Star Force: Phoenix (Star Force Universe Book 62)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  “What are the Hadarak we’ve seen then?”

  “They serve them. Are they creations, annexed races…who knows? But the original Hadarak are giant worms that burrow their way through the black holes. They don’t go up into the atmosphere of them, and when they’re underground they’ve virtually invulnerable to harm from conventional weapons…assuming you could even see down there, which you can’t. Not unless you have Essence or some other funky method. That makes them the ultimate king pings that can never lose a war that they can run from down there…except they can die.”

  “The Ikeo?”

  “Yes, but that’s not the natural threat. Black holes can explode, and some more likely than others. This can be triggered by an enemy, but it also happens periodically. Because of this, the ‘Spice Lords’ have to be able to travel from one black hole to another. Before they had an empire they probably died all the time, but now they can move when needed…behind a huge army protecting them during transit.”

  “Why Spice Lords?”

  “The Ikeo pull up a lot more valuable materials than we ever have from black holes. They’re damn good at it, and the Spice Lords also eat it. There’s a lot of Solari, but there’s something else. Probably lots of something elses. We don’t know for sure, but the Ikeo swarm and strip it out of black holes, then bring it to space where they live. The other three races we found are also based around, or in, black holes. We didn’t have a chance to mind raid any of them, because we didn’t find them fighting the Hadarak. They might be elsewhere, but the war between the Ikeo and Hadarak is a mess. I don’t know if this is the remnants of the Hadarak invading this galaxy, or if the Ikeo are invading them…”

  “How are the Ikeo winning fights?”

  “I don’t know. We only saw the aftermath, but the damage done to the Hadarak units was physically ripping them apart. It could be Essence, but I doubt it. Their bodies are so small. I don’t see how they’d have enough.”

  “Show me what they look like.”

  Kara tilted her left palm up and produced a hologram of a very nasty looking insect that appeared to have mittens on. Where there would normally have been pointy legs were rounded nubs and bendable, but very thick trunks. Kara set it against a series of Star Force ships, with it being no longer than half a mile.

  “That’s the largest of them, and we found several that were dying, including one that was being infested and taken over by the Hadarak virus minion. We couldn’t stop it, so we had a chat with him and killed him at his request. It was one of the worst mind melds I’ve ever done. He could feel the virus eating him alive and taking control of his body bit by bit.”

  “How much of a conversation did you have?”

  “They operate with a hive mind, so not much. I think they’re very low standard intelligence, like the Uriti, but they operate on another level entirely. I don’t think they’re technological, even biotech. I think this is what they naturally do. I don’t think negotiation is even possible. When we were interrogating them they acted like we were their kin, not strangers. They were adamant that they not be used by the enemy to hurt their own, which was why they wanted to die.”

  “How were they infected?”

  “Spores. Launched through space and laced with Essence so they can penetrate shields and burrow into armor on contact. I got a few holes in my ship because we ran into some leftovers. It was small enough not to matter, but we were able to quarantine and collect some samples.”

  “We know the Hadarak bioengineer. You’re saying the Ikeo are doing what they’re doing naturally?”

  “That’s my best guess. But if you ask a Warden Hadarak what they’re up to, you’d probably get something similar in response. I don’t know of the Ikeo having true masters, but they do have queens. Not that we could even get close to one if we wanted. They’re pretty much space insects. Big space insects, but small compared to the other stuff out there.”

  “How do these Spice Lords move?”

  “Some sort of carriers. All we know is from comm data. They store it as memories in the clusters, then as they die off and reproduce it gets deleted and replaced with new data. So what we got is piecemeal, because only a few unit cells were still alive. They didn’t last long after we got to them. We were lucky we did at all. The Ikeo must have blown through only weeks before.”

  “Going where?”

  “I think they’re migrants, going wherever the food is. They might not even have systems.”

  “So they’re just running around poking holes in the Hadarak defenses?”

  “Looks like it, but keep in mind, the systems in there are so close together it’s the equivalent of having 10 Rims all smashed together. We explored a very tiny shred of it.”

  “And found 4 other races,” Davis pointed out.

  “Inside the Hadarak perimeter, which I found to be very odd. The nests are system to system on the wall, but inside they’re dotted here and there. A lot of systems have nothing in them that we could see, except for patrols. No system we went to did not have Hadarak units in it. They’re defending against something external.”

  “Or trying to keep something in,” Davis added. “Any chance they eat these other races?”

  “I hadn’t even thought of that. There weren’t any Hadarak in those systems, but they didn’t want us there and chased us off. All of them had small, interception units clustered at the major jumplines. They don’t want people coming and going, so I’m guessing they’re not friends.”

  “Weaponry?”

  “Yes, but we didn’t get close enough to sample most of it. Only a few beams at range.”

  “You think they’re holding off the Hadarak?”

  “Or allied with them. Seems unlikely, but I don’t have any answer to it. If we go in there, we could end up fighting any or all of them. But the Hadarak on their own are beyond us. This is a war we can’t win. At least, not until we get a whole lot stronger,” she said, changing the hologram to that of a giant worm slowly rotating in space with a bright backdrop of a highly active nebula behind it.

  “There you go. That’s one of the bastards. Killed when its black hole exploded. He’s been dead for probably 900,000 years. Not a mark on him either. I don’t think they can handle vacuum.”

  “How did you get this?”

  “After we learned where they made their home and the threat, we tracked down some black hole supernovas where they were drifting into nearby systems and got lucky. There were four of these guys in the same area, and I got the impression that these worms are numerous in the black holes.”

  “How large?”

  Kara put the scale up, and to his surprise they were larger than the Hadarak Wardens. Easily over 15,000 miles long and some 2,000 wide.

  “Did you get any samples?”

  “Sorry, no. They weren’t inside the star system. This is a long range photo. We couldn’t get out to them without running through a lot of nova dust, plus there wasn’t any gravity wells to jump to. If we tried to jump off them, we would have been extremely vulnerable to the Hadarak chasing us. I don’t think we could have made it if we tried.”

  “Were they there to collect them?”

  “I don’t think so, but it’s possible. They’re everywhere in there that somebody else isn’t inhabiting. Only the smallest of systems have patrols only. There’s some level of nest everywhere, and those patrols are based off of at least one nest spur acting as a carrier or outpost. We couldn’t be sure which.”

  “The Temples have information on the Hadarak, but we’re blocked from accessing most of it due to our limited Essence abilities. We have to grow up, and when we do it will gradually feed us more information and technology to fight them.”

  “We definitely need that. Have we gotten any Olopar for our own?”

  “A few. Most we had to destroy, and we haven’t built any of our own yet, but the factories for them are still allowing it despite the fact the Caretakers have declared war on us. It’s a very strange setup inside.”r />
  “Where do you need me after I finish filling you in?”

  “In a hurry to find a fight?” Davis guessed.

  “I’ve had enough endless training for a while. I’d like to actually do something. Staring at enemies too powerful for us hurts the mojo, if you know what I mean?”

  “We’re still getting hit by the Vargemma, so it’s not safe out there, which is why I’m here. It’s going to be a while until the fleet gets all the Temples blocked from sending out ships. I’d prefer to keep you out here while they’re busy in there.”

  “Just give me something to do.”

  “We’ve got plenty to do, don’t worry about that. If we can stop the gardeners, how much of the rest of them can we take?”

  “I don’t know. They’ve got conventional weapons in addition to Essence. They don’t use minions that far in. Everything is larger and harder to kill, and they squirt stuff on you so you can’t dance around them. Individually they’re not as bad as a Lurker, but they’ve got longevity and don’t need refueling. If they come out here, focused on a single target, we won’t stop them. If they go widespread, then we stand a chance in some engagements. We’re going to have to rework our drones to fight them.”

  “How so?”

  “We’re going to need big ones that are just as hard to kill, unless your Temple buddies left something better lying around.”

  “I’m hoping they did.”

  “Any chance they’ll show up to help?”

  “My turn to fill you in on the Temple stuff. Let’s grab some donuts and we can swap details. The Founders claim to be the enemies of the Hadarak with the ability to defeat them with technology. If everything in the Core is biological, then that’s a dynamic we need to explore. Hopefully what you’ve learned will fill in some of the gaps,” he said, turning and walking towards the door while telekinetically tugging her arm to follow.

  “You still don’t understand the magnitude of what’s in there,” she warned him.

  “Likewise with the Temples. It seems we’re caught between two very massive powers, so our mission has to be one of surviving long enough to upgrade to the point where we can play with them on their level. We’ve done it once before, now we have to do it again.”

  “If the Hadarak really are multi-galaxy, and so are the Temple builders, I don’t think we can out produce them. If we can’t do that, how do we fight that level of mass?”

  “Good question. I don’t have an answer yet. But we’re better off knowing what’s in there than not.”

  “We only saw a piece, and what’s in the center we still don’t know.”

  “If you found the masters, then that’s the key. And if they can’t survive out here, and we can’t survive in there, then that bit is comforting.”

  “What else do you know about these apocalypse monsters?”

  “Nothing other than the Founder reference. I know, that’s an even bigger fight, I’m afraid.”

  “So we just huddle up and hope they don’t come?”

  “For now that’s our best play. These things appear to happen in very long time spans. We work fast. That gives us a chance.”

  “I’ll never give up, but I know we can’t handle what’s in there now.”

  “We don’t have to now, but if we survive this purge, we’re going in there eventually. We have to.”

  “You better make sure we’ve got a damn good upgrade by then, or they’re going to own us.”

  Davis raised an eyebrow. “You do remember who you’re talking to, right?”

  6

  June 17, 128555

  Outreach 118 System (V’kit’no’sat/Hadarak border)

  2nd planet

  Grand Admiral Neofenn was one of the handful of naval officers so skilled and wise that they’d essentially become superiors to the Archons, as crazy as that sounded. Specialists had the advantage of putting all their training time into one discipline, whereas the Archons had to split their time between the 5 branches of the Star Force military…naval, aquatics, commando, mechs, and aerial. So even though Neofenn was only 46,038 years old, he had eclipsed most of the Archons in his naval skill level, though not all. Some still had him beat by a considerable margin, but when in the field the Archons in his fleet deferred to his command because he was more knowledgeable than them in naval warfare.

  But they were skilled in other areas, and when one had to juggle everything at the same time he deferred to the Archons. It was a team effort, but in most cases Neofenn and the other High Admirals were given considerable latitude in order to free up the Archons from high end duty. Those badasses were at their best when they could roam to where the biggest problems were, yet given the size of the galaxy that left a lot of empty spots to fill, and the High Admirals filled the most needed naval duties that otherwise would go to high level Archons.

  Neofenn was a Rammus, standing barely a meter tall and covered in armored plates. His race had been absorbed by Star Force peaceably, unlike many other races that were originally enemies. Before Star Force, the Rammus were pretty much vulnerable to any enemy that came around, and the protection Star Force had given them had always weighed heavily on Neofenn and the others. They had gotten more than they contributed, and when Neofenn had become one of only 19 Grand Admirals at the time of his ascension, the entire Rammus Sub-faction celebrated for weeks, and it was to this day the highest honor and responsibility any Rammus had garnered within the Empire.

  But that wasn’t enough, and his race still felt they were not fully doing their part. The main issue with this was their biology, which wasn’t well suited to commando work. They couldn’t become a full faction without having the ability to fight in that element, and though they’d tried to do so they’d never been able to accomplish it. Instead they’d paired with the Calavari, incorporating colonies of theirs into Rammus territory and using them for the majority of their infantry while the Rammus provided their typical support operations…most of which were scouting and running supplies and weapons up to the big guys.

  The other four divisions of the military they could handle with machine enhancements. Swimming was tolerable, for they had a small tail that was more useful than Human legs. They weren’t made for it, but they could swim enough to qualify for Aquatics, though most of that was due to the mechanical suits they wore. They couldn’t do the same with Commando, for getting enough ‘muscle’ power out of machines made them into mechs, which was another division entirely.

  Their mech division was respectable, as was their aerial. Anything that required a direct mental link they could hold their own in, but when it came to muscle power they were simply lacking. This inability to become a full Faction was a constant sore spot, but not for Star Force’s system. It was their own inability that angered them, and because the Empire was providing the strength to fill in that gap, the Rammus continually looked to provide something back of equal value, and Neofenn was the closest they had got.

  When the Vargemma threat arose, most of the fleet evacuated the Hadarak war zone and went back to the Rim, except for the evacuation efforts of the people being killed in the Core, which didn’t end. Only the offensive operations did, meaning Star Force still had a decent warfleet here escorting the transports as the Hadarak minions continued to chew up system after system…and they were not doing it in a predictable fashion any longer.

  Their ‘lines in the sand’ they had drawn and then tried to backfill had ended. Now they were branching off like a tree in multiple direction that were making it impossible to predict…and some of those branches were getting dangerously close to V’kit’no’sat territory, with that empire responding accordingly to beat them back. But that meant the intact populations out there were now trapped behind Hadarak lines, and Neofenn was the only Grand Admiral still here to deal with it.

  He had a few High Admirals out there under his command, as well as a few high ranking Archons, but that was it. Everyone else had left to fight the Vargemma, and rightly so, but if Star Force had cancele
d the evacuations then trillions of people would have been left to die, and as it was now, Star Force wasn’t able to rescue them all. The Hadarak were moving so damn fast it just wasn’t possible, and with the withdrawal of the main offense fleet, the Zerg-like expansion of the enemy was occurring even faster.

  The V’kit’no’sat were doing huge damage to them, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Neofenn was working with them to coordinate the evacuations where they were needed the most, as well as punch through into the holdout areas with their assistance, most of which was due to the need to create a pathway through which to run the transports across enemy territory for a dozen jumps or more.

  But Neofenn did have one Star Force offensive ongoing, and that was the Uriti minion units. They had not received any reinforcement, but were massing in certain areas and creating all kinds of havoc for the Hadarak, essentially turning their own spamming technique against them. None of those units were expected to survive another 100 years, but many were hanging on far longer than they should have. The Hadarak weren’t ignoring them, but they weren’t sending their heavy hitters there, and many were popping up in recent intelligence.

  Neofenn had received the scouting report for Kara’s expedition three days ago, and it had been very illuminating. Beyond the traditional Warden Hadarak and their familiar minions, stronger units had been grown and released into combat. The Grand Admiral now knew those were the mainline troops the Hadarak used. They weren’t coming out of the Core, but being produced in strongholds that used to be neutral territory. Neofenn really wanted to go and hit those to stop the production of the mainline units, but he didn’t have enough ships for that. He was on babysitting duty that was adding a huge amount of refugees to the empire…and hopefully one day they would repay Star Force by adding more strength to it, but right now they were cargo and he needed to get as many of them to the Rim as possible.