Star Force: The Dinosaur War
Author: Aer-Ki Jyr
Date: 2017-11-18T23:00:00+00:00
Publisher: Archon Lore

1

March 28, 4894

Vbora System (Oso’lon border colony)

Chadara

Niom was waiting onboard his Na’shor battleship as more Oso’lon vessels arrived at the rendezvous point nearest to Star Force territory. It was still going to take 28 long jumps to get to the warfront, utilizing one black hole route that the V’kit’no’sat had already secured, and better than two months to get there, but Niom’s fleet hadn’t left yet. Others had, many in fact, but Virokor’s campaign strategy didn’t involve bringing in everyone at once. The Hjar’at’s plan was a coy one, much more indirect than Niom was comfortable with, but even he agreed something had to change from past failures and Yaniel had deferred to Virokor’s leadership, giving up the prime command position that would have been Mak’to’ran’s had the Era’tran not elected to join the warden faction.

Niom understood the significance of the Harthur and how Mak’to’ran didn’t want to waste time on Star Force when the V’kit’no’sat had their first real advantage over the Hadarak, but Niom agreed with Yaniel and the rest of the Oso’lon. Star Force was too dangerous and continuing to grow, and their ability to control the Uriti gave them an advantage that the V’kit’no’sat could not match, nor could the Harthur, for the Uriti would simply blast them apart with their long ranged weaponry that the Hadarak lacked.

So with Mak’to’ran taking no part in the invasion, all aspects of it were left to the ‘crusaders.’ Niom didn’t care for that title, but it had spread throughout the Urrtren and, like it or not, it had stuck. It suggested desperation to him, and thus not a fitting description, but the agreement between races stated that if Star Force could not be conquered in what was going to be their final attempt, a truce would be brokered and a definitive border established…with the rogue faction being given domain over the Rim while the V’kit’no’sat focused their full power on the Hadarak.

The Oso’lon couldn’t let that happen. If set free, Star Force would grow to become a rival in time. They were too hard to kill, too organized, too smart…and they’d seek vengeance eventually. Mak’to’ran seemed to think otherwise, and while he couldn’t call the leader of the V’kit’no’sat a coward, he felt he was being too timid. Others did as well, and this invasion campaign was going to be a test of his leadership. If the Oso’lon and others succeeded in what Mak’to’ran said would be a very costly and wasteful war, and they did so convincingly, Mak’to’ran’s rule would be revoked. That wasn’t official, but it was the general assessment of most crusaders. He was making the call that this would be devastating and the invading races would be so weakened it would jeopardize the Hadarak border…thus he and the Era’tran were not coming.

On the flip side, if he was right, it would only strengthen his leadership and weaken Itaru further. Niom didn’t want to see that happen, for the V’kit’no’sat were not supposed to have a ruler. They were a consortium of equals, and many had only tolerated Mak’to’ran’s position due to the fact that he’d saved the empire from crumbling in what would have been a fatal civil war for the V’kit’no’sat.

But Itaru wasn’t following him on this call, and they’d amicably come to the arrangement of wardens and crusaders. They were quietly splitting apart their economies now, as much as feasible, to send resources to either the Hadarak front or the Star Force front. Whoever prevailed would gain leadership in the aftermath when the empire was reunited against the Hadarak once again, though hopefully with Star Force forcibly annexed and obeying Itaru’s commands, not to mention helping to replace all the ships that were going to be lost with the labor of their industrious servant races.

But even Niom knew this was not going to be a fast war, even in the most beneficial of outcomes, so Virokor’s piecemeal advance wasn’t too controversial. Niom just hated waiting in line while others got into the fight ahead of him.

The reason he was waiting was because it was taking time to get Oso’lon ships from across the galaxy to the rendezvous point. Three other Oso’lon fleets had already left, under other commanders, and they contained most of their heavy Kafcha and Na’shor. Niom’s Na’shor was only one of 168 that he had scheduled for his fleet, of which 32 were still missing. The rest of his 5938 ship fleet was comprised of smaller vessels, but all Oso’lon. Virokor had decided that the V’kit’no’sat were not going to wage war with mixed fleets, but rather by race. The Oso’lon were assigned an invasion corridor, along with the other races, almost in a race to see who could get to the heart of Star Force territory first.

But the Uriti were a wild card here, and they, unlike planets, could move. Virokor’s orders were to NOT fight them, or they’d lose so many ships in the combat that they could end up losing the war. They had to destroy Star Force’s industrial base first, then take the Uriti last when the Star Force support fleets could be thinned and the Uriti isolated. Only then could they kill them, and trying to do so in mixed combat against Star Force drone fleets and the Uriti at the same time was suicide.

Unless they overwhelmed them…but Virokor had stated flatly that was not to be attempted. Any commander that did so would be executed, and Niom wasn’t going to disobey that order. If Virokor wanted to play this cautious and preserve as much of the crusader fleet as possible, then so be it. In the long run it didn’t matter how long this took, so long as it got done right this time.

Niom had spent a lot of time down on one of the three planets in the system, but he was waiting for the rest of his ships onboard his flagship now, impatient to get going. A month and a half later when the rest of them finally arrived, he set out ahead of other Oso’lon fleets still forming up and towards the warfront where little information was making its way back across the desolate regions separating the V’kit’no’sat and Star Force borders. Urrtren tendrils that had been snaked out towards the front to keep the rest of the empire informed had already been taken down, how exactly was a little dubious, but word had reached him that Star Force had attacked and destroyed them and no more construction projects were going to be enacted until the front lines could be hardened enough to protect them.

Because of that Niom was on the command deck for each jump, slightly concerned about ambushes enroute, but he had scout ships out in advance days ahead leaving information packets and transmitters like bread crumbs on multiple routes, letting him choose when he arrived which way to go and making the transition through the mass of stars less predictable. Each fleet was moving on different courses for the same reason, making running into an ambush extremely unlikely.

Yet that’s exactly what Niom ran into after the 17th jump. His Na’shor began picking up the warnings only two minutes before arrival from the ships ahead in the convoy that were transmitting back up the jumpline. The signals were weaker the farther away you got, leaving only a short heads up that there were Star Force warships waiting at the jumppoint.

Niom didn’t have to give any orders, the automatic protocols for such things were well established and set to activate immediately, given how little time there was to react. Niom could override or alter them if needed, but as he looked at the tidbits of information coming in and how the approaching convoy was going to spread slightly wider and decelerate harder, he saw nothing to change…then when his ship hit the brakes and began the deceleration slide coming into the system there was a glitch. Not much of one, but for a moment the ship’s gravity drives lost their push against the star then regained it…but that threw off their arrival point and brought them in closer to the star than expected.

It took a few seconds for the messed up sensor images to straighten themselves out, then he saw it. The debris field of damaged or destroyed ships that were drifting in closer to the star along with the rest of the convoy, for they couldn’t come to a dead stop without having ships behind them slamming into their aft. And that stream of ships was gauntleted by Star Force drone swarms that were firing nonstop into the kill zone across more than 30,000 miles…but they weren’t moving in to engage their middle and close range weapons.

In fact the central zone of that conduit seemed to be safe from their weaponry and only when ships veered off were they engaged…but then he saw it, sitting in near the star far away and throwing energy up the center of the conduit around the jumpline.

It was a Seinac Lancer, and their drift speed was taking them right towards it…and then the horror hit him when his ship’s engines suddenly went out, bracketed in IDF fields, leaving his Na’shor drifting towards the monster weapon.

But those drones couldn’t be transmitting IDF fields across such a long distance. They suffered from the same range deficiencies that the Harthur did. That meant there had to be…

Then he saw one, when another Oso’lon ship rammed it. There were stealthed objects inside the corridor outlined by the drones. The Domjo had its shields pierced and a chunk of its hull went missing, but Niom saw the ship maneuver, meaning the IDF in that area had disappeared.

“Find the IDF emitters and destroy them. They are sensor stealthed,” he ordered aloud while sending the commands through the telepathic inputs at the same time. “Shift shields forward, 90%,” he said, seeing a few Oso’lon ships spread out along the jumpline arrive on the other side of the drones, with portions of the enemy craft peeling off to pursue, but most of his ships were entering inside the kill zone, unable to brake enough to avoid it or swing wide…with several ships colliding with drones as they tried to do so, taking out both vessels given the high speeds involved and a net loss for the V’kit’no’sat, for the Star Force drones were far smaller.

What had happened to his scout ships? How had Star Force amassed an ambush of this size without one of them having reported back? The IDF mine field had to take an enormous amount of time to set up, or had Star Force developed some new technology to extend the range of IDFs?

Niom had no answers. What he had was a lot of ships sitting helpless as the Seinac Lancer tore into them and a number of others that had found gaps in the field and were moving to the flanks to engage the drones. The more ships he had coming in the better odds he would have, but they had to get these damn IDF mines swept away…except they couldn’t see them.

“Reset dispersion on all applicable weapons to detection mode. Fire in all directions, including at our own ships. No blind spots. Find those mines!”

Both his Na’shor and the other ships nearby that still had comms complied, shutting down their weapons that they were currently using, in some cases, to shoot drones on the flanks. That left them more helpless, but some 18 seconds later they began firing again and blanketing huge swaths of space with low levels of energy. Not enough to damage them, but hopefully enough to cause a blip on the sensors.

Niom watched as his Na’shor continued to drift in closer to the star and the grinder that was eating up his ships as no new signals were detected. Not a single one.

“Pulse fire,” he ordered desperately. The weapons ceased firing again, having to reset, then instead of blanket fields they began to send out stronger spurts in specific directions. They were strategic, working through the overall field, and hopefully…

There. He saw a small blip show up, far from his ship, but another Na’shor was within range and reactivated one of its Ardents, firing on the area and missing. Without the active sensors it was guess work, but with another pulse passing over the same area and helping to fix the position, another 4 shots finally landed one that tore off a chunk of the stealth shielding and made it visible to conventional sensors.

Niom saw that IDF mine blown to bits shortly thereafter, with an area on his revised tactical board showing a gap in the IDF field…but one where no ships were, yet, but one was coming in that direction.

With a thought he opened a comm to that ship, ordering it to hold inside that empty area and keep away from the Seinac Lancer and try to moor any nearby ships to help slow their speed, and as more mines were found and eliminated he reiterated the same to other ships as more and more of the convoy continued to come into the jumpline in a wide stagger, with about half of the ships now veering wide enough to avoid the ambush entirely, but he could also see more Star Force ships beyond the ambush point, and they were chasing the escaping ships en mass. He figured some of his ships would survive, but many wouldn’t until he got enough into the system to group up and begin taking down targets in tandem.

Right now everything was spread, and the first burst from the Seinac Lancer hit his ship. It wasn’t as powerful as a Tar’vem’jic, thankfully, but it fired continuously and at far greater range. It was pulling energy from the star akin to a stellar mining platform, and launching it in a gel-like state that kept it from fanning out like an Ardent beam would at great range. That made it hard to hit distant targets, but if you did the packets of energy would hit at full force.

And a 38 mile long and 8 mile wide Na’shor, unable to move, wasn’t too hard a target to hit at extreme range. Fortunately the diamond-shaped ships had entered point on, for they normally flew flat side forward. Traveling at interstellar speeds meant even collision with sand-sized particles was dangerous, so with the almost needle-shaped Oso’lon hulls being put on end, the surface area diminished greatly and that was the only reason why most of the Seinac Lancer pulses were missing wide, but the golden energy was still coming like a fire house. Increased and decreasing in volume, but it was being shot out continuous as the beam wavered back and forth trying to sweep across the Oso’lon ship at more than one million miles.

The beam left his ship shortly thereafter, with Niom realizing it hadn’t been shooting specifically at the Na’shor, but at group of ships much closer in. The gunner had probably tried to wing his ship while transiting between targets, meaning that his flagship wasn’t the focus yet…and he’d already lost 28% of his shields.

Another mine nearby was discovered and destroyed, but the gap created wasn’t close enough…until a smaller Dak’bri further ahead in its own little zone of engine capability shot a mooring beam out at extreme range and pushed for all it was worth against his flagship, giving it some drift momentum to the right that might just cause it to cross into the field.

Niom watched as his Na’shor passed by the Dak’bri at the closest point, then the mooring beam was out of range and his ship was left drifting again, but on a path that was going to be close. He kept an eye on the carnage occurring ahead and the ships fighting in the clear with the drone swarms as the Na’shor briefly crossed the edge of the zone and his engines pushed hard to negated the drift…but not completely succeeding as it only got a few seconds of grip. It slowed the drift further into the system, but didn’t stop it completely.

He saw two more ships move past him, for they were drifting faster than his, and one of them used a mooring beam to push his ship further away, adding momentum to itself, but they were trying to save the flagship and Niom at all costs as the Seinac lancer swept another swath nearby that veered into his ship two more brief times, taking the shields down under 50% as it blasted apart ships much closer to the star.

Then he saw it. A group of Oso’lon ships that had gotten free and were flanking the drone conduit. They weren’t engaging, nor were they going after the Lancer, for it was too heavily guarded at the base of the conduit, but the 17 Oso’lon ships turned and accelerated up the conduit from below, at what was relatively slow speed, and the drones attacked them heavily until they passed into the mine field, hitting one by accident, but the 17 ships were now drifting the opposite direction and pushing with mooring beams against any other Oso’lon ship they could get close enough to, slowing themselves and redirecting the others.

That was dangerous as hell, and not long after the maneuver started to pay off he saw a collision. It wasn’t a full one, and the mooring beams helped avoid the worst of it, but two Domjo hit and tore out the hulls of one another as they were going in opposite directions. Parts of the ships flew off in all directions, but the rest that remained were still functional…save their existing gravity drives couldn’t find much gravity to push on.

Behind him the situation was getting better as more mines were found and destroyed, but the first section of the convoy was in horrible condition. If Niom had been at the front of the line he would have been dead already, but when the field suddenly went down along the edges near the Lancer he saw the drone walls collapse inwards. The Lancer itself fired a few more times then shut down, with Niom seeing its flower petal-like design begin to collapse into transport mode, but what was coming was in some ways worse. For with the conduit now being free to maneuver in, along the edges at least, the wave of drones was moving into firing range on the trapped ships.

Niom watched behind him as his fleet began to get a hold on the upper jumpline point, now with very few mines messing with it and the smaller field further out in the system having been knocked out as well, meaning the hard braking was now in effect and no reinforcements were coming this far in against their will. With every few seconds that passed more ships were coming into the system and his fleet was building, but he was still losing a lot, at a rapid pace, as the conduit walls shrunk with Star Force deactivating the mines when and where they wanted.

Before long that wave of drones got to Niom’s flagship, then the slugging match began in earnest.

2

March 29, 4894

Reenshamat System

Entry jumppoint

Niom had spent more than half a day inside his personal armor, breathing recycled air as he survived within the wreck that had been his flagship along with 18 other Oso’lon survivors and some 328 Zen’zat. The rest of his crew were dead, either from the fight or the collision with another wrecked ship that had occurred 2 hours ago. It was a Star Force one, cut in half but with enough mass to smash what had been the refuge of those wounded. With the last habitable compartment on his Na’shor destroyed, those caught without armor were killed in the vacuum of space and a few others were crushed to death before that by the collision.

But now relief had finally come in the form of a single drop pod. Niom entered first along with half the Oso’lon and all the Zen’zat. The others would have to wait, for the pod was not large enough to fit them all, and his surviving fleet was busy picking up survivors from across the system, for the battle had spread out once the V’kit’no’sat had secured the jumppoint. Niom had not commanded the latter stages, for his ship was destroyed early on, and he did not know the current status of his fleet other than a brief update via comm. The system was theirs. Star Force had fled. But the Oso’lon fleet had taken heavy casualties.

As soon as Niom was on the drop pod he linked into the fleet systems and got a tactical hologram depicting the damage and current positions of all ships…or ship fragments. The Seinac Lancer had escaped, and there were no more Star Force contacts in the system, though there were thousands of ships around the third planet belonging to the natives. They weren’t moving out to interfere, and they were so primitive that even if they did they couldn’t do any damage, but he was glad they were rightfully minding their own business and the planet had already been scanned for any trace of Star Force assets, coming up clean.

The drop pod diverted from its original course as soon as Niom’s presence was determined, taking him away from the Ti’mat it had come from and instead docked with the nearest undamaged Na’shor left in the fleet which now became his flagship. After that the drop pod went back to collect the other Oso’lon left behind, and Niom arranged for them to be brought here as well, for several of the survivors were from his command staff.

The ship’s commander met him in the hangar bay, with the orange/pink spots down his neck/back/tail denoting his membership in the Trugati Herd. It was one of lower status, with few ship captains originating from it, but at this point Niom did not care. A Na’shor was a Na’shor, and all were built exactly the same. If this Oso’lon was not qualified for his post, he would not be here, and more than likely he deserved the position, otherwise his lineage would have disqualified him for even the slightest inadequacy.

“Niom, I am grateful that you survived. My ship welcomes you onboard. I am Kachi, captain of this Na’shor, and it is an honor having you onboard.”

“There is no honor this day, Kachi,” Niom said gravely as he walked off and past the other Oso’lon, with the quadruped captain falling into step beside him. “We have been made fools of. Have any of our scout ships been located?”

“None. No debris either. They simply are not here, but there are two buoys registering the path ahead as clear.”

“There should be at least two vessels here waiting for us,” he growled. “If the patrol commander neglected her duty, I will execute her myself. Which jumpline did Star Force retreat on?”

“Several. The Seinac Lancer went to Sevarti.”

“Where is that?” Niom asked, not recognizing the name of the system. He’d made himself aware of most of them along the conduit of systems his fleet would be jumping through, but virtually all of these systems were uninhabited or barely inhabited, and unknowns as far as the V’kit’no’sat were concerned.

“It is back the way we came at an angle spinwards and up. Their other ships exited in all directions.”

“They scattered?”

“We chased many, but the scattering appears intentional and not forced by our pursuit. They did not engage in anything less than mismatches, though some of our ships became incensed and fought the mismatches anyway. We have many disabled or destroyed across the system because of this.”

“What is the final count?”

“936 ships destroyed. 428 damaged and unable to maintain fleet speed. Another 128 significantly damaged but with full engine power. Were we aware that they had a Seinac Lancer?”

“Not that I was informed of, but Yaniel insisted that we not underestimate them. It appears his warning was apt.”

“I see no fault on our part, save for perhaps the scouts.”

“Fault or no, the damage is done. I am not interested in laying blame, Kachi. I am interested in victory. How many ships did Star Force lose?”

“Tonnage comparison gives them a 5 to 1 kill rate,” the ship’s captain said, offering the more useful ‘tonnage’ measurement, for Star Force drones were so much smaller that comparing them ship to ship against the V’kit’no’sat fleet was virtually useless.

“That is all?” Niom asked, fearing it would be higher.

“The Seinac Lancer did not have optimal position. We were spared greater losses because of it. Your order to proceed at 85% speed saved us much damage.”

Niom huffed through his two large nostrils. Though he had wanted to arrive at the war front as soon as possible, he had heeded Yaniel’s many warnings concerning Star Force’s penchant for using IDF fields to tamper with incoming jumplines. With enough prep work you could see an entire fleet ramming a star from such sabotage, but proceeding at less than optimal speed gave you additional leverage with your deceleration jump. No sabotage effort could scale across the entire jumpline, meaning only pieces of it would be without gravitational resistance…but if you were coming in at max speed you needed every bit of that distance to decelerate, and missing a single second could end up putting your arrival point within the outer layers of the star.

Niom had insisted on a comfortable margin to prevent this possibility, though he had no idea it would be useful in keeping his ships further away from the trap of the Seinac Lancer. And yet, it hadn’t been enough to escape it entirely.

“It is still a loss,” he reminded the captain as they made their way out of the hangar and into one of the long, tall corridors that the Oso’lon had stretching nearly the entire length of the elongated diamond-shaped ship. Other smaller corridors were for the Zen’zat to move through, but the Oso’lon were so huge the interior design was predicated off of only a few large passages that had doorway connections to nearly every chamber on the ship.

Given their size, the Oso’lon were able to cover ground quickly, but with the 38 mile length of the Na’shor even running was not fast enough for intra-ship movement in times of crisis, so there was a Satu field running along the top of the chamber. Niom and Kachi both walked into the nearest boarding platform and felt the energy fields lift them up to the invisible suspended track that they then walked out on, gradually being accelerated as they stepped from the outer areas to the innermost one.

They were carried quickly over the heads of those below, making the Zen’zat look like little insects as they scurried about carrying out various ship tasks, many of which required the Oso’lon to telekinetically manage if not for the tiny hands of their servants. They made the ships work more efficiently, but the Oso’lon didn’t actually need them. Still, every ship in the fleet had an army of them underfoot and this vessel was no exception.

“What do you want done with the damaged vessels?” Kachi asked.

“We are not moving from this system until our scouts report back. I have to know what happened to them, or another ambush could be awaiting us ahead.”

“Shall we send out more now?”

“Yes. But we will not proceed until the others return…or we determine what happened to them. Until then, we continue recovery operations.”

“Our delay may hurt forward operations.”

“It is unavoidable. We cannot allow ourselves to be whittled down with ambushes such as this. If we do not attack with sufficient strength, their planetary defenses will eviscerate us.”

“As you wish. I will have already made arrangements for you and whatever staff you wish to bring onboard. This Na’shor is fully operation and awaits your orders.”

“Convert it to fleet control immediately, then begin debris collections. We cannot let the locals here have it, nor can we allow Star Force to harvest resources from it in our wake.”

“Disposal or tow?”

“We cannot go back, nor can I risk sending a small flotilla. We must dispose of what we cannot take onboard.”

“A suggestion.”

“Speak.”

“Given the amount of ships that are still to come, perhaps we should secure this system and every other one between our territory and theirs. That way they cannot arrange any more ambushes and all future ship movements, to or from the warfront, will be secure. As it is, we cannot risk cargo shipments if our patrols are compromised.”

Niom looked over at the other small head rising above the massive bodies of the Oso’lon. “Though it pains me to avoid direct combat, I believe you are correct. Securing a route of transit will prevent needless losses such as this.”

“Moving battle stations might also be warranted.”

“No,” Niom said firmly. “We cannot permanently hold this route, or we become predictable. We must occasionally shift, and moving fixed stations is too tedious. We will keep a third of our fleet here for recovery operations, the rest will be split up and sent to secure systems behind us. Once a link is established, we will tow the wreckage back to Vbora. Even if the other attack fleets choose to proceed by different routes, we will maintain this one so cargo fleets will not require escorts. It will be tedious, but I fear you are correct in that it is now necessary,” he said as they began walking to the edge of the Satu and slowing their transit as they approached the off ramp near the command deck.

“The more ships Star Force loses, the less times they will be able to repeat this ambush,” Kachi added. “Once we fully engage them in their territory, they will not be able to spare enough to hurt us.”

“Unless they feel they can do more damage out here than in direct combat,” Niom added as he floated down to ground level, then began walking into an offshoot from the main corridor that led to the command deck. “Disperse scouts to the adjoining 20 systems. I want to know what is around us now…”

Over the next two years Niom did his duty, sacrificing his fleet to hold the 27 links in the travel chain that led from Star Force territory back to the closest Oso’lon border colony. The black hole link was already guarded, due to its significance, and Niom’s forces filled in the rest of the gaps to secure a route free of ambush. Both Oso’lon fleets and those from 6 other races elected to use the route, while the others traveled from their own border colonies and suffered similar ambushes.

Information on them was limited, but with Niom running couriers regularly between systems, a primitive Urrtren link was established between the comm grid and the invading forces. It was slow, but with Niom sitting and waiting impatiently he had all the time in the galaxy to monitor what was going on elsewhere.

And what he saw he did not like. 29 other fleets had been ambushed, 14 with a Seinac Lancer. One with two of them that had cost the Lir’nen nearly an entire fleet of 9,000 ships before Star Force was driven away. The other ambushes were ship only, but the report Niom was reading now was far different. Multiple assaults had been launched on worlds all along the Star Force border, spread out intentionally so not to let the Uriti gather in one region to easily reinforce systems. 18 systems had been invaded and abandoned once Uriti showed up to defend them, while another 39 were under assault with no Uriti showing as of yet.

It was hard fighting to take down those systems, and not all were succeeding for the V’kit’no’sat were not coming in with overwhelming force. Instead they were hitting multiple systems and making Star Force choose where to defend with the Uriti. A single system with overwhelming force could be countered, but split that massive fleet up into 10 smaller fleets and you’d get 7 or 8 systems conquered before the Uriti could be moved around to drive off the invaders. And once there were troops on the ground in good control, the Uriti would only be enough to defend orbit and the real work of the ground troops would come into play holding those gains.

But even as more and more V’kit’no’sat fleets arrived and began to open up additional invasions in more systems, Star Force had managed to smuggle a Uriti beyond their borders and hid it within a star while a Pas’cha fleet passed by. Nearly a third of it had exited the far side of the system, leaving it strung out in a long line curving around the star when Star Force ships emerged from hiding within a nebula and engaged them. Not knowing of the Uriti the Pas’cha had fought back, gradually increasing their numbers since the incoming jumppoint had not been attacked and new ships were arriving safely, but when the battle had swelled to the point the V’kit’no’sat were winning, the Uriti known as Bahamut suddenly appeared beneath them, coming up from the star while the enemy ships began to emit IDF fields and pin the V’kit’no’sat in place.

The end result was the loss of more than 7,000 ships, with the leading third of the convoy not even knowing there was an attack on the rear until they suddenly stopped arriving in the next system further on, save for a scattering of survivors who came with the news of the Uriti ambush.

Once again, Star Force was able to circumvent the V’kit’no’sat patrol fleets, and Niom still did not know how. No breaches on his secure chain of systems had occurred, which he was grateful for, but up and down the intermediate territories V’kit’no’sat scouts were going missing or failing to report in. He believed Star Force was jumping the gaps in some cases where surveillance temporarily lagged, but there was something more going on…which was why two more races had elected to send ships down the Oso’lon conduit rather than risk traversing on their own.

But even when they arrived they were not safe, for moving across the border was hazardous. Star Force was not waiting for the V’kit’no’sat to get to them, and everywhere they could ambush a jumppoint they would, with Virokor ordering most of their fleets to break up into smaller groups and travel by different jumplines. That made those groups easier to ambush, but more ships would end up arriving at their intended destination because Star Force couldn’t block all the routes and they had become too damn good at guessing where they would go.

Reconnaissance was a losing gambit now, for Star Force had somehow managed to get the upper hand on them, so Virokor was switching to defensive maneuvers even as they launched offensive assaults. Niom hated to see that, but he was glad Virokor was adapting faster than he expected. They’d all been told to view Star Force as equals in this war, and already their skill and unpredictability was proving that warning to be true.

This was going to be a hard war to fight, but in the end there could only be one outcome.

The question was, who would survive to see it? Niom intended to, but he also did not want to survive by sitting and watching over unimportant systems. Fortunately for him, a year later he would receive his orders to transition to the front while fleets from other races replaced the Oso’lon on their secure route.

Eventually he arrived with more than 20,000 ships, having received command of two more Oso’lon fleets in the interim, but he had to break them apart past the last staging area per Virokor’s orders. He gave each of the sub-commanders a different route to travel by, but their arrival point would be the same…a moderately strong Bsidd system known as Braum that boasted the most redundant planetary shield generators in the Hov Region, though the defensive weaponry did not match…at least as far as their information said. At this point, Niom wasn’t expecting a guarantee on anything.

He’d find out one way or another in the coming weeks, for when all of his fleets arrived simultaneously from multiple jumppoints, they’d find what Star Force had waiting for them…if they didn’t get ambushed enroute first.

3

February 9, 4897

Defran System (Rim Region)

Rufio

Saavaa was on the ground of the enemy-held planet, trudging through rain forest and water up to his stubby ankles. The hexped Octo’mar had been on the surface for 5 weeks, fighting a combination of H’kar and Clan McClane troops as the two V’kit’no’sat races pushed towards the nearest shield generators to their landing zone. Unlike most of the attack fleets that were comprised of single races, Virokor had allowed some to pair up, and the Octo’mar’s longtime ally the Serni’jar had agreed to make all their invasion forces co-ops.

Both races were similar in size. The Serni’jar had 4 hefty legs and an armored, boxy head. The Octo’mar had two additional legs and a longer neck, but nowhere near as long as that of the Oso’lon. They also had two tails that helped them become decent swimmers on the surface, but they were not aquatic. Both races were land dwellers, and both were slow and heavy. They carried extra armor because of that, for they were not expecting to move fast, and right now Saavaa had a huge hole in his.

He’d stopped the armor from thinning elsewhere and had simply shifted the hole to his belly where it would be extremely hard to shoot, for his legs supported his torso only a meter off the ground. It looked like Octo’mar crawled rather than walked, though that was just a visual illusion. Saavaa’s hips were actually at the top of his back, so his leg length and torso length were nearly the same.

That kept the armor under his belly usually unscathed save for explosives in the ground, but Star Force hadn’t been known to use them very often…and when they had, they’d mined whole fields where their own people were nowhere near. Here, in the jungle, there was a fight going on to keep the V’kit’no’sat from the boundary wall that made up the outer perimeter defense of the shield generator. It was one of hundreds on the planet, but this one was located in an uninhabited region, making it the perfect battlefield for Star Force, who didn’t like fighting amongst their civilians.

Back behind him and his fellow Octo’mar, who were having to push over trees occasionally to get room to move through the jungle, there were huge synthetic mountains made up of grounded Octo’mar and Serni’jar warships. They’d come all the way to ground once they’d punched a hole in the shield generators, and a costly hole at that. They’d lost nearly a third of their fleet in the orbital combat and simultaneously facing down the planetary defenses, but they had their entry vector now and were continuing to push the offensive while bypassing the rest of the intact anti-orbital guns. It was a narrow approach window, but already a small convoy of supply ships had arrived to deliver additional ground troops and prefab structures, giving them a decent base at the LZ even if the warships were not there.

And those warships were providing their own anti-orbital guns, though more than half their weaponry didn’t reach up through the atmosphere too well. Still, it kept the few drones Star Force had left from bombarding Saavaa and the others as they attempted to take another shield generator. Four had already gone down, but only one had been captured relatively intact. It wasn’t operational yet, for the V’kit’no’sat were having to make repairs, but soon it would be back in operation and able to add considerable protection to the ground troops.

He didn’t think this one would be allowed to be taken intact, for the assault was not a surprise one and Star Force would have plenty of time to rig up a self-destruct, but if the Octo’mar and Serni’jar couldn’t take it, they were at least going to deny it to Star Force and open up more of the planet to orbital attacks…unless a Uriti showed up. If that happened the warships would have to flee and the ground troops would have to scatter and mix with the Star Force populations so they couldn’t be targeted from orbit. They would not be relinquishing the planet, however, for the longer they kept a Uriti pinned in one location the better it would be for other assaults. There were only 74 Uriti, and while he and the others had orders not to engage them navally, they were going to dare them to shoot their own people to remove the ground troops on the invaded planets.

No Uriti had showed up here yet, and Saavaa and the other Octo’mar were making decent progress towards the shield generator when a shadow crossed over them. He turned and looked up, for whatever it was causing the shadow was too far above for his Pefbar to pick up. At first he thought the massive object in orbit was a Uriti, but none of the warships were moving. He took a moment and zoomed in with his armor’s vision amplifiers, for there was no warning being broadcast to the troops on the ground. When he did get a good view he saw it was in fact not a Uriti, but a large warship of a type he was unfamiliar with…but it was getting closer.

Soon the grounded warships began to open fire, sending hundreds of Ardent and Var’ko beams up through the thick atmosphere to the ship overhead, but Saavaa couldn’t watch anymore. Star Force mechs were approaching, including one of their big ones. It was a hexped and outsized even the Serni’jar Ultra that fighting further to the east, but with this mech came smaller, faster ones that Saavaa was going to have to deal with.

They fired through the jungle, not caring about the trees, and hit Saavaa on his forward shields. They held, but when the Octo’mar returned fire more than half his shots missed, irritating him greatly. V’kit’no’sat accuracy when firing from their armor was usually 97% or better at this range, for they had auto tracking programs built into the weapons. Shooting something as small as Zen’zat was different, dropping down to a pathetic 82%, but against opponents of similar size to Saavaa, missing was rare.

The trouble was, he was standing almost still while the mechs were moving about with many trees in between them. Somehow they were picking their firing lines better than he was, and whenever he shot at the mechs a lot of his Dre’mo’don orbs hit tree trunks or even just thick branches, diminishing their damage even when they did hit the mechs. That also left a lot of flying debris falling amongst the trees that would have interfered with normal sensors, but not the V’kit’no’sat’s…which made it even more infuriating that he was missing with so many shots.

The large mech further back didn’t try firing through the trees, rather it lobbed an energy orb up and over them, with it falling on top of another Octo’mar to Saavaa’s right. The Star Force perversion of a Uit streamer punched through his already weakened shields and morphed around his armor partway to the ground before the explosion came. Two Octo’mar beside him were knocked down, and Saavaa was thrown into a thick tree that kept him upright…though the tree didn’t fare as well. The Octo’mar that had been hit survived, though with most of his armor on the top side gone. The blast hadn’t made it through to his skin, but Saavaa could see the armor thinning elsewhere and moving in ripples to strengthen the weak spot.

He and the others knew they couldn’t take that pounding, so they started running forward and shooting trees out of the way. They had to get up to the big mech and attack it from the underside, ignoring the smaller mechs if need be. And the more trees they knocked down, the better the firing lines for the troops behind him would get, and there were five waves of Octo’mar following up behind…

Suddenly he got hit from the rear. It wasn’t a large hit, but rather a shockwave traveling through the atmosphere. He turned and looked, seeing the huge cone-shaped ship sitting in low orbit with a few crackles of orange energy around it and one of the grounded Kafcha being the epicenter of a growing mushroom cloud of debris that hadn’t yet reached its apex to start falling back to ground.

“What ship is that?” the Octo’mar two down in the assault line asked, with Saavaa and the others all worried. There was no way they could survive even a glancing shot from that weapon.

“Doesn’t matter,” Saavaa said aloud and telepathically so all those nearby would hear even if their comms were damaged. “If we’re near Star Force troops they won’t target us. So press forward, now, before they catch us out,” he said as a secondary blast wave knocked a few more trees down, but didn’t dislodge any of the V’kit’no’sat or the mechs.

495 lightyears away…

Peevaw dove away from a Star Force aerial fighter, dropping so fast that the gravity drives on the enemy vessel couldn’t keep up. Having wings helped in a number of occasions, and this was one, for the friction helped brake him in addition to his own gravity drives in his armor, which were heavy due to the fact that he was flying a K’lak’tal combat suit built for space combat. He couldn’t maneuver as quickly as he liked, but he was still more agile than the enemy craft…though not by much.

The I’rar’et didn’t care about the Star Force flyer. Not right now anyway, for others were dealing with them. His job was to target the mechs, which the heavier firepower that the K’lak’tal carried turned out to be well suited for. When this invasion began they weren’t using them, but some innovative I’rar’et had tried it and found it worked well. Now every I’rar’et invasion fleet was using them as bombers against the mech ground forces while lighter armed I’rar’et were acting as skirmishers against the small aerial enemy.

However, there were larger versions roaming out there with increased firepower, mostly in the form of missiles that could down him quickly. Right now there were none in this engagement, leaving him free to carefully strafe a group of two legged mechs engaging Zen’zat in armored vehicles. Without coopting with another race, the I’rar’et had to use the Zen’zat heavy attack craft, otherwise the mechs would turn their weapons to the skies and shoot down too many of them. This way they had to split their firepower, but several K’lak’tal had already been shot down.

Peevaw was luckier than them, getting to hit the rear of two of the mechs and blast through their shields with enough residual firepower to create puffs of vaporized armor just before he streaked past at low altitude, firing on another mech further up when he got hit from behind. His own shields held long enough for him to veer off and around an ice pillar, taking him out of view as he passed over two friendly Zen’zat hover tanks.

They let him pass, then fired up at the enemy aerial craft behind him, though it had been one of the mechs that managed the hit. The Zen’zat returned the favor, winging one of the three aerial craft before six I’rar’et caught up to them from the flanks and downed one of the Star Force flyers. The other two split, leaving Peevaw alone as he lazily circled around between ice pillars, staying out of view as much as he could before lining up another attack run…for he couldn’t hold position and slug it out with anything larger than infantry. And unfortunately Star Force hadn’t deployed any of theirs this far out from the city.

The city’s defenses were keeping the I’rar’et away, for they had heavy anti-air batteries that he would be stupid to challenge. The Zen’zat had to get up close and knock them out…and when they did, the I’rar’et would come in and obliterate everything from the air.

Right now Star Force was doing a good job of keeping the Zen’zat away from the city and knocking down a fair number of I’rar’et, though most were recoverable because the Zen’zat were pushing forward, albeit slowly. There was a line of downed mechs and Zen’zat craft reaching all the way back to the landing zone where the I’rar’et had been hit hard trying to get troops on the ground, but they’d had little choice.

They could put the troops down at the shield perimeter, which only covered a third of the small planet, or they could push in under it and get them closer. They’d chosen the latter, for if they’d started further out it would have been to Star Force’s advantage…though there were two smoking hulks of Zen’zat orbital transports, both bigger than a drop pod, that lay on the ice far behind them testifying to how strong the Star Force mech contingent here was.

The I’rar’et had gotten their troops out and the other transports safely away, but those two were going to be a loss, especially since some aerial fighters had backdoored the advancing army and pounded the grounded transports so they wouldn’t be recoverable.

But that didn’t matter. It was an investment that was getting them closer to the city where the nearest shield generator stood at the center, and with a few more mechs taken down the Zen’zat were going to be able to push up against the static defenses. That would hurt, but there was no way around it save for orbital bombardment, and the fleet that had been sent to take this system wasn’t large enough for that. There were only 328 ships, but that was more than enough to overwhelm Star Force’s defenses, for this was an inconsequential system amongst many others being hit. If the enemy brought a large defense fleet here, they’d have to pull them from more valuable worlds…and the same went for a Uriti. Odds are that wouldn’t happen, meaning what the I’rar’et had to fight was right in front of them.

It was doable, but they were going to have to pay a price for this world. And then they were going to have to garrison it, keeping as many of the locals alive as possible. That was a huge change for Peevaw, who’d been one of the few in this invasion that had fought Star Force before. Back then they’d just bombarded everything from orbit once the shield generators were down then sent in ground troops to mop up what was left.

But not now. They had to take every bit of territory on the ground the hard way, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t kill the enemy. Anyone who shot at them was fair game, and any that got in the way of the combat or were located near high valued targets were also considered collateral damage, but the rest were an objective to capture and any of the Star Force warriors were a highly valued bonus, though it didn’t look like surrender was on their minds right now.

Peevaw wasn’t taking this attack lightly, nor were the other I’rar’et. Even though they had an advantage, he didn’t expect Star Force to give an inch willingly. The V’kit’no’sat were going to have to take all the systems in their path, paying the necessary price in equipment and personnel to do it. Hopefully what they captured would help reimburse them somewhat for the losses of material, in the long run, but right now there wasn’t anything but destruction on Peevaw’s mind as he zigzagged through ice pillars and came out behind a larger group of mechs.

There was no Star Force aerial cover at the moment, so he unloaded into one of the backwards-legged mechs and knocked it to the ground, though he wasn’t sure if that was from damage or the limited explosive jarring of his Nioa warheads. The compacted energy orbs released a hell of a kick on impact, but it was amplified with the vaporization of hull armor and there was an instantaneous cloud formed as the mech fell over.

Rather than veering hard left and almost turning about, he tried to zip across to the far side of the wide canyon to the cover of more jutting ice formations, but he never made it. Some of the mechs reacted too fast and his K’lak’tal took several hits. He felt a burn on his left flank, but that’s not what dropped him to the ground. Rather the gravity drives within the suit suddenly went offline and his desperate wing flaps were not enough to lift both him and the bulky suit, resulting in him crashing into the snow and plowing a furrow all the way up to one of the ice pillars but still within easy targeting of the mechs.

He didn’t have to wait long, for the following shots pounded him mercilessly until he felt the burns on his flesh and he blacked out…only to revive a short time later thanks to the Kich’a’kat inside the suit. The burning was replaced by the icy cold of the planet’s atmosphere, but he didn’t dare move. The mechs had refrained from blasting his armor to pieces, so if he held still maybe they’d wouldn’t notice he was still alive.

If the Zen’zat didn’t push up to his position soon, the Kich’a’kat was going to have to repair his exposed back over and over again as the cold damaged it. That wasn’t something he wanted to endure, but if it kept him alive long enough to be rescued, then so be it. He’d gotten too arrogant and tried to shoot a gap he couldn’t make, and Peevaw very much wanted to live through his mistake…even if it was only because of the mercy Star Force had extended to him, for they probably knew V’kit’no’sat armor had regenerators, yet they’d left his body intact enough to be repaired.

If he made it out of this he’d make sure to find one of their warriors and extend the favor in return, for he hated the idea of being in the enemy’s debt.

No. He’d return it 3 times over. That should be enough to compensate for his stupidity. He never should have underestimated the reaction times of these mechs…or the inability to fly the K’lak’tal in gravity under his own power.

That was a downside that someone had apparently never bothered to bring up, for these K’lak’tal suits were damn heavy and built for space…and if you lost gravity drives out there you just floated until pickup.

4

May 23, 4897

Braum System (Star Force territory)

Winage

Niom stood in the command deck onboard his Na’shor flagship looking down on the large planet below and the fleet of enemy drones clustered in 9 different groups nearby. Some of them were system defense models and larger than their standard versions, but all of them were smaller than a Ti’mat and shaped like elongated Brat’mar vessels, sharing the same coin shape. They were not a major problem, for Niom’s fleet outmassed theirs 9 to 1, though it should have been 11 to 1.

Two of his fleet groups had not arrived along with the others. He’d split them up into 18 separate groups ordered to jump into the system on 18 different jumplines simultaneously. Two had failed to make it, and another had been ambushed enroute with only two thirds of their ships arriving, but most of his fleet groups had entered the system uncontested.

However, the system defenders had not heavily engaged his ships at the entry jumppoints. They were staying close to the planets and refusing to get into a fight outside the range of the surface batteries. Niom had taunted them twice, but both times they would not take the bait and never moved further than the outer limits where the Ardent beams lost cohesion. Had they been firing a true beam the range would have been much farther, and whatever spreading occurred would still deliver full power to ships as large as a Na’shor, which were hard to miss.

The problem with range in the V’kit’no’sat/Star Force weaponry was the fact that their weapons were not true beams. They were various forms of exotic energy bound together into packets. Some were very loose, others very compact, but all had range limitations. When that bonding expired the energy inside literally ‘puffed’ into scattered chaos. Even a Tar’vem’jic had its limits, though its bonding power was the strongest yet created. Without it, the power levels of ranged weapons would drop so low they wouldn’t do more than tickle the advanced shield generators both sides now possessed.

However, one weapon that Star Force used and the V’kit’no’sat did not was a mass launcher. It was hard to aim at distance, but against an unmoving target it had no range limitation and the larger the target the easier it was to hit…and V’kit’no’sat ships were huge in comparison to Star Force’s. A few of the synthetic rocks had already been flung up at his fleet where it sat some 480,000 miles above the planet, with the V’kit’no’sat dampening shields catching them. However, if they’d been involved in heavy battle, they wouldn’t have enough power for those shields to be continually hit and recharged.

Niom thought Star Force was doing it just to rattle the V’kit’no’sat, until one hit and was stopped by another Na’shor not too far away from his flagship…then once it was caught in the collapsible energy field of the dampening shields and its momentum totally cancelled out it exploded, taking a tiny chunk of the Na’shor with it. Its regular shields had caught some of the blast prior to them collapsing, but Niom had never seen Star Force use a weapon variant such as this.

“Evasive maneuvers! Set shields to redirect, not stop, the objects. Realign the fleet to allow clear passage.”

A few moments later a comm line opened and a hologram of another Oso’lon appeared.

“What are we waiting for Niom? The other ships are probably not coming. We have what we have. Either attack or withdraw from the system. The longer we wait, the more time Star Force has to bring in reinforcements.”

Niom growled, wanting to flick his long neck in a gesture of disrespect, but his fellow Oso’lon commander was correct. There was no point in waiting unless the Star Force fleet could be drawn out into combat away from the planet, and it was apparent they were not going to be so easily tricked into fighting at a disadvantage.

“Very well. If they will not come to us, then we are forced to go to them.”

“I would prefer another route, but the situation is what it is.”

“Prepare for fleet orders. We must hit them hard and fast.”

“We will be ready,” the other Oso’lon promised, cutting the comm as another slew of projectiles came up from the planet towards the fleet. Some of them missed as the ships moved, but a few were not quick enough and had to deflect…with one of the somewhat unpredictable deflections hitting another ship. That ship half caught the object, but not before it hit its conventional shields at partial speed, sapping their strength by more than 40%, though it did not explode.

A quick scan of it determined it was a solid projectile meant for mass-only damage, meaning Star Force was firing the exploding versions along with the others, and so far ranged sensors were not able to pick up the difference between the two.

As he monitored that ongoing situation he was mentally coordinating with his staff to set up the attack pattern. It took a few minutes, then the leading edge of his fleet broke into three groups snaking off like tendrils down towards the planet. They approached close to the same location, but began firing on 3 different shield generator locations as the planetary defenses opened fire with a horde of Ardent beams lighting up the closest Oso’lon ships…which immediately retreated, putting other ships between them and the planet to share the damage before a single ship could be destroyed.

The Star Force fleet responded immediately, collapsing on those three tendrils of ships that quickly moved to engage them and stopped firing on the planet. As they did so Niom brought the bulk of his fleet in between the trio of fleet groups and began assaulting another shield generator, and only that one, while the other ships acted as skirmishers keeping the drones away from the actual point on the planet where the Oso’lon were seeking to penetrate the shields and land their troops.

Niom watched the shield levels barely dip as his fleet unleashed their Var’ko and Ardents at range, then added their medium range weaponry as they came down to just above the atmosphere, circling back up like river currents as soon as they took hull damage to get in the rear of the formation and then rotate around into firing position again minutes later. He could see the ground batteries trying to pick on individual ships, and in some cases succeeded in doing extreme damage, but none lost maneuvering capability and other ships were moving out to impose themselves between the damaged vessels and the planetary defenses as planned.

But it was going to take time to punch a hole through these robust shields, and once the damaged ships began cycling back into firing position he was going to start losing some of them. That couldn’t be helped if he wanted to assault this planet, not to mention the other 4 in the system just as heavily defended, but he had to obtain a foothold on Winage before a Uriti arrived. If the shields weren’t down, or he didn’t have a sizeable contingent of troops on the ground, the Oso’lon would have to retreat and give up whatever gains they’d made. They couldn’t, and wouldn’t, engage a Uriti. That meant time was probably not on their side for two had been confirmed to be within a handful of jumps from this system, though where they were at the moment was unknown, for the reports were 4 weeks old at the freshest.

Niom kept his own ship in the rotation until it took hull damage, then he regretfully pulled it towards the back and kept it there. He couldn’t afford to be lost, but others were as the first ships began to take serious damage…meaning crew being killed internally even if the ship was still functional. The first full ship loss occurred on the third rotation, and from there the number of ships cycling began to slowly diminish. He had over 17,000 for this assault, but he was going to lose a good chunk of those because of the denseness of the shield generators in this system, and if he was going to assault the other planets he’d have to wait until he got more fleet reinforcements.

He’d known that coming in, but he’d hoped he could lure the Star Force fleet away and deal with them separately, for now a lot of his ships were busy fighting them and keeping them away from the assault column in the center of his current fleet formation. If they were able to sneak through and pinpoint target the damaged ships, they might be able to completely annihilate his fleet.

But that wasn’t going to happen. His skirmisher fleets were doing their job, and even when the planetary guns hit his ships, the mass of the V’kit’no’sat vessels was their greatest advantage. Add in their shields that had to be penetrated first and they were hard to kill, but the more time they spent firing on a single spot in the shields the more damage they had to eat, and the depletion rate was agonizingly slow as Niom watched the strength of the shield at the assault point grow weaker and weaker.

When they are about a third of the way through he saw a group of drones break off and try to backdoor his formation and get at the troop transports safely in the rear. He didn’t like pulling more ships off the attack cycle, but Niom had no choice. Those transports were heavily defended, but they didn’t have the firepower to fight back. If he ordered them to flee they would be safe, but he needed them in close to run down through the soon to be gap in the shields and Star Force knew it. He had to send ships to protect them, which would diminish his attack column’s endurance while not diminishing the firepower of the rotating ships, for they were not all spreading out to attack simultaneously.

He monitored the transports and the smaller battle breaking out there as another of the projectiles from the surface slammed into a Dak’bri in his fleet and got through. Either they didn’t have dampener shields up, or couldn’t spare the power from their convention shields. The projectile disappeared inside the hull and didn’t come out the other side, but the damage reports from that vessel flashed into view and Niom could see that it was nearly a lethal hit. The ship limped back out of the line slowly, but the planetary gunners didn’t ignore it. They focused several Ardents on it before other vessels could get in place to block for it, and the Dak’bri saw several minor explosions on the hull…not fireballs, but from the vaporization of hull armor and interior decks along with the decompression of living areas.

Niom ground his teeth together angrily as the Dak’bri lost engine power and began to drift back down towards the planet. He almost wanted to let it hit the shields and make them switch to dampeners to catch it, but there were still crew alive onboard and he’d been ordered to keep his people intact as much as he could. This was going to be a long war, and impatience was an enemy that could not be played with, so he ordered nearby vessels to attach mooring beams and pull it out of the planet’s gravity well while other blockers now got into place.

More of the projectiles were being flung up sporadically, most of which hit their targets, a few of which exploded once inside. Those ships were lost almost immediately, and Niom hated having to be so confined in low orbit. He was giving them such easy targets, and his fleet couldn’t properly block them while running their conventional shields at such a high regeneration rate. They could have both up at the same time, but there was only so much reactor power to go around, and their weaponry and engines were soaking up a good amount of it.

However, the toll being exacted on the shield was adding up, and four hours into the assault the first hole opened. It wasn’t long lived, but several shots got through it and hit the shield generator. They didn’t penetrate, for the generator had a secondary shield covering itself, but the recharge rate on the planetary shields only filled in the gap momentarily, with more shots hitting and breaking through again, over and over, allowing a small amount of firepower to hit the surface.

Niom was watching closely, knowing the moment was near, when more shields started popping up around the location. It took a moment to identify their source, and it was coming from large mechs that had arrived at the location earlier while the local population had been evacuated. The shields they produced were small, but there were more than 60 of them down there combining to give the primary generator a third shield.

That would delay the fall of the primary by at least another minute, and in that timespan the planetary defense guns would do more damage to his fleet. Star Force was going to stretch out their damage advantage as much as they could, for once that primary generator went down the closest anti-orbital batteries would be the immediate targets. They had their own secondary shields, but they wouldn’t hold up for more than a few salvos against the combined firepower of his fleet.

Others with firing lines yet protected under other shield generators would still be immune, but all he needed was one primary shield generator down to land his troops, even if they overlapped a bit. One route down to the surface was enough, and even now as the moment approached he began bringing his transports closer to prepare for the run down to the surface.

The moment came some 16 minutes later when the secondary shield over the generator went down. The weak third shield wouldn’t last long, so Niom orders his transports forward with blocking vessels to soak up some of the firepower from the planetary guns.

When those transports got almost all the way to the front lines the other ships parted to let them through as the mechs lay smoking on the ground along with the now gutted shield generator marking the epicenter of the 73 mile wide hole in the planetary shield.

“Now,” he said, almost to himself as the fleet acted on its own timing. Warships pushed down into the atmosphere alongside the transports until they got too low on the horizon to be targeted by the big guns that were even now being taken down by the fleet in orbit…but other smaller batteries opened up and began to chip away at the descending ships. He saw one transport get hit hard by combination fire and drop to the surface in a controlled crash, crushing several buildings underneath it but telemetry reported that aside from injuries there were no fatalities in the crew…until a nearby battery rotated around and began pounding the ship in one of its hangar bays.

Niom ordered it targeted and destroyed, but not before 18 signatures within the ship disappeared, two of which were Oso’lon.

More smaller batteries were being taken out as they identified themselves, for most were hidden prior to opening up. Star Force didn’t want him to know how many weapons they had, and that tactic was costing him some minor losses, but as the rest of his transports all got down to the lower atmosphere he ordered his ships to pull back…then countermanded the order as the Star Force drones tried to run down to the surface and attack the transports.

Niom felt the pit in his stomach drop out. There were too many drones left to ignore, and that meant keeping his fleet above the atmosphere to battle them or let them get to ground and do an insane amount of damage. He had to fight and contain them up here, even as a few went wide to try and evade and come around from odd approaches…which drew pursuing ships into range of other anti-orbital guns further around the curve of the planet.

Star Force was going to make the V’kit’no’sat fight over the planet until all the drones were gone, meaning his fleet had to continue to take egregious losses until by the lessening number of anti-orbital guns. He couldn’t withdraw out of range now, or he’d sacrifice his ground troops.

He was stuck, but if that was the price they had to pay, then so be it. This planet was going to be theirs, and soon even a Uriti arriving would not matter. Unless they finally found the grit to fire on their own people to remove the Oso’lon.

Niom didn’t think they had it in them, but it was still a nagging worry in the back of his mind. Virokor’s entire battle plan was based on the assumption they wouldn’t. Give the long history Star Force had with the V’kit’no’sat obliterating their planets, it was a safe bet that if they could have made that leap they would have done so long, long ago…but there was still that small possibility that could not be completely ignored.

Still, they had yet to demonstrate such an ability, and if his troops had enough time they were going to dig in so hard no orbital bombardment could remove them. The fate of this planet would be decided on the surface…so long as Star Force didn’t bring in another fleet of drones capable of defeating the grounded warships. Zen’zat could disappear amongst the Star Force infrastructure, but Oso’lon were too large. They needed the warship backup until they built or captured planetary shield generators.

Several small models were already being sent down, but the big ones wouldn’t be shipped in until the surface was truly secure. They weren’t even in the system yet, for a Uriti could easily take those out. This invasion would have to progress much further before they devoted the resources for that kind of a hold, because there was no reason to waste such resources if a trip by a Uriti could scratch them off the surface within seconds.

Niom needed prisoners to pack around such sites, and until he had them his grounded warships were going to be the only anti-orbital defense he had available. It should be enough, so long as no reinforcements arrived, and with so many other systems being hit, he figured Star Force didn’t have much to spare…though with the importance of this system, he wasn’t going to be surprised if something did show up, and soon.

5

July 2, 4897

Hefo System (Bozse Region)

Nautilus

There, Vax thought to himself as she saw the first breach in the planetary shields. It won’t be long now.

Which was good, for the Garas’tox fleet was losing a fair number of ships and Vax didn’t like taking any losses, but this system was far less defended than many others in Star Force territory. The shield generators were solid, she couldn’t fault them there, but the number of defense ships was lacking. She almost assumed it was a bias against water worlds, but there were also two less populated land dominated planets in the system that were less shielded than this one.

It must have been a priority issue, but to the aquatic Garas’tox, leaving one of the most deep water planets in Star Force territory without a robust defense fleet was offensive in the extreme. The V’kit’no’sat had always had an aerial bias during the reign of the Zak’de’ron…which few remembered these days…and since then there had been a heavy land bias. Against the Hadarak in space it didn’t matter. A warship was a warship. But when it came to allotting planetary defense stations, the V’kit’no’sat aquatics worlds had always been shortchanged.

The Garas’tox worlds were heavily defended with other weapons of local production, but anything involving Yeg’gor or Tar’vem’jic had to be rationed and Itaru did the rationing. Vax was sad to see what looked like a similar bias within Star Force.

She shook off the notion, shivering down her spine and wiggling in the water-filled command deck that had little bubbles of air here and there for the Zen’zat to work in. They at least understood the value of water worlds, and their illegitimate spawn seemed to as well, for the world Vax’s fleet was assaulting wasn’t just populated by aquatics, but by a large number of land dwellers also. They built cities above and below the surface, whereas the V’kit’no’sat usually spurned such construction. There were so many worlds to choose from in their domain they could get picky about where they put down colonies, whereas it looked like Star Force was making due with whatever they had available.

Or perhaps not. The design of this planet lacked the sophistication of a Garas’tox world, but there was an elegance to the structures. Most could not be seen from orbit, though sensors gave at least silhouettes of most below water. There was a curious sediment in the oceans that blocked full scans, but Vax could see the approximate layout that she was about to invade and the Garas’tox almost approved, save for the diminutive size of most of the buildings. It would require Zen’zat to go in and do most of the fighting, which was distasteful, but the Garas’tox would rule the open water as usual…once they got down there.

Sporadic holes in the planetary shield weren’t going to be enough, and it was looking like the secondary shields around the generators were much more durable than expected. The one they were targeting already had taken several heavy shots and was still holding, but it would fall eventually. Star Force didn’t have enough drones here to stop them, and the planetary weapons, while a nuisance, couldn’t mass enough firepower to cut away at her own. Vax’s fleet was going to break through with less than 6% ship losses, but those numbers scared her.

Not for this assault. The planet, then the two dry worlds would be hers soon enough. It was the loss of ships that bothered her, for Star Force had so many planets. She might lose more taking the dry worlds, then the next system invasion the Garas’tox would lose more, and more, and more…even if they avoided the Uriti at all times. Star Force has so many planets with heavy shield generators and defensive batteries that the Garas’tox were going to be blooded to the extreme to see this conquest through. Vax worried that Mak’to’ran had been right, but she also worried what Star Force would become if they let them have their freedom. The V’kit’no’sat needed to annex or destroy them now, but the cost to do it was going to be very heavy, for her fleet had to sit and take damage while they drained the shield generators, and without a Mach’nel there was no other way to go about doing it.

And she hadn’t been gifted with one. Her place in the Garas’tox was too low, and the three Mach’nel that her race possessed were elsewhere, but all had been sent to this war in order to diminish ship losses as much as possible. The problem was, if Star Force knew where they were going to attack they could bring a Uriti in and crush the Mach’nel. So far that hadn’t happened, and Vax expected it wouldn’t unless someone lost their nerve and fought out of spite. Virokor had given strict orders to retreat and not allow that matchup, or any other, to occur with the Uriti if there was the option of withdrawal. Vax knew that didn’t sit well with many commanders, but they would obey. At least the Garas’tox would, though she couldn’t say for sure about all the others. There might be a fool or two among them.

“Deploy,” she ordered when the targeted shield generator finally disappeared in a debris ridden explosion that rained down smoking meteors into the surrounding ocean. The shield generator had been built on top of an artificial island that extended up more than two miles to reach the atmosphere, for generating shields through water reduced their efficiency by 28% in standard water. The Garas’tox had built their own above water as well, but they kept a secondary shield system below. It would create a weak planetary shield within the water, allowing the upper levels of the ocean to absorb a lot of the energy weapons.

The problem with that was it gave the air dwellers access to their world, but if they had to bunker down and hold off against an assault fleet, pulling that shield lower and lower in the water would increase the combined strength of field and water mass, making it harder to knock out the lower shield generators, though not impossible. And combined with shield conduits allowing subsurface weapons access to the air and them not having to suffer vaporization losses passing through the water, it made the aquatics’ worlds the most resilient against orbital bombardment.

Which was why it was stupid for the V’kit’no’sat not to further reinforce them with ample planetary defense stations. The J’gar had proved how powerful that tactic could be, for they’d used their ration of the superior technology to heavily reinforce a handful of worlds in such a manner, then spread out the other planetary defense stations more sporadically, though each world got at least one.

Why Star Force hadn’t done so here, at least with their lesser technology, was something Vax didn’t understand. The waters were so deep here that this world was valuable even by V’kit’no’sat standards…yet here she was, about to take it with a fleet far smaller than should have been required.

The Garas’tox commander watched as her troop transports flew down towards the planet with their O-shaped hulls that were stretched out a bit and reinforced fore and aft. All their ships were so designed, and in space it didn’t make much sense to the non-aquatic races, for the more mass you had in one position the easier it was to defend that mass. That hadn’t stopped some of the other races from building wilder designs, but for the Garas’tox the open space in the center of their ships was critical for landing operations, as Star Force would soon see.

Vax didn’t take her warships down. Not yet. They were still shooting at targets exposed by the single shield generator that had fallen and they also needed to draw fire away from the troop transports. If that meant taking hull damage then so be it, for those transports were much smaller and far more valuable. Star Force apparently agreed, for every battery within rage changed their firing trajectories and targeted those ships, with several being hit despite their escorts blocking for them.

Vax’s long neck snaked back and forth in an irritated gesture similar to what the Oso’lon and other long necks did, whether they were on land, in air, or under water. It was one commonality they all had, and Vax was pissed at her miscalculation. If she’d known Star Force would totally ignore her ships now pounding towards a second shield generator as a distraction, she would have sent them all down together to further shield the transports. As it was happening, the extreme range planetary guns were getting free shots at her ships despite them not being able to target the transports around the curve of the planet.

“All ships,” she said audibly, with her voice echoing through the water-filled chamber with a gravitas land dwellers could never match. “Descend immediately. Get below their firing arcs.”

The view from the holograms of the outside environment suddenly shifted, with the horizon of the planet drifting upwards as her Kafcha-class warship and her 4,294 ship fleet began to descend. They couldn’t all fit through the 102 mile wide hold in the planetary shield simultaneously, but the lower they got to the planet the more of the distant guns wouldn’t be able to target them.

Vax followed up with more specific telepathic orders to certain command deck crewmembers, instructing the 38 Kafcha she had remaining…for one had already been destroyed…to descend last in line. They could take more pounding than the smaller ships, and she’d rather repair a damaged Kafcha than have to replace a destroyed Domjo. Damaged ships had crew remaining alive. Destroyed ones did not. And experienced crew were far harder to replace than warships.

Despite the bottleneck, her fleet moved smoothly and efficiently through the gap in the shields, braking hard and spreading out laterally when they got underneath them before they gently touched the water all the while being hit with missiles and other shorter range weapon systems. It was harassment that they had to suffer through, and damage was taken, but no warships were destroyed. Two already damaged transports went down, crashing into the water rather than landing, but Vax knew most of their passengers would survive the impacts.

That was a big advantage over ‘landing’ on land. Even the term was biased towards the land dwellers, and the hard ground was much less forgiving than the water, which was why when her transports and warships touched down they sank in part way then held station, disgorging underwater weapons, setting up defense perimeters, and essentially creating a vast, interconnecting underwater city within hours as transport tubes reached out gently link ship to ship, though that was more of a formality than any structural necessity. Swimming was swimming, in tube or not, and by the time Vax’s lightly damaged Kafcha touched down, the Garas’tox had their foothold amply secured.

The transports had fully unloaded before her ship touched down, spurting out schools of the large Garas’tox with much slower ‘minnows’ of Zen’zat tasked with support operations. Neither were met unchallenged though, for this Axius world had a large array of aquatics warships waiting for them…though they wisely did not approach the Garas’tox warships. Rather they waited until the Garas’tox troops swam out to meet them in what would be a fair fight.

Vax knew not to underestimate the Star Force aquatics ships, for they were the equivalent of the mechs the land dwellers fought. They allowed the puny Zen’zat offshoots to combat the larger races, and underwater was no different. However, their support troops had a speed advantage on her Zen’zat, and as she watched combat breaking out their Elarioni and Suvo were quickly flanking the main engagement and going after her Zen’zat.

Vax deployed some Garas’tox guard units to the flanks, bringing them out from the warships, but the Elarioni and Suvo were too fast and could pick and choose when to engage the Garas’tox. Normally they’d have another servant race with them, known as the Chavco, which were even faster than the Elarioni, but the J’gar who controlled the Chavco and set their assignments with the other aquatics races had redirected them to Warden assignments only, meaning Vax was going to have to work with no fast moving support troops.

She did not like that, but it wasn’t going to stop her from crushing this Axius force. It would just take more time, for they could run as much as they liked, but one by one their cities and defense forts would fall and eventually all those on the planet would submit to the Garas’tox or be forced to flee further into the vastness of the oceans and try to survive on what pittance they could find out there…or go feral and start eating the less advanced sea creatures. Either way, Nautilus would belong to the Garas’tox and Vax hoped they’d be able to keep it, for the initial intelligence reports had been accurate, now confirmed by the landed warships that were sampling the water and scanning the seafloor.

This wasn’t the best waterworld in the galaxy, but it was definitely top tier and well suited to the Garas’tox even more so than the J’gar who preferred slightly warmer water. And with the oceans blocking some orbital attacks, it was questionable whether or not a Uriti could be used to remove them. Vax had no doubt that a Uriti used properly could devastate a water world, for simply boring a hole down into the crust and releasing a magma plume would begin to heat up and vaporize the water, but from an orbital bombardment point alone, the oceans acted like a rechargeable shield of their own, and most of the Star Force cities were sitting on the seafloor.

That didn’t make her feel safe, but with Star Force’s reluctance to commit to friendly fire casualties in order to target the V’kit’no’sat, Vax hoped they wouldn’t bother committing a Uriti here and save its precious time for the land dwellers that had nowhere to hide from its attacks. For if the Garas’tox could establish a permanent base here, they could use it as a point of stable resupply and branch out to other assaults, providing a badly needed forward base. As it was, numerous fleet groups were going missing as they transited across the stars beyond Star Force territory. What or how Star Force was managing to ambush and destroy them with was unknown and becoming alarming, for some fleet groups were never heard from again, and the likelihood of destroying every single ship out of 200 or more vessels was implausible, though not impossible.

Vax was becoming convinced that Star Force had some new weapon or tactic that the V’kit’no’sat hadn’t discovered, and with the Uriti able to show up and hammer any location they wanted, the V’kit’no’sat could not put down the necessary infrastructure on any captured world without losing it in a matter of minutes. That meant long supply lines and rendezvous points between Star Force territory and the furthest edge of V’kit’no’sat territory, and Star Force was doing so much damage as they were moving back and forth that some races had begun annexing the intermittent systems and garrisoning them with entire fleets just to make sure their supply routes were not ambushed.

That meant a whole lot of ships being tied up doing nothing, effectively neutralized by the threat of attack Star Force was using to strike fear into the V’kit’no’sat. If Vax could take and hold this world in a way that did not allow a Uriti to uproot them, they’d either have a true forward base to work out of or they’d tie up a huge Star Force fleet in orbit blockading them. Perhaps even a Uriti with it, which would then spare other invasion thrusts so they could operate more freely.

Either way, it was the deep water on this world that was such a huge advantage, with some depths being more than 260 miles deep, that made her wonder if Star Force was completely clueless to the defensive potential…or rather they simply didn’t care and needed to protect more industrialized worlds to keep their drone fleets continually restocked as the V’kit’no’sat tore through the tiny ships with ease.

Their swarming capability was their threat, and in order to maintain that they had to keep replacing the losses. Perhaps this system wasn’t key to doing that, or perhaps Star Force was just stupid. Or maybe the Uriti had a way of reaching deep down into the waters from orbit. Vax didn’t rule out that possibility, but the only way to find out was to wait and see how they responded.

Right now though, there was a large war to be fought in the water, person to person, or in this case, person to mech. Her troops would win out in the end, but she expected a moderately hard fight. Star Force hadn’t reinforced this planet nearly as much as they should have, but they hadn’t left it underdefended either. This was going to be hazardous, but once the Garas’tox broke them in open water the assaults on their fortresses would move quickly. If they’d pulled back and played defense it would have been more difficult, but they were even now coming out to confront the Garas’tox in open water.

And that was their second biggest mistake…and it was going to allow her invasion fleet to take this world even faster than she’d initially speculated. And hopefully with a few planetary defenses left intact if they could capture them quickly enough.

Perhaps that was what Star Force was doing. Fighting the Garas’tox here and now, in the open, so the rest of the planet would have time to prepare sabotage measures so they could not seize any of the truly valuable infrastructure. Vax wished she could ignore them and go after those locations, but she couldn’t with the Axius aquatics forces approaching from all sides and effectively blockading them. She’d have to break their forces first, then disperse squads across the planet.

And personally, Vax preferred it that way. No hiding and running. Fight the battle for the planet up front and get it over with, one way or another.

If that was what they were thinking or something else she didn’t know, though she’d have plenty of time to ask them about it later when the Axius troops were prisoners. She’d already given orders to disable rather than destroy their opposition whenever possible. While taking civilians alive was a necessity, taking warriors was a privilege now that the death marks had been lifted and this was a war of conquest.

Some would die. Many might die. But not all would. This was going to be her world unless she was forced from it, and the more hostages she kept around her ships and captured cities, the less likely Star Force would be to try and blast them from orbit. That tactic was working elsewhere already, with Star Force mounting a few counter invasions on ground to try and take back a handful of key worlds…at least long enough to evacuate the survivors while a Uriti or a massive fleet took possession of space.

Hopefully Star Force would ignore the value of this world and let her establish her stronghold down in the ocean where the land dwellers were uncomfortable going…and right now the smallest of the Uriti was far away, with her keeping an eye on its location whenever intelligence made its way to her fleet, for that Uriti was the one that concerned her the most. Star Force had used it to attack the planetary defense station on Terraxis from below ground, and she knew it could be used to do the same thing here, or even just deployed into the water to bully her own ships and troops out of the way.

That was a small possibility, and hopefully this system would get lost in the mass of assaults, but if it didn’t she had an evac plan, as all commanders were required to keep at the ready. Star Force couldn’t evict them from all worlds, and even if Vax’s fleet was driven from this one they’d be back to retake it as soon as the intervening forces left.

Star Force had too many worlds to defend and too few ships and Uriti to do it. So long as the V’kit’no’sat kept moving around and avoiding direct contact, there was no way Star Force could stop them from chewing apart their empire bit by bit. It could be a long war. A very long war. But it was one with a certain outcome so long as everyone stuck to the plan. It wasn’t the traditional way for the V’kit’no’sat to fight, but it was already proving effective and would continue to do so…until someone slipped up.

That someone wasn’t going to be her, but she was really hoping this system would be overlooked. For this planet truly was a jewel in the rough so far out from the Core…and the Garas’tox really wanted to keep it.

6

July 24, 4897

Star Guardian System (Rim Region)

Havoc

Junarri was a Dasc, one of the smallest races in the V’kit’no’sat similar to the Ari’tat, though slightly larger with an armored stripe from the back of its head all the way down to its tail tip. Small nubs appeared all over the armor, some sharpened, some dull, but when Dasc…known to old Earth as ‘Scutellosaurus’…wrapped their tail around to touch their face, their armor acted as a firm support for their wheel-shaped body. They had the option of rolling like the Rammus did, though they rarely used it. Mostly they hopped around like a kangaroo, looking like a tiny Rit’ko’sor, but within the V’kit’no’sat they were far less respected.

In fact they were one of the lowest races in stature and territory. 93% of their worlds were shared ones, and the primary reason the Zak’de’ron had recruited them was for their judgement. They were wiser than most races, which made up somewhat for their lack of physical or psionic power. They did not have Sav, nor any other special psionic, only the base Ikrid, Lachka, and Pefbar that all V’kit’no’sat races had.

Junarri stood only a meter tall at the hip, though he stretched out more than 3 meters in length. That made him one of the larger ones, for his race did not possess Ultras. What they did have was an uncanny knack for evaluation, making them some of the best researchers, scouts, and all around troubleshooters in the empire…but when strength was valued most of all, many forgot the power in such attributes and deemed the Dasc as an undeserving member.

The Ari’tat were less disrespected, for they got involved in the politics of the empire far more effectively. They were also good traders, and while the Dasc maintained elite marks there, they didn’t have the territory needed to facilitate enough trade to have an empire-wide impact.

So the Dasc networked out with the few allies and neighbors they had, doing their part to help the overall empire mostly through research and battle against the Hadarak. Their fleet of starburst-shaped warships didn’t rely on their physical size, and in fact the smaller the crew was, the more machinery you could pack into the mandated hull volumes. For that reason their ships were among the most powerful per mass, but they only built the smaller models.

They had no Kafcha, nor did they have any Na’shor. Their largest ships were Dak’bri battlecruisers, and to the diminutive Dasc they were unnecessarily large vessels. Most of the Dasc fleet was made up of Ti’mat and Wur’ki, and they’d wisely chosen to make hundreds of such vessels for what it would have cost to produce a single Kafcha.

Furthermore, they built reinforced command decks within their vessels to increase the likelihood of recovering crew from destroyed warships. They didn’t like losing what little population they had, for wisdom was not something one was hatched with. It was accumulated over time, whereas muscle strength came much more quickly. Thus the Dasc had to keep their crews alive in order for them to grow more experienced, and against the Hadarak they’d even developed an escape pod system that could throw the command deck module out of the ship like a slingshot and away from the minion hordes before the Hadarak arrived to crush it.

That didn’t stop them from taking losses, for it was the larger vessels that worked better in combat against the Hadarak, and they did obligingly create a single Mach’nel for such purposes, but the wise Dasc leaders knew that their contribution to the empire would not occur in mimicking the other races, but rather in finding their own niche…and that niche was in the mass production of small warships.

A Kafcha could only be in a single system at a time, but the same material built into 206 Ti’mat could be in 206 systems at a time…and with such a large domain to patrol, the V’kit’no’sat needed eyes as many places as they could.

That was equally true now, and after much debate the Dasc had agreed to join the Crusaders and assist with the invasion…for any planets taken and held by them would be retained by them, and this was an opportunity to grab a lot of territory that even the growing planet allotments coming out of Itaru these days could not match.

Virokor had not assigned them an invasion corridor, but rather gave them the freedom to roam and hit targets of their choosing…after other races were forced to abandon them. It was carrion work and a deliberate slight, but the Hjar’at campaign commander had not meant it as such. He too was wise, and knew that the Dasc and their Zen’zat would not be enough to counter the heavy Star Force ground troops. It wasn’t their strength, but sending them to disrupt Star Force by retaking worlds and shoring them up again required a great deal of wisdom, and Virokor wanted Star Force distracted as much as possible, unable to focus their Uriti-centered strike power on a limited number of targets.

The Les’i’kron had already assaulted this system, breaking through two of the 5 inhabited planets before the Uriti known as Nami had showed up. The Les’i’kron had fled, per was standing orders, but left their ground troops behind. Star Force had finally sent their main fleet away along with the Uriti to another location, leaving behind enough ships to replace the system defenses and maintain orbital control, bombarding the Les’i’kron whenever they were able to get clear shots, though the huge flyers had a significant foothold that was being chipped away at and already diminished in size down to 38 square miles. It was located up in the mountains where the mechs had a harder time finding the footing to fight properly, with the flyers having no difficulty whatsoever, hence giving them an advantage.

The Les’i’kron hated snow, but that’s where they were stuck now. Junarri didn’t know if they’d been stupid in estimating the resistance they’d face or if this group of ground troops was being sacrificed as a distraction to keep the fleet in orbit penned here and not reinforcing others, but the Dasc commander had decided that this soon to be carrion planet was going to be his first target. The other planet had already completely been retaken by Star Force, and if he could save a few Les’i’kron here he would, but the Dasc would be taking possession of this world, not the survivors.

He’d been sitting in a cloaked Wur’ki for weeks studying the situation from afar, having sent another ship back to gather his fleet. He preferred being the scout to sending others out, letting him evaluate a situation in real time rather than having to rely on reports, and right now the jumpline from the far off Haerbip System was breaking out with activity. It was a seldom used route due to its distance, and Star Force didn’t have even a single ship waiting in defense of it like they did on the shortest 7 and most heavily used jumplanes.

However, they responded instantly as the Dasc fleet began to enter in a tightly packed formation. The defenders raced to intercept, with many coming across half the system and getting to the jumppoint very late, but they had decent numbers of drones there before half the Dasc fleet arrived, leaving a messy battle before the numbers scaled for the attackers and the remaining drones retreated to the cover of the planetary defenses.

While they were playing at the jumppoint, Junarri took his cloaked Wur’ki and two nearby twin vessels and raced down to the surface of Havoc through the existing gaps in the planetary shield that was only 21% deployed over areas Star Force controlled. The rest of the massive facilities hadn’t been rebuilt, nor had the smaller defensive weapons that would have caused trouble for the Dasc ships. As it was, they made it near to the Les’i’kron holdout point without a shot being fired at them until they came into range of the mech armies surrounding the last refuge of the V’kit’no’sat troops.

Junarri stopped over the outer edge of the mechs, then had all three ships hold position and engage them. He had the mass advantage, and soon the Star Force mechs began to retreat from the planetary foothold…at least as far as necessary to get out of the warships’ range. The Dasc pursued them and made many kills before some of the Star Force drones made their way back to the planet to provide cover.

Junarri then let the surviving mechs go and tucked his three ships down in between the mountains as much as he could, sheltering the troops and hostages below them while calling Star Force out. If they wanted to kill the warships the debris would fall and crush those beneath them, and he knew Star Force wanted to protect and recover their captured people.

He’d guessed right, for their drones pulled back to strategic positions on the planet while covering for the mechs withdrawal back to the areas covered by intact shield generators as the Dasc fleet finally made its way to orbit and into bombardment range of anything not protected.

Junarri ordered them to open up on targets he tagged, refusing to slaughter the local population but not leaving them with key assets or defenses. If he was about to capture these people they would not be living in their own facilities for longer than necessary…and if another Star Force fleet arrived to drive the Dasc out, he didn’t want to leave behind intact structures that could be reused by the enemy.

Junarri deployed some of the Zen’zat from his fleet down to the Les’i’kron encampment to assist with defense and repairs while he stayed onboard ship overseeing the second invasion of the planet up until the senior-most surviving Les’i’kron contacted him via hologram, for aside from in a cargo bay the larger race wouldn’t fit inside the Dasc ships.

“Your assistance is much appreciated, Dasc,” the large, scaly dragon said with equal amounts of gratefulness and scorn.

“We are not here to assist,” Junarri said evenly. “We are here to claim the planet. Rescuing you was a bonus.”

The Les’i’kron huffed irreverently. “This is our invasion corridor. You have no dominion here.”

“You were days away from being wiped out, after which we would have jurisdiction under Virokor’s orders. Would you prefer we withdrawal and wait those few days until you are destroyed, or act now and save valuable troops for the empire? Either way, the Dasc will now take control of this world for as long as we can hold it.”

“Such impudence,” the Les’i’kron all but spat.

“You are welcome. If you wish to stay and assist you may. If not, we will arrange transport to the nearest Les’i’kron fleet or outpost. The choice is yours.”

“So long as we exist, we possess the planet,” the Les’i’kron argued. “You are in violation.”

“Do you truly wish us to leave? For I am not assaulting this world only to hand it over to the Les’i’kron.”

“Yes. Take the other damaged world. You may benefit from our efforts there, bottom feeder, but this world is ours until we draw our last breath.”

“As you wish,” Junarri said, sending a telepathic order for all his Zen’zat to return to the ships, which was then repeated out through comm channels by his command deck crew. “You are on your own here. I apologize for delaying your deaths,” he added sarcastically.

Before the hologram could turn off a bolt of plasma shot across the image, hitting the Les’i’kron and deflecting off its thick scales. He turned to face his attacker, but was knocked out of view by another Les’i’kron bodily ramming into and tackling him out of frame. A third Les’i’kron appeared and looked directly at Junarri.

“We apologize for his arrogance. Do not leave. We will assist you in taking this world for the V’kit’no’sat. Possession will be yours for as long as you can hold it. He may have a death wish, but we do not. He is no longer in command.”

“I am, as of now,” Junarri said firmly.

“Accepted,” the Les’i’kron said as sounds of further combat were obvious. Apparently the former acting commander wasn’t taking his demotion well. “We must hurry before Star Force can reinforce again. We must kill their mechs.”

“They are already withdrawing beneath their remaining shield generators.”

“Then that is where we must press.”

“Patience, Les’i’kron. We will deal with them, but in our way. What is your supply situation?” the Dasc asked as one final crash was heard out of view, then silence.

“Limited. Several of us are without armor.”

“I will send generic replacements. You’ll have to configure them for integration. We do not have your file specs.”

“Thank you. We can handle that with what we have left.”

“How many prisoners do you have?”

“We have over 3,000 Humans, 58,000 Calavari, and 23,000 Kiritak. All are workers. None of their warriors were captured. We are having trouble feeding them given our limited supplies.”

“I will take possession of them and see to their confinement. I have cargo vessels nearby that will be summoned once we have sufficient control of the planet. The prefab structures for confinement can be set up within days. Until then we will work with whatever you are using.”

“We have a few prefabs, but mostly we’re using converted local buildings. What we need is a shield generator.”

“We have several to deploy.”

“Where you do need us, Commander?”

“Rest for now. We will take all available territory immediately, then push for what the enemy controls later. It is then that we will make use of your skills.”

“We appreciate the rescue, Dasc. Ignore the comments by Farschu. He was eldest, so command fell to him after our losses, but he was not hatched for command. The rest of us submit to yours until we can rejoin a Les’i’kron unit.”

“I am coming down to view the status of the encampment personally. Turn over as much of the defense as you can to my Zen’zat, then rest. You will be needed later, and I want you recovered.”

“We will have to fly across the planet unless you can alter your drop pods to accommodate us.”

“We have that capability built in for such occasions. I will not waste your strength on unnecessary travel. Rest now. We will not begin the heavy fighting without you.”

“I will hold you to that,” the Les’i’kron said, eager to get back on the offensive. “The planet is yours. May you hold it longer than we did.”

“That is up to their Uriti movements,” Junarri noted. “We will see how much they value it when other fresh worlds are coming under assault, but their decisions will determine the landscape of the war, not ours. We will attain victory through persistence, not brute force.”

“I am forced to agree. I will meet you on the ground, if that is acceptable?”

“It is, so long as you do not step on me,” Junarri said, half joking.

“I have no quarrel with the Dasc, nor do the others. Farschu is simply an arrogant fool.”

“Make sure he does not step on us.”

“He will have an escort at all times until we enter battle again. When that happens, his ire will be placed on the enemy where it belongs.”

“If any of my Dasc or Zen’zat are inappropriately harmed, I will execute those responsible.”

The Les’i’kron shoot its long neck in a dismissive gesture. “You need not fear. We are grateful for your arrival and we will make sure he does not bring further dishonor upon us.”

“I will see you momentarily then.”

The Les’i’kron huffed approvingly then ended the hologram, leaving Junarri with a pleased, but still wary mental state. The Les’i’kron were amongst the most difficult race for the Dasc to deal with, but it seemed that battle had burnt away most of their typical animosity. How long that would last he did not know, but he was glad to have them available to use in combat. Compared to the Zen’zat, they were far superior in skill, if not in temperament.

Junarri left the command deck and went down to the hangar in his Wur’ki, donning his armor before stepping onboard and being wrapped up in a cocoon of material that made him look like he was twice as large and standing on a floating pedestal. In reality it was the Dasc version of a personal speeder, though more heavily armored than those used by the Ari’tat and other small races who, unfortunately, viewed the survivability of their own populations as unimportant. Their reproductive rates were not much different than that of the Dasc, but their wisdom was lacking and they wasted many people in exchange for quick results and fast builds.

The Dasc speeders cost more to produce, but the extra expense was worth it if the technology ‘overload’ saved a single individual 5,000 years old. The Ari’tat did not understand that, but the Dasc did. They would die for the mission if necessary, but not casually. And that reluctance to dive in head first was one of the many reasons the Dasc were disliked amongst the empire.

But today at least he’d gained a few Les’i’kron friends. Hopefully they obeyed his combat orders so he could keep them alive and fighting well into the future. If not, they’d probably charge the mech lines in a ‘win or die’ fashion.

If that happened, he wouldn’t have to deal with their disobedience for long. Star Force was too dangerous of an opponent to recklessly attack, and the many dead Les’i’kron corpses spread across this planet were a gruesome testament to that fact.

7

March 13, 4898

Braum System (Star Force territory)

Winage

Niom cringed when he saw the massive transport enter the system behind an already huge Star Force fleet. He hadn’t gotten much damage done to it on entry, for he didn’t have enough ships to blockade the system in an effective manner and the jumpline they’d entered on wasn’t one of the regularly used ones. They’d made a few good exchanges once his patrol ships arrived, but the Oso’lon vessels hadn’t been able to kill any of the jumpships, only the drones. Soon thereafter they had to pull back before they were overwhelmed, for the rest of Niom’s ships weren’t rushing out to join them.

He knew he was going to lose the planet. Niom just hoped he’d done enough on the ground to prepare for the counter invasion, and right now he was evacuating all non-combat personnel to his fleet and getting every crate of supplies he had onboard his warships down there, for the ground troops were going to have to operate on their own until this fleet decided to leave.

The Oso’lon were not leaving the system, however. Normally they would and go and hit somewhere else, but Niom was staying. Not at the planet, but they were going to flee to the outer reaches and make Star Force follow them away from Winage. If they did, that would buy more time for his ground troops to dig in. If they didn’t, he’d sit and wait and watch what occurred, forcing Star Force to stay in the system with their Uriti and not move on to other locations. If the Uriti was going to hit him here, he was going to make sure it was tied up as long as he could so other invasion forces would have more time to press their gains.

Niom didn’t know which Uriti it was until the transport opened up, but his second stomach seemed to shrink to the size of a pebble along with the first when the jaws of the craft finally opened and the flat disc of Sivir appeared. Its circular edge looked sharp, though that was only due to the sizes involved. It was 94 miles wide and colored a deep orange, looking like a sliver of a star, for it wasn’t just colored orange, but it was bioluminescent and glowed that color.

Niom knew Sivir was capable of massive orbital bombardment, but it was one of the sloppier ones based on his information. It had only been involved in one fight against the V’kit’no’sat prior to this crusade, back in the Uriti Preserve, and it was one of the hardest targets for a fleet to attack. It was literally a fleet killer, more so than the others. It could wipe out his entire fleet alone, even without Star Force backup, and Niom knew he had to get moving before the engine-neutralizing Star Force drones got to his ships and pinned them in place. If he could get moving the Uriti would never catch them, which was why he was going to stay in the system, but if he got caught fighting the drones and was pinned down…well, there was no way he could allow that to happen.

The Oso’lon commander gave a final deadline for the drop pods. Any not making it would be left behind and have to take their chances with the ground forces. His patrol ships were already enroute from the jumppoint, staying ahead of the first wave of drones that were small enough to destroy, but Niom knew it was a trap. If they turned and engaged they’d get caught soon thereafter, so they were racing back to rejoin the 12,218 ships he had left.

Niom began sending off groups now, for so many ships didn’t jump out of the same planetary jumppoint in a heartbeat and maneuvering farther out in the system without nearby gravity wells was problematic with such a large fleet. He needed smaller sub-groups to operate independently, and there was no need to make all of them wait for the last drop pods, so he began sending them out as he watched Sivir begin moving on its own and slowly transitioning around the star to the jumppoint to Winage.

Niom hated leaving after paying such a heavy price to break through the planet’s defenses, and that was why he wasn’t leaving entirely. His ground troops knew their role, and he wasn’t overly concerned about them. What he was concerned with was Star Force reclaiming the planet and rebuilding some of the shield generators to give them full coverage again. If that happened, the assault would have been next to useless aside from the more than one million drones he’d killed.

That number sounded like a lot, but they were so small it was deceiving. And to add insult to injury, all but a handful of their controlling jumpships were sitting safely in orbit around the other planets in this system. Most were totally empty, but they could be reloaded in other systems or even this one if they waited long enough for local shipyards to replace them. Niom hadn’t gone after those shipyards because they had been moved to such low orbits that they were now protected by the planetary guns.

He’d managed to destroy all those around Winage, so they’d lost that production at least, but the others were still cranking out replacements. Not enough to even make a dent at the million they’d lost, but if Niom couldn’t hold this planet and be a continual thorn in Star Force’s side in this system, they’d return to regular order at about 80% capacity, making this attack a failure. The Oso’lon could not suffer this level of losses without being able to take systems, so he had to make this attack work somehow. He’d been given additional ships because of this system’s heavy shield generators, but he’d gotten no forewarning about Sivir arriving and Niom was wondering whether Virokor really had a handle on the warfront or not.

Niom’s orders had come directly from him, not Yaniel, who was located on the V’kit’no’sat border until they could secure territory here that he could move into. He was commanding all the Oso’lon ships, but Virokor was the invasion leader and Yaniel was letting him handle many of the assignments.

Had this entire assault been wasted? Or was it part of a larger plan? Niom didn’t know, and was now having serious doubts, but it didn’t matter now. What mattered was what he was going to do about it, and if he could get the Uriti to sit here doing nothing then that would be a victory…and if it left, he could bring his fleet back in and retake the planet. If he left the enemy could secure the system, but so long as his fleet was here he was going to put pressure on them, for the Uriti couldn’t move fast enough to engage them if the Oso’lon didn’t choose to be engaged. Getting caught and pinned was the only threat, for against the Star Force drone fleet it looked like Niom would still have an advantage, though they hadn’t all arrived yet.

The fleets escorting the Uriti were large, but not overly huge, as they were designed to fight with and protect Star Force’s largest assets, not press the attack on their own. If they wanted to come out and fight him, he’d oblige, but the moment the Uriti moved he would disengage. It was the enemy’s ultimate weapon and he couldn’t get forced into a fight against it. Especially not this one.

So Niom watched and waited as the last of the cargo and crews were exchanged with the surface, then his ship departed with one of the last fleet groups, slowly jumping away from the planet and further out into the system where they would slow to a creep off the weaker stellar gravity then sit, watching the planet they now mostly controlled get attacked by the Star Force reinforcements and hoping that the Uriti didn’t find a vulnerable target that it could hit from orbit…and the same went with the Star Force drones.

Niom left a few reconnaissance probes behind so he could monitor what was happening, and either Star Force couldn’t detect them or didn’t care, for he got a good look as the reinforcement fleet flew into orbit and began to take damage from the few small planetary guns the V’kit’no’sat had brought with them and networked with the grounded warships. They’d managed to only capture 2 of the Star Force shield generators, giving them a small umbrella over different sites in addition to the smaller ones elsewhere that were of V’kit’no’sat manufacture. The rest of the planet was open to attack, save for the piece that still held Star Force troops underneath the last pieces of the planetary shield.

When the drones attacked they suffered some losses, but they soon retreated up to a higher orbit out of range. Niom didn’t expect that was because of the firepower issue. His ground defenses were heavily outgunned. But there were obvious prison camps placed near all the planetary guns and shield generators. He’d made sure to put them in plain sight, and they were mostly full with Bsidd occupants.

Then he saw the Uriti come down to the planet. It went so far as to kiss the upper atmosphere as it shrugged off hits by the planetary guns…then they stopped firing. Probably because they didn’t want to make it angry, knowing it had the power to wipe them out and the chance that it might react without orders if they managed to sting it enough.

It drifted slightly, moving over one of the captured shield generators, then it began to descend. Niom watched in horror as it looked like it was going to crush his troops and the prisoners alike, but it stopped just short of the surface, pressing into and breaking through the defense shield with its huge mass. The shield held for a few minutes, but it couldn’t hold out against that much raw power. Niom didn’t know if it was sending a charge into it or not, but the glow from the Uriti seemed to increase slightly.

Then Niom watched from V’kit’no’sat monitors on the planet, relayed through the probes, as the Uriti descended further and touched the top of the shield generator. It seemed to rest there, almost as if the puny tower was holding up its mass, but the emitters must have been damaged enough by the small contact, for the Uriti went down no further. If it had it would have broken off parts of the tower that would have fallen on the prison camps below.

Niom was impressed by the accuracy of the collision. That was a maneuver that would have been tricky for a warship, let alone a biological of that size. Perhaps its gravity drives were more sensitive than artificial ones…but that seemed absurd given the precision of the V’kit’no’sat drives. Regardless, it had just pancaked the top few floors and rendered the shield generator inoperable without collapsing it on those beneath.

“Order the other garrison to move prisoners to the top of the structure immediately. Make sure they’re visible on top or we’ll lose that one too,” he told his bridge crew, though it would take time for the message to travel across the system due to the distance lag.

He continued to watch the Uriti hold its position, drifting upward ever so slightly to expose a few meters on top when a few clusters of drones shot down towards the planet directly over top the Uriti, using its bulk as cover against the V’kit’no’sat weaponry. When they got near, the Star Force version of drop pods emerged from within the drones, which had been enclosing them inside a block formation. Those drones skimmed the surface of the Uriti and dipped underneath the edge, exchanging fire with the surface guns as the dropships zipped around behind them, heading for the shield generator.

Some of the drones went with them, acting as blockers and coming down so close to the surface that the firing arcs of the guns were almost completely filled with the black armored hull of the drone. That freed up the dropships to race towards the shield generator over top the prisons and garrisons and everything else the V’kit’no’sat had deployed around their most valuable asset…which was likewise so valuable that there were no defenses set up directly around it, for the Oso’lon were banking on the fact that the shield generator itself wouldn’t be hit from above and the Star Force troops would have to fight through multiple defensive lines to get to it.

But not now that the shield was down, for the dropships went straight to the top and slid under the expanding gap between Uriti and crushed roof, dropping off a few elite teams of infantry as a mass of larger transports began descending from orbit and pooling above the Uriti. Niom knew they would soon find a spot nearby on the planet to land, then they’d disperse their mechs and engage the defenders directly.

He saw no aerial craft in play, and with the shield now down there was no need for them when Star Force could use their drones for close in support. His other shield generator had to get prisoners in place so the Uriti could not do this there. If they could hold that location then they’d have a chance of holding the planet, but this shield generator position was now compromised and his troops were going to get slaughtered by the drones if they didn’t scatter now.

The ground commander at that location was Nerudi, and Niom knew that he knew the situation better than he did, so he didn’t issue any orders. Many of his troops were going to die because of that unexpected Uriti maneuver, but some could still get away if they moved now.

As if in telepathic connection, he saw the Nerudi did just that. Drop pods on the ground began rocketing off laterally with Zen’zat aerial craft moving up to engage the drones that tried to interfere. That was a big mismatch, but if they could just buy the drop pods some time…

Niom watched as more drones moved underneath the Uriti, only to begin massive air to ground fire. It wasn’t specific, but a blanket attack the kinds of which he assumed Star Force would never use. They were targeting buildings along with the openings between them and Niom didn’t understand what was happening until he saw they were also shooting the prisons.

Then he understood. Those weren’t damaging weapons, but rather very large stun guns. They looked similar to Dre’mo’don orbs, but the lack of explosions was telling. It seemed they were just going to stun everything that moved, then pick their Bsidd out of the unconscious bodies later.

It was a good tactic, because it meant the Oso’lon couldn’t hide behind the captives, but hitting the buildings was tricky. If they overloaded the stun levels they could kill the Bsidd, and the buildings would soak up a lot of it. Plus, the Oso’lon were so large they wouldn’t be rendered unconscious at levels suited for Bsidd. It would make them groggy though, and have to beat through their shields first, but it was a decent tactic for countering the living shield philosophy…which was encouraging, for it indicated that Star Force did in fact want to recover their people. And that meant the Uriti wouldn’t fire on the planet and wipe them all out within minutes.

Eventually he saw prisoners beginning to cluster at the top of the other shield generator, meaning they should be able to hold that location against the Uriti if they brought the shield down low enough that it just skimmed the top of the generator. But his troops under assault now were soon to be overwhelmed by the ground troops that were following the drones down. At the moment they were shrugging off the stun blasts and repositioning, but once the mechs got deployed that movement advantage was going to disappear.

And all Niom could do was watch. If he brought his fleet back in to the planet the Uriti would be there to stop them, and he couldn’t engage it, not even for a short distraction. The losses would be much too costly.

His ground troops were on their own, and right now he’d learned a lesson that needed to be shared with other V’kit’no’sat invasion fleets. Niom wrote up a message packet, included the sensor data, then gave it to a Kaeper in his fleet and sent the courier off to spread the word. Shield generators, captured or otherwise, had to have prisoners on the top of them. Otherwise Sivir, and perhaps the other Uriti, would simply come down and gently crush them.

A costly lesson, but if he got the word spread quick enough, it might be worth it in the long term, for this war was looking like it would a millennia-long campaign…at the minimum, unless they could find a weakness in the Uriti, which he highly doubted. Their only weak point had been discovered long ago, and with escorting fleets there was no way to sedate them. All Star Force would have to do is shoot them with their own weapons and that would counter the sedative effect.

So unless they could catch a Uriti without a fleet, Niom saw no way to neutralize this threat. They were going to have to fight around them and chip off systems where they could, with a lot of retreating in the mix until they wore down the Star Force industrial machine enough that they couldn’t replace their drone fleets. Then, and only then, could they attempt to take on the Uriti.

And that was one fight that Niom truly was not looking forward to.

8

April 1, 4898

Skeeter System (Rim Region)

Yolf

The Uvbor fleet had entered the system under heavy assault by the Protovic defenders, but they’d suffered the necessary losses to establish a foothold and got the bulk of their fleet through the jumppoint. After that it was a matter of engaging the defenders where they could, then pounding through the planetary shields and establishing another foothold on the surface of the jungle world.

The entire planet was covered in vegetation, with even the poles remaining above freezing and the equator sporting some of the largest trees Tanu had ever seen. The ‘hadrosaurs’ were a mix of quadruped and bipeds, with their rear legs being larger, but they spent as much of their time on their front legs as they did standing.

Right now Tanu was standing, observing a slew of holograms from his command deck as his forces continued to march across the planet with little real resistance. The Protovic world was not heavily defended…at least not compared to the size of the invasion force the Uvbor had brought. It was overkill, but necessary to get through the planetary shields with the minimum loss of ships. Now that they were on the ground the planet would be theirs. It was just a matter of time.

And it was the only planet in the system that was inhabited. That meant that the Protovic had nowhere to run to, so they’d either die fighting or surrender, giving Tanu plenty of hostages to hold off a Uriti if and when one came around. He doubted that one would, given the small stature of this system, and the V’kit’no’sat as a whole needed worlds taken to be used as staging bases. Tanu intended to provide the Uvbor and Virokor with one, and the more time he had to work with after full conquest of the planet, the more difficult it would be for a Uriti strike force to remove them.

Tanu spent his time onboard his Na’shor, monitoring the progress of the invasion rather than taking part in it. His ship had fought in the space battle, but there was no point in him going down to the planet yet. His physical skills were better than most other Uvbor, but the battles were so one-sided that he wasn’t needed. He’d been assigned this system to conquer, and his skills were more needed in organization and leadership rather than in making kills…or captures, in this case. The number of Protovic prisoners were already over a million, though their containment was a bit tricky. Most of them had telepathy, along with some other weak psionics, meaning the guards had to stay alert.

Tanu didn’t mind that. If an Uvbor’s mind was so weak to be tricked by one of these Protovic, they deserved whatever happened to them. Uvbor were superior to Protovic, so no psionic dampeners were going to be used on them. It would be an admission of weakness if it was, plus Tanu didn’t want to waste the resources on the impudent little bipeds.

The Uvbor commander was casually monitoring the various feeds from across the planet when he got warnings from the patrols in near the star. Warships were coming in from the Narui jumpline, one that he had only a few ships near. He wasn’t going to be able to get his fleet there in time to block them, so he recalled his patrols and allowed the Star Force fleet to enter unopposed as data on the ships began to amass.

They were Star Force ships, but the variances between racial designs were so small it was hard to determine at range, but when the jumpships began disgorging blocky S-shaped drones Tanu felt a deep hatred welling up inside him.

Those were the traitorous Rit’ko’sor, now called ‘Raptors,’ and the Uvbor were going to hit them hard right now. With a mental command, Tanu began pulling his fleet away from the planet intent on meeting the Raptors near the star, and perhaps before the last of them arrived, depending on how many there were. This was an enemy that could not be ignored, and his disgust at the heresy that was Star Force was nothing compared to the rage he and the other V’kit’no’sat felt for the Raptors.

More and more Raptor ships emerged and held their position around the jumpline as the Uvbor approached, then a massive ship came through and Tanu’s rage soured with a steady dose of fear. The Raptors had brought the Mach’nel they’d stolen from the Rit’ko’sor during their split with this fleet, and Tanu had nothing to counter it aside from numbers.

And with every additional ship that came through, it was becoming painfully clear he wasn’t going to be able to win this battle.

Riona-111 sat on the command deck of the Mach’nel, named Moshari, as her crew of Raptors operated the massive craft. She didn’t need to stand, for the command nexus on this ship had been fashioned into the architecture and had her in a seated position with a semi-circle of machinery behind her. The Raptor pits had the crew sitting on wide pads or bicycle-like seats that allowed for their tails to hang off the back. All were mentally linked into the ship’s systems and the command deck was eerily silent as the Uvbor ships attacked the Raptor fleet.

The Archon was surprised at the ferocity. The V’kit’no’sat had to know they were outmatched, but they were engaging full on anyway. At least they weren’t stupid enough to shoot the Mach’nel itself and were exclusively targeting the drones and trying to get at the jumpships, but were having no luck catching them during evasive maneuvers. And with the Mach’nel fully outfitted to control the drones, there were no small lag interruptions in the combat when a control ship had to make a microjump away. The drones were programmed to fight on their own if necessary, but with Moshari just sitting there in the middle of them the Uvbor didn’t even have that slight advantage.

Riona didn’t have to do much, letting the crew handle most of the fighting unless she saw an opening in the enemy or a weakness in the Raptor ranks. She’d fought with this crew so much against the Ziviri that they knew each other well by now, but this fight was a personal one for the Raptors and she was comfortable taking a back seat unless needed and letting them start to settle the score.

The Uvbor were going to lose, but they didn’t seem to care. They were standing right in front of the Mach’nel as it picked them apart so they could take on the Raptor drones. In theory if they took all of them out they could then focus on the Mach’nel, but they didn’t have the numbers for that. She sensed they really wanted to get to the jumpships so they could kill the Raptors, but short of that they were going to kill their drones and do as much damage as possible rather than running and preserving their fleet.

This was a perfect example of a weakness in the V’kit’no’sat. Being a gritty fighter was one thing, but getting yourself killed out of pure rage was stupid. The Uvbor fleet could not win this fight, and if they were going to deliver Riona an easy win then she’d take it, but it disgusted her. The V’kit’no’sat were supposed to be so advanced and dominant, but right now they were attacking like spoiled brats who couldn’t handle not getting their way.

Unless they knew something she didn’t. Riona wasn’t assuming there wasn’t another card in play here, but so far she didn’t see anything that could tip the scales and the Uvbor were losing ships at an alarming rate. The damage to her drones was significant, but the drones had the ability to fly around behind the Mach’nel for cover and she was losing less of them because of the availability of that tactic.

Her Raptors were using it constantly, and not losing their heads like the Uvbor, though she could feel them seething. She didn’t even have to try and access their minds. They were emitting low level telepathic signals unconsciously. It’s what Star Force referred to as ‘telepathic bleed.’ If you weren’t paying attention you could tip your hand to what you were feeling, and right now her Raptors were out for blood.

But they were doing so professionally. They weren’t making mistakes out of emotion and were obeying every order she gave, including those to break off small attacks on certain ships. The Raptors were not feral, but they were totally committed and Riona could sense the satisfaction they got as they tore apart the enemy ships that refused to run away.

And they never did. Riona was amazed when the enemy fleet was down to only a dozen vessels and they refused to surrender or run. When the last four were left she ordered them disabled and boarded, then left the Mach’nel along with her best strike force in dropships to go onboard the enemy flagship…which she’d carefully let live to the end. Now it couldn’t run if it wanted to. Its weaponry was all destroyed, with the hull bathed with stun blasts around the entry points.

It was time to go onboard and take some prisoners while a chunk of her fleet moved off and headed towards the planet to assist the Protovic in the ongoing ground war that they were losing badly.

Riona dove through the tunnel that led to the interior of the Uvbor ship, choosing to drill through a random section than land in their hangar bays where they’d expect boarders. She flew a few meters before dropping to her feet gracefully on the other side in her orange/blue Goku armor as several Raptors ran through and dropped to the ground with soft thuds. They were fully armored in Star Force style fixed plates rather than the tiny nodules of the V’kit’no’sat armor that looked like sand.

Those would allow holes to fill in by thinning other areas, but the Star Force hard plates would soak up more weaponsfire. You just had to make sure they didn’t shoot you in the same spot over and over again.

The Raptors had adjusted to the change amicably, with the silver/white armor mimicking their likewise white bodies. The faceplate was over the top of their helmet, unlike Riona’s that was in front. Both were opaque, relying on holograms to allow them to see through. Otherwise it would have to be made of weaker material, but they’d kept the same design motif on the exterior so you couldn’t tell which helmet was full protection and which was less.

All boarding teams were armed with heavy stun weapons, enough to weaken shields and get through to the armor that, in the case of the V’kit’no’sat, had not been designed to soak up stun energy. That had been on purpose, so the V’kit’no’sat could capture each other in disciplinary actions rather than being forced to nearly kill one to subdue them.

Most of the V’kit’no’sat had not bothered to update their armor, allowing Star Force to disable them without having to blow through the armor itself. The stun energy would just soak through, unlike Star Force armor that was tailor made to soak it up, though deliver enough and Riona would still go down. She wasn’t worried about that, for she doubted she’d take a single stun weapon hit. These Uvbor would be using all lethal weapons.

The Archon ran out through the dark room they’d entered, then opened a door into a lit corridor with a few Zen’zat passing by. Neither side had noticed the other, which meant there were dampeners in the walls to prevent psionic detection. That was odd, but as soon as she walked out in the hall she could sense them and them her, with Riona running after the pair to her left in a blur of motion.

Two Raptors went the other way, with the next three following her up and gaining on her slightly before she reached the Zen’zat…who wisely backtracked around a corner. Riona couldn’t sense them, meaning the wall in between was blocking, so she decided to hit the far wall and bounce off it rather than try a normal turn.

When she flew into view a hail of small arms fire washed by her, with a few hitting her shields, then she caught her feet on the wall and pushed back, launching herself at an angle into six Zen’zat and the two Uvbor behind them that were firing down over top of their heads.

Riona shot herself into one of the Zen’zat, then let loose a Jumat blast to keep him from locking her up in a grapple hold as she dove underneath the nearest Uvbor…where she released her Ubven and froze everyone in place temporarily as she pushed through her own field and got behind the larger two V’kit’no’sat as her Raptors turned the corner and she shot them a quick telepathic update so they didn’t run into the edge of the field.

They obeyed immediately, stopping and firing into the field with their stun weapons as the two Uvbor began to wiggle in place as they damaged the field. A few seconds later part of it collapsed early, but Riona was pouring stun energy into the shields of the Uvbor and took them down along with the Raptor’s weaponsfire before the Ubven field totally collapsed.

She had to dance after that to keep from getting tail whipped, but with the head start and more Raptors coming around the corner the fight was short lived, though she took a stun blast to the helmet from a Raptor who missed his Zen’zat target.

“Apologies, Archon,” Nimkli said as the Zen’zat dropped to the ground next to the Uvbor that Riona was now standing on top of, pumping additional stun shots into his body to make sure he stayed down.

“I miss every now and then too,” she added, thumbing down the hall. “Get going. I’ll handle these.”

The Raptors leapt over the fallen V’kit’no’sat with ease and enthusiasm, knowing that each capture was a victory in and of itself…and that the Archon wanted them all alive. No ‘accidents’ were permitted, nor would they try something like that. The Raptors were extremely loyal to Star Force, and she’d seen nothing to change that fact now that they were getting their claws into their former brethren…metaphorically speaking.

Riona reached into her pack and pulled out a small device, setting it onto the armor of one of the Uvbor. Without a hole in the armor she wouldn’t be able to deactivate it, meaning it would be almost impossible to get the unconscious prisoner out of it. Either you blasted in and hacked their mind via touch to get them to deactivate it themselves, or you hacked the armor itself, which this little gismo was in the process of doing.

About 20 seconds later the armor across the biped/quadruped began to melt and retract back down into the jewelry that draped over the spine of the Uvbor. Riona had to pushed to get the heavy torso up off the ground enough to pull it off, then she had a handful of long chords connecting large jewels in her hand and tossed it off to the side as she picked up her armor hacker and moved to the next one…after firing a couple more stun blasts into the exposed skin of the first Uvbor, just to be sure.

9

July 2, 4898

Detention System (Dagran Region)

Planet 7

Tanu woke, feeling his body stiff as if he had been unconscious for a long time, but something else was wrong. He briefly looked around at the chamber he was in, recognizing the clean and rigid Star Force architecture immediately, but when he tried to reach out with his mind his Pefbar registered the wall and the psionic dampening in it…but nothing else would work.

His Lachka wasn’t there, nor his Ikrid. Even his Rensiek was not responding. His mind was so numb he didn’t even notice the attachment to his head for more than a minute, then his fury grew as he realized he was a prisoner and Star Force had implanted something into his skull.

“It’s a brain box,” a voice said in V’kit’no’sat as a hologram of a Human appeared in front of Tanu, only much larger than usual. It stood slightly taller than the Uvbor and wore the uniform of a Monarch. “Don’t try to dislodge it. We’ve placed countermeasures to insure you can’t even if you beat your head against the wall.”

“Where am I?” Tanu demanded.

“A prison system. We built it before you attacked and are bringing some of you here. Mainly the higher ranked ones, but we don’t have very many yet. You’re the first fleet commander I’ve got.”

Tanu blinked multiple times, trying to work around the numbness in his mind to find the interface points Star Force was using to raid his mind for information.

“There is no technological connection,” the Monarch assured him. “We searched your mind directly while you were unconscious. We already know what we want.”

“Then why keep me here?”

“Because we don’t like slaughtering all of you. We detest it, actually. But you’re not giving us many options to fight, and mercy is a luxury of the dominant. Be thankful that we were dominant in the engagement that led to your capture.”

“You are not.”

“Were you just being stupid then? I saw the battle records. You had no chance of victory against the Mach’nel. Was killing a few thousand drones worth your lives?”

“We destroyed far more than that.”

“Less than a million,” the Monarch specified, “thus it’s measured in thousands. Why didn’t you flee like the other fleets?”

“We didn’t come to flee. We came to fight.”

“Then you are a poor fleet commander. I might even have to send you back in shame. I’m not sure if I want you here with the capable warriors we’ve captured.”

Tanu stood up and walked around the small chamber that was barely 4 times his length head to tail tip. He leaned forward and smacked his head against the wall, feeling the artificial head casing impact, then it sent a jab of pain into his head.

“I said not to do that. The mechanism can fix itself and it’s bonded to your skull, so you’re not going to dislodge it.”

Tanu smacked his head against the wall three more times, biting his teeth together against the induced pain and enduring it before he stopped in futility and looked back at the hologram.

“Why are you speaking to me?”

“I thought you could use the company. You’re not going to have access to any of the other prisoners, and my job is to look after you all. So this is me making greetings.”

“Greetings received,” Tanu said angrily. “Now be gone.”

“As you wish,” the Monarch said amicably, with his hologram disappearing shortly thereafter.

Tanu growled in frustration, but refrained from hitting his head again. He twisted his neck to the side and reached up with his front leg/arm to scratch at the brain box. Nothing happened until he applied more pressure, then the jab of pain returned. He couldn’t see it with his Pefbar. There was a null zone around it. But at the rear of his cage was a mirror and he spun around to look at it, seeing his shackles for the first time.

It was close fitting, barely rising above his skin level, but it covered most of his head and was firmly attached to his skull, blocking all his psionics except Pefbar.

Tanu looked around, trying to come to grips with what had happened. He remembered being shot with the stun weapons, but he hadn’t expected to wake up in another star system. There was no such prison facility in the Skeeter System, unless the Monarch was lying and this was a small, specially built facility just for him, but the soreness in his body suggested a long time spent unconscious, so he didn’t doubt the length of journey that had taken him here…wherever here was. The Detention System didn’t proc his memory, so it was either a new designation or one that hadn’t been significant enough for him to remember.

Tanu scratched at his brain box again, inciting the pain and finding it a little too intense to play with. He wanted to beat the thing until it broke, but if it was based on V’kit’no’sat technology it would not be easy to do so and would probably render him unconscious before he could succeed.

The Uvbor stood up on his rear legs as high as he could, unable to touch the ceiling, and tilted his head back and yelled in frustration. The yell transitioned into a roar that left him drained when he finished, dropping back to all fours and walking in a circle as he tried to figure out what to do. He kept pacing for nearly half an hour before a small node appeared in the center of one of the walls.

It got his attention instantly, for his Ikrid returned in a limited fashion, allowing him to connect to it, and it alone. Tanu felt the structured database it linked to, finding a teaching program, food schedule, training schedule, mental challenge system, a dozen other items he had no idea what they were, for they were locked but visible, and a battlemap link where he could watch the progress of the war. That map gave him the location of his prison world. The Detention System was in the Dagran Region, well away from the border, and it was unlikely that the V’kit’no’sat would get here any time soon…but he could see they were making gains. In fact, he had more information on the V’kit’no’sat warfront now than he had when he was free.

They must have been piping in the feeds from their comm grid…an advantage the V’kit’no’sat did not share with no Urrtren links this far away from their territory. Nor did they have the ability to hack the Star Force relays and turn them to their own uses, meaning no one was going to be able to locate him here.

Tanu knew he was in a bad situation. There was no escape, even if he managed to get outside the prison. Without a ship he couldn’t go anywhere, and the odds of him being able to die in battle were limited. He had no wish to die, but the idea of being a prisoner of the Humans was detestable. He wasn’t going to get used to it any time soon, but he’d gotten himself into this mess. The Monarch was right. He’d pressed the attack knowing the Uvbor fleet couldn’t win, but he hadn’t cared…nor had the others. The Raptors had to be killed, and if he couldn’t get to them directly then he would break their ships first.

But that hadn’t been enough, and now he was regretting not fleeing and coming back to hit them under better circumstances. He couldn’t fight the traitors in here, and that helplessness coupled with his failure burnt him up. Over the next few days he’d go through fits of rage, beating his head against the wall and enduring the pain trying to knock the device loose or even just return his psionics to him for a brief moment…but he only succeed in overloading himself to the point where the brain box knocked him out. Then he’d wake on the floor sometime later and start all over again.

It took more than a week before he took advantage of the training option and was allowed out of his cage. He didn’t want to cooperate with the enemy at all, but the stagnation was gnawing on him and the ability to run around an obstacle course was too inviting. He needed to do something, and watching the slowly updating battlemap was not enough.

When he finished more than an hour of running and jumping, Tanu returned to his cell feeling better physically but broken inside. He was cooperating and he hated it, but he had few options other than sitting and letting his strength slip away. If he was ever going to have a chance to get back into the fight, or even just kill one Human before they finally killed him, he was going to need his physical skills…for right now that was all the infuriating brain box allowed him. He couldn’t even eat with his Lachka, though he’d found a promise to restore that function if he completed a long series of tasks set out by his captors.

He wasn’t so far gone to comply with that, and his workouts would be of his own making, but given time that would change and the solitude would wear on him. Eventually he’d be digging through the entire database Star Force provided him just to fight off the boredom, but first he had to get past his pride, and the victories the V’kit’no’sat were racking up helped to sustain it further…though most were temporary ones as the Uriti moved back and forth across the warfront evicting the new tenants from their captured worlds…and Tanu could see where each and every one of them was and how effective they were at blunting the V’kit’no’sat advances.

But damage was being done, and if that continued Star Force would eventually fall…but not before he spent decades, if not centuries, in this prison. And Tanu had to deal with that in whatever way he could, even if it meant cooperating with the enemy in completing their challenges in exchange for limited bits of freedom.

10

July 19, 4899

Vardivor System (Coreward of Star Force border)

Stellar Orbit

Virokor stood amongst the other Hjar’at military leadership inside Chodro, one of their 4 Mach’nel along with Irrin, Jor’wek, and Breenko, which were also both here. The Hjar’at had brought all here to this system only a few jumps away from the border to lock down a headquarters. Not on any planet, but simply a huge fleet location in stellar orbit with courier ships jumping in and out constantly to keep Virokor up to date on what was happening across the warfront. If Star Force wanted to bring a Uriti here to evict them, they were going to have to suffer the damage from 4 Tar’vem’jic plus a full third of the entire Hjar’at fleet that numbered better than 600,000 attack vessels spread across the galaxy that were all gradually making their way here.

The other two thirds were split up into smaller attack groups and actively engaged in a variety of positions along the line or still in transit. They were 6 years into the resumed war and less than a quarter of the V’kit’no’sat combined fleet had arrived. That was partly due to distances involved, but also part of Virokor’s plan. They needed to poke and adapt to how Star Force responded rather than just trying to amass overwhelming numbers and blast through them.

If Virokor did that he knew Star Force would bring in their Uriti and make them pay for it. Could he destroy them? Maybe. But the costs would be so high that it would still be a defeat even if they captured every single Star Force world. He’d given strict orders for combat against the Uriti to be avoided in all situations, though he’d neglected to mention combat against a Mach’nel. An Uvbor commander named Tanu had failed in his mission when he’d chosen to engage the traitorous Rit’ko’sor’s Mach’nel and had been wiped out in the assault. They hadn’t saved the planetary invasion in the process, and even now the ‘Raptors’ were removing them with great efficiency.

Such a waste, and Tanu wasn’t the only one. Other commanders were avoiding the Uriti as ordered, but they were making other stupid mistakes out of ego. They just could not come to treat Star Force as equals, and whenever they found themselves in a situation that challenged their dominance they tore into it with admirable ferocity, but Star Force was using that weakness to make exchanges in their advantage and chip away at Virokor’s invasion fleet.

The 2 million year old Hjar’at knew they could not give away free wins, no matter how small, for this war was going to be one of attrition as much as conquest. Virokor hadn’t commanded a fleet in more than 300,000 years, but given the importance of this crusade for the future of the empire he’d agreed to take it on, coming out of the seclusion most of the older and wiser leaders within the V’kit’no’sat preferred to operate out of. This was not an operation that could be trusted to less experienced, but still wise individuals. Star Force was too savvy an opponent, and the V’kit’no’sat were going to need every advantage they possessed if they were going to bring them to heel without bleeding the empire dry in the process.

If Virokor had to flee from this position he would, but so far it had not been challenged and his staff of Hjar’at commanders were monitoring the incoming reports along with him, waiting until he decided to give them deployment orders while the Oso’lon opted to take the lead and the brunt of the initial attacks…due to the Hjar’at’s proclivity to strike at anything that moved.

There was a slight in that comment, but also some truth. The Hjar’at would obey Virokor’s orders…he had no doubt of that…but if they encountered a situation that he had not detailed they would respond with crushing blows rather than sitting back and analyzing the situation. Star Force had already laid so many traps he knew his race was vulnerable without the proper leadership, so he was glad to let others spring the traps while his people learned from their mistakes.

Many races were eager for combat and taking worlds, but so far Star Force was not letting them keep them. The Uriti fleets were making their rounds and delivering ground troop reinforcements after blasting everything they could from orbit. The V’kit’no’sat were learning quickly how to place prisoners in proper positions to prevent that, but some of the assaults were coming before the invaders could obtain prisoners. As it was, he only had 26 worlds that were somewhat stable and building additional defenses, though the V’kit’no’sat had already hit more than 400 systems in the 6 years they’d been engaged.

That number would be increasing far faster when the other three quarters of the combined fleet arrived, but Virokor needed to know where to place them. Keeping some of the Uriti in the Preserve was critical, so he had I’rar’et and Wi’jass battlegroups harassing them there and destroying any targets that were left undefended. If that kept even one additional Uriti away from the border then it was worth it, and he’d devoted half the Wi’jass’s total amount of ships to that operation.

They were a small race in assets, but as large in body as the Hjar’at. They were also more cautious, which was why he’d tasked them to work in conjunction with the avians…who were always ready to evade when necessary. The I’rar’et were also much greater in stature, so the attack on the Preserve would be given a higher profile even though Virokor didn’t care if they killed any ships, let alone took worlds. They were there to distract, and so far it looked like at least 4 Uriti were still operating in the Preserve.

That left 70 on the front, some of which had not been seen yet. Virokor did not know what Star Force was playing at there, but they were intercepting most of the thrusts into their territory with about 60% of them. He was worried about the others hitting V’kit’no’sat territory, but if that happened the 38 races sitting this out would get involved, and while that wouldn’t mean more ships, it would unite the empire and piss off Mak’to’ran. He had said this invasion was a mistake and that more could be achieved by negotiation with Star Force than by conquest. Virokor understood the Uriti angle in that, for he had no hopes of finding a way to take control of them, but this heretical sect had to be put down before it got any stronger.

The death mark had been removed, which altered the dynamic and made many V’kit’no’sat mad that they were being given a pass, but Virokor was glad for the change. These Humans had earned that much respect via their past defiance and skill at surviving, and if they could be absorbed they would add strength to the V’kit’no’sat. Virokor wasn’t sure how that would manifest, for he had no doubt the Uriti and most of Star Force’s secrets would be destroyed before he could possess them, but a race that had caused them so much trouble obviously had worth and he intended to make sure the V’kit’no’sat obtained some gains out of this massive screw-up.

“Braum is holding, but not by much,” Eroset said as he walked up on top of Virokor’s pedestal in the center of the massive chamber at the heart of the Mach’nel. “They have one captured shield generator with prisoner walls that is keeping Star Force back, but the ground fighting is intense. If we cannot get reinforcements to them they will eventually succumb to attrition.”

“Has the Uriti left?”

“It has, but a relief fleet took its place and Niom has not been able to reclaim control of orbit. His fleet is not in jeopardy, for the Kvash are not chasing him. They are securing vital positions within the system and reinforcing the ground invasion. Niom has smuggled down what few crews he could spare, but over the course of time he expects the planet will be reclaimed if we cannot reinforce them.”

“Where is Sivir now?”

“We tracked it through 4 systems before we lost it.”

“Define ‘lost.’”

“Our scout ships did not return.”

Virokor growled, but it wasn’t directed at Eroset. “How are they eliminating our scouts? Detection alone is not enough to prevent them from fleeing. Are our captains growing so stupid to engage their counterparts? I find that inconceivable.”

“I could assume some were, given the actions of our fleets to date, but there are too many. Star Force must have a new method of interception.”

“I concur, and we need to identify it. If not, we are going to be blinded because we will not know which messages to resend. We need an Urrtren addition established.”

“There is only one way to do so, and Itaru will not permit the expense,” Eroset noted.

“Incorrect. They will not permit the shame. But if they will not give me what I need, then I will built it here myself.”

“How? We do not have a single world that can be converted to industrial production without becoming a target of the Uriti.”

“Not yet. But we will with enough prisoners captured and enough shield generators constructed. Until then I will cope with the problem, but it cannot be allowed to persist indefinitely. If it does, Star Force will win,” he said, drawing a host of surprised looks from the Hjar’at around him.

Virokor took notice, then telepathically surveyed the chamber, getting everyone’s attention before simulcasting in voice and Ikrid his following statement.

“We cannot assume victory is inevitable. The enemy has a comm network. We do not. If they can see where we are and adjust, they have a powerful advantage. If we cannot do the same they will continually outmaneuver us. They are not so weak that we can overcome them with numbers. Not with their Uriti. We are in grave danger of losing if we cannot establish links to our far flung fleets. They may not be spread across the galaxy, but if courier ships cannot get through they might as well be. We must be able to see what is occurring, otherwise our side of the war will become a free for all…and if Star Force maintains cohesion in such an environment we will lose. I can promise you that.”

“I will not allow that to happen,” Virokor continued. “We must establish an Urrtren here. Not to link back to the empire. That is secondary. We must be able to communicate between systems we have claimed, and we cannot do that until we built Urrtren links. Those links will be vulnerable to the Uriti or to boarding, so we cannot defend them with prisoners. We must make them mobile, so they can flee when challenged. We have no such designs…not of sufficient size. And that is because we have always assumed dominance. Only the Hadarak would destroy our relays, we thought, but that is no longer the case. Star Force will if we build them, so we must be able to move them.”

“Itaru should be producing them for us, but they are not…and their stupidity is the reason I am here. We must earn this victory. It will not earn itself, nor will pride or arrogance produce it. Until we have those links, we cannot fully engage. Right now our scout ships are falling into traps, and we cannot secure every system they must pass through without confining our assaults to a small region. If we did, the Uriti would gather and we would not be able to make any gains. We must spread out, and we must maintain communication. If we cannot, we will lose.”

“So find out how Star Force is stopping our couriers. Until we can build on a dozen systems, we cannot construct an Urrtren. And in order to win a dozen systems, we must push them back, give them more targets to counterattack to buy time to consolidate our holdings. Only then can we truly begin this invasion, and we cannot do it if we cannot see what we are fighting! If that does not induce fear in you, then you are unfit to fight this war. Arrange for your transit back to a safe world, for I do not want you here. My people must pay Star Force respect and be wary of what they are capable of. If you do not, you will doom us all. We must have vision of the battlefield. If we are blind, we will lose. Come to grips with this or leave. I do not have time to be training hatchlings.”

Virokor signaled them to get back to work with a telepathic ping, then he settled back into his reclined position, thumping his tail on the mat a few times out of frustration.

“This is why I must be here. Too many of you remember only the times of easy victories. Our dominance is not a right, it is something we must earn continuously. And when we are the inferior, we must recognize that fact and strive to regain dominance…not deny our lesser status and die fighting in denial.”

“Well spoken,” Eroset said, acknowledging the error in his own mindset. “How do we combat this in the short term?”

“Whatever is striking at our scouts is only doing so when they are in small numbers. Star Force has other, larger traps set, but the odds of one ship getting away with the knowledge of them is too great. Whatever is pursuing our scouts is being very cagey. We must lure them into a trap, but how to do so escapes me. There must be a mismatch, and I do not know how to generate one that will still elicit a strike.”

“If we group the ships together and no strike occurs, we secure our communications until mobile Urrtren relays can be produced.”

“If we do so, the number of courier trips diminish. Logistically, losing some ships is preferable to reducing the number of transits.”

“Then I do not know how to counter this.”

“Neither do I. We may have to suffer the inefficiency until we can establish an Urrtren, and doing so will incur substantial losses that I had hoped to avoid.”

“What if we wait until more scout ships arrive?”

“If I had known we would face this I would have brought more to the forefront, but it is too late. We are already engaged. If we pull back now we lose most of our few victories and Star Force can rebuild part of their defensive infrastructure. We are now committed. There can be no delay. Pressure must be continuously applied.”

“Then we suffer the losses?”

“If necessary. Do not accept that is necessary. Find me an answer. Someone, somewhere, somehow. Find me an answer,” Virokor repeated softly, but the importance in his words was heavy.

“We will not stop until we do,” Eroset promised, briefly flashing his Saroto’kanse’vam as an indication of his sincerity before spinning around and walking down off Virokor’s platform.

The combined fleet commander turned his attention back to the campaign map and the few tidbits of new information filtering in as raw packets were being analyzed by his people and uploaded as soon as they were collated and confirmed.

Why can’t I figure out what they’re doing? Their technology is stolen from us. Have they surpassed our own research or is this Chixzon in origin? he asked himself quietly, not knowing which of those two possibilities was more disturbing.

4,219 lightyears away…

“This is insane,” the Sarquori Ambassador said, looking at the most recent battlemap update on the holographic map that filled half the chamber.

“It is the V’kit’no’sat,” the Chashtik stated simply, with both races using Star Force translation devices, along with the other 93 Ambassadors in the room representing powerful races located in the Rim all the way round the galaxy. They’d come here to observe the war, with Star Force giving them full access to the information grid that provided locations, ship counts, planet losses, and even visible battle records if they deigned to pay that close attention…albeit from a safe location in the Arbiter System, all the way back in the Seon Region.

“You really believe we can contend with that?” another Ambassador asked.

“Better to do it now, with Star Force occupying most of their attention, than wait for them to invade our territory with impunity later,” the Zeeross Ambassador declared.

“After their losses here, they may not have any appetite for further expansion,” the Haf Ambassador stated. “We could be inviting destruction where there would be none.”

“Then why are you here?” the Zeeross asked.

“Because we are vulnerable,” the Haf admitted. “And we need information about the threat.”

“V’kit’no’sat ships continue to arrive in increasing numbers,” another Ambassador pointed out. “We may not have even seen the bulk of their fleet.”

“Their losses are staggering,” the Chashtik noted. “And they haven’t even engaged the Uriti yet. I do not think they care so long as they are victorious.”

“And you want to fight that?” the Sarquori asked.

“Yes, I do,” the Zeeross said firmly. “Before it comes for us.”

“If Star Force wins control of the Rim, they can shield us,” another Ambassador noted. “We help them, they help us. That’s how alliances work.”

“Assuming the V’kit’no’sat honor their word,” the Yioj reminded them. “If they do not, Star Force cannot shield us on the other side of the galaxy. They only hold dominion over a small region. We risk exposing ourselves to backlash even if Star Force survives.”

“And the V’kit’no’sat risk backlash if they do not honor their word,” the Zeeross argued. “Star Force has agreed not to attack their territory with the Uriti, contingent on this deal. If the V’kit’no’sat strike us after dominion of the Rim goes to Star Force, Star Force will be free to strike them with the Uriti.”

“He is right,” the Dqwet said from near the floor, for it was only 2 feet tall, though nearly just as wide. “This is our chance. The question is when should we strike?”

“Not yet,” the Knight of Quenar said from the back of the room.

All heads turned towards him, for he rarely spoke. Always present, always listening, but rarely speaking unless someone spoke to him first.

“You are already engaged, are you not?” another Ambassador asked.

“We were before the invasion, and we continue to fight now. But you should not. Not yet. It is too soon.”

“Why do you believe so?” the Zeeross asked.

“Because most of the V’kit’no’sat fleet is not here yet.”

That left the room silent for a moment, for the true size of the V’kit’no’sat empire was still a mystery for these races.

“How much more is there?”

“More than double what they have now. The question is how low they will leave their defensive fleets. I believe they are waiting to see how much resistance Star Force produces. Already you can see their reinforcements rates are skyrocketing. After 6 years, I have no doubt they have gotten the message that this invasion will take everything they possess to be successful. They must hit us with everything they have. If they do, they can prevail at great cost. But if you also fight, they will be overwhelmed and must choose between pressing their attack or defending their borders. They will choose the latter, and that will give domain of the Rim to Star Force.”

“If they honor their word,” the Yioj reiterated.

“If they do not, their empire will split apart. Mak’to’ran is barely tolerating this invasion as it is, and there are very specific parameters that must be met. If he is pushed any further, he will rebel once again and the V’kit’no’sat will fracture. Even if they do not war against one another, such a fractured mass will be unlikely to try to expand into the Rim. And if their ire is so great that they come after you, you will not have to fight their entire empire.”

“We cannot survive even a small part of it,” the Numnu Ambassador admitted.

“There is risk, which is why you should wait,” the Knight of Quenar reiterated. “Wait until they are all here. If you act now, they can divert to counter you. Once they are engaged here, they will have to leave conquered planets vulnerable and Star Force will exploit that weakness. I urge you to wait, then attack in synchronicity. That will provide the most cover for you against backlash, for they will not be able to mount their forces against a single opponent. They will have a noose around their empire slowly contracting, and they will have to abandon the invasion of Star Force to survive it.”

“We will die in the attempt,” another Ambassador suggested.

“Perhaps,” the Lovipe agreed. “But it is better to die in a battle that might be won, than to fight knowing you have no chance of victory. We stand ready to assist Star Force when the time is right, and will accept their limited leadership of the Rim.”

“How soon?” another Ambassador asked.

“You will know when the flow of new ships diminishes greatly. While it is escalating, you must wait.”

“Why are you not waiting?”

The Knight of Quenar smiled in a decidedly unfriendly gesture. “The V’kit’no’sat have already struck our territory, but they failed for reasons I will not go into. We are wraiths, working best in the shadows, which is why we are already involved. You will fight in the open, and must choose your timing carefully.”

“Is that why we are not seeing records of your ships in combat?” the Dqwet asked.

“Star Force does not have sensor recordings because we are fighting the V’kit’no’sat independently. Many of their ships are not arriving in the war zone because we are destroying them before they can arrive.”

“How many?” another Ambassador asked.

“Enough to matter. We know where we can hit them, but also know where we cannot. We are doing maximum damage from stealth. But our territory is no longer a valid target for the V’kit’no’sat, so we cannot distract them. We cannot hit their worlds while our fleet is engaged here. Our priority is in protecting and securing the Uriti, so we cannot leave Star Force territory. Our place for this war is here. Yours is around the galactic swirl. When the time is right, unleash havoc and the Knights of Quenar will guarantee that Star Force secures their victory. If you die in the process, your deaths will not be in vain. V’kit’no’sat dominance over the galaxy will end. Star Force is the means for us to achieve it.”

“They will maintain dominance over half of it,” the Anseno Ambassador pointed out.

“And that is the half that is plagued by the Hadarak. Let them possess it and keep the Hadarak contained to the inner core while we fortify the Rim. The longer the Uriti survive, the larger and more powerful they will grow. The V’kit’no’sat know they must destroy Star Force now or it will scale beyond their control. Mak’to’ran wishes to ally with them, to some extent, rather than bleeding their empire in the effort of annexing them. We can make sure he is proven correct, then let him continue to lead the V’kit’no’sat in their crusade against the Hadarak. The V’kit’no’sat can be useful if their focus is on the Core and away from the Rim. Star Force has negotiated well and has produced an opportunity that we need to invest in, for we will all benefit greatly from it if it comes to pass.”

“Do not the Knights of Quenar want the Uriti destroyed?” the Vboc Ambassador asked.

“It would eliminate the threat, but so long as they can provide a beneficial counterbalance for all the destruction they have incurred in the past, we wish to gain as much from their continued existence as possible. But we will make sure they do not survive to fall into the control of others. No one will possess them except Star Force. Not even us. We will make sure of that.”

“Why do you trust Star Force more than yourselves?”

“We are wraiths. To use the Uriti would be to abandon our strengths. As for Star Force, they are a unique philosophy that has no corruption or hypocrisy. They believe what they claim and will fight to the death before veering from it. They seek to protect the Uriti for the Uriti’s sake, and because of that they have been able to establish a relationship with them. That is something that we cannot do, nor would we try, but so long as they have that relationship we will help them exploit it for the benefit of the galaxy. If we could choose for the Uriti to vanish from existence we would, but they are here whether we like it or not, and Star Force has been able to safe the threat they pose. It could arise again, and if it does we will intervene, but unless it does, Star Force will continue to possess the Uriti on behalf of us all…and they will use them to defend the Rim against the V’kit’no’sat.”

“What makes you think they’re that trustworthy?”

“We have tested them. They are what they say they are. You must determine for yourself whether you can trust them or not, but I advise you to study carefully and find the truth. You all will benefit from their leadership and the protection of their agreement with the V’kit’no’sat, so I advise you to help them win this test of their strength. Without you they may not survive. And where will you be then? The time is not yet right, but it is soon coming. You need to have your decision made within the decade.”

“What will you do if Star Force loses?” the Sarquori asked.

“We intend to make sure they do not,” the Knight of Quenar said icily. “They are the key to the future of the galaxy, and without them you will see far worse powers arise than the V’kit’no’sat. I can assure you of that.”

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