We must have better detection capability than a trailing scout. A rimward detection border must be created.”

Zyrnox almost cringed, knowing how expansive the galaxy was and how much of a cost maintaining the Hadarak detection system was to the V’kit’no’sat.

“Do you have a better suggestion?”

“I am tempted to say seek them out with full force and destroy them now, but even I do not think I would like the outcome if that were to come to pass. I do not have the answers we need.”

“Neither do I…but I know where to begin,” Mak’to’ran said as the Kafcha began to break ranks with his fleet at his mental order to the ship’s commander. “I will meet their trailblazers personally.”

“What good can come of that? They must still die. What is there to negotiate?”

“You disappoint me, Zyrnox. Is your mind so regimented you cannot see potential opportunities?”

“I admit I cannot in this situation.”

“They have spoken to a Uriti,” Mak’to’ran said, his eyes gleaming with cunning as he looked at the Voro’nam, “and I am very interested in what they had to say.”

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Imperial March