Star Force: Penance (SF49)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  “So you’re saying we’re not busting down the door this time?” Morgan asked sarcastically.

  “Knocking gently, then picking the lock,” Paul responded, still scouring their records on Scionate society.

  “Why not pay a visit to both?” Kara asked, coming down the ladder from above and standing on the small lower deck behind their seats.

  “Because they’re drastically different, and I’m not sure which way we should go.”

  “Enlighten us,” Morgan said, swiveling her seat around and leaning back.

  Paul sighed. “The first is Wennitan. They’re very militant and have been at odds with the ruling bloodline over their reluctance to claim a place on the front lines fighting the lizards, Skarrons, or anyone else threatening the ADZ. We just killed a whole lot of their kin, so not sure how happy they’re going to be about that.”

  “The second is Grisst. They’re brokers, playing Davis’s game and playing it well. They’re in agreement with the defensive assist policy that the ruling den has been using, preferring to wage war in the ADZ economically and keep their military as an ace in the hole. They’ve been an ally of Vensiol for several hundred years, but they’re considered to be the wisest and most farseeing of the bloodlines.”

  “And the others?” Morgan asked.

  “Less viable candidates, in my opinion, but you’re free to look through the data yourself.”

  “I’ll take your word for it, but just remember that our files aren’t going to be the best.”

  “I know, we’re going to have to play this by ear and possibly work through several bloodlines before we find an acceptable one. I’m just not sure where to start.”

  “Start with the ally,” Kara suggested. “That way we can gage the level of discontent.”

  Morgan shrugged. “Sounds fine to me. I just don’t want to waste time sitting here discussing it.”

  Paul set the datapad down and pulled back on his black armored gloves, clicking them into the arms of his body armor before grabbing his helmet and sending Morgan and Kara the waypoint he’d already stored. “Let’s go.”

  The three of them left the V’kit’no’sat gunship in the middle of the city’s night cycle, making it much easier to move around without attracting notice as they jumped from rooftop to rooftop with Kara keeping pace with them rather than flying off to do her own thing. The trio quietly made their way across the city to the location where the Grisst den was located…which was a good hike away from where they’d landed, for it was located in the densest part of the city and they’d had to park in a more industrial section with less eyes around.

  The Grisst den was completely different than the ruling one. Instead of a sprawling, low level facility this one was a thick tower rising up above all the other buildings…save for three other similar towers marking rival dens, none of which were built directly next to one another. There were thousands of Scionate bloodlines, with most having their central dens on the capitol world, so there were plenty of options for the Archons to pick from, with Paul knowing they needed to talk to one that had roots and a powerbase on planet rather than one of the more powerful rivals/exiles that dominated other worlds in Scionate territory.

  “Kara?” Paul asked as they stared at the far building across the city lights.

  “I see several options. My choice would be a window two thirds of the way up.”

  “Not exactly a quiet entrance,” Morgan commented.

  “It will be,” Kara differed, “if you wait here for a few minutes.”

  “Go,” Paul said, with her flying off across the night directly towards the building with the other two Archons following her with their HUD. She shrank to a dot that disappeared from view save for the zoom function that Morgan was using to follow her, though Paul knew Kara’s handiwork enough that he simply watched her tracking icon while keeping his focus on the surrounding cityscape.

  “Sneaky little second gen, isn’t she?”

  “No need for insults,” Paul countered dryly as he saw Kara starting to come back towards them. “She knows what she’s doing enough that I occasionally take notes.”

  “High praise.”

  “You’re just jealous she’s not part of your Clan,” Paul teased.

  “About that. If you really want to make her a full trailblazer you need to give her her own Clan.”

  Paul half choked. “Like hell I am. She’s a Saber and staying a Saber.”

  Morgan smiled. “Like I said…second gen.”

  “Alright, shut up. Don’t give her any ideas.”

  Morgan laughed. “Has this come up before?”

  “Not from her, no. But she’s too valuable to lose and you’ve got a perfectly legitimate point. So zip it.”

  “We’re giving her one eventually then?”

  “Honorary status has its limitations.”

  “You’re so screwing her…or, are you screwing her?” Morgan asked curiously.

  “Nah…I’m just interested in her jewelry,” he mocked a few seconds before Kara landed next to them.

  “All set,” she reported. “You riding single or buddy?”

  “You can handle both of us?” Morgan asked.

  “I can carry a skeet if I have to. You guys weigh far less than that.”

  “Let’s not waste time then,” Morgan said as Kara turned around and spread her arms out into a ‘T’ with each trailblazer grabbing hold of one of them at her elbow and reaching around with their other arm to get a double wrist lock that they held at a 30ish degree angle down, giving Kara two passengers, one on either side of her that kept her balanced.

  “Ready?”

  “Good.”

  “Good,” Paul echoed, with Kara connecting to both them via battlemeld to enhance their balance and grip as she lifted up into the air a meter or so feeling their weight drag her arms down slightly, but her own strength was supplemented by the powered nature of the Vorch’nas armor, allowing her to remain in the ‘T’ as she started to fly them across with both trailblazers holding on with her elbows buried in their chests and their legs dangling freely.

  Kara couldn’t fly nearly as fast, but the trip across the sky wasn’t painfully long. They got across without drawing any alarm and came up on the window that Kara had previously cut open with delicate ease, leaving it in place but still severed. When she got within a dozen meters of it she reeled back her right arm and threw Morgan towards it, pulling the pane out telekinetically a moment prior to the striker ducking through it and landing inside, falling into a somersault and coming up in sentry position, heading for the nearest door in the empty and unlit room.

  Kara got a bit closer then tossed Paul through, coming in last herself while hovering the two meter wide circle of clear polymer back into position, with the seam nearly disappearing given how fine of a cut Kara had made. She walked up to it and welded it back in place at a couple of spots to make sure it wouldn’t fall out, leaving their entry point nearly undetectable…at least until someone came around to wash the windows and saw the small crack.

  “Where to?” Morgan asked when no new waypoint popped up in her HUD from Paul.

  “Kara, find somewhere to hack in. I need you to get a building layout and search for a few names.”

  The red scale-clad Archon looked around, seeing through the walls with her Pefbar and sighting a fiber bundle. She walked over to that portion of the wall and punched inside it, grabbing the comm/computer fiber in her armored hand and linking into it with the tiny hacking tendrils.

  “I’m in.”

  Paul responded by rattling off a list of names from his HUD, with Kara throwing up waypoints for each one as she found them, giving the trio potential locations for them to be found, some being personal dens and others work areas.

  “Hold on,” Kara said a moment later. “Number 1 on your list just logged onto a terminal,” she said, isolating the location within the building and throwing Paul a priority waypoint marked as 62 levels below them in the same quadrant of the buildi
ng.

  “There’s timing,” Morgan commented.

  “Best route,” Paul asked, with Kara giving them three options with one highlighted, indicating a vertical shaft buried within the walls.

  “Nice,” Morgan said, walking to the door and taking a look outside with her Pefbar as the trio got ready to move. “Looks clear, but let’s let the shadow go first just the same.”

  “My pleasure,” Kara said, her scales disappearing into a null void shadow that really did disappear within the dark room, then became ‘visible’ again as she opened the door and walked out into the hall, more optical illusion than silhouette.

  7

  Ken’slan pawed the button, scrolling to the next report on the fighting on Admat, limited as they were. He had access to more information than the news kiosks, but still he was getting an incomplete picture of what was happening. Suddenly the Scionate had decided to invade the Star Force world, and from the pieces that he was pulling together the leader of the Grisst bloodline was coming to the unlikely conclusion that they had actually lost…and lost badly, but no official reports had made their way to the public as of yet, which was unusual, for as a race the Scionate fiercely supported one another. When one went into combat, all did, at least from a moral standpoint, thus news of battles was not meant to be suppressed.

  The news Ken’slan was getting was fresh, but something of the launch of the attack should have been made public, with all the notice he got being a copy of the military orders forwarded to him by members of his own bloodline on the ships and in the ground forces that had been hastily dispatched.

  The quadruped went to step on the button again, but suddenly his limb froze up, as did the rest of his body as he went stiff and unable to move. A sickly feeling crept through him as he was paralyzed, then panic broke out as he saw a biped figure walk into his gaze, recognizing the tell-tale Archon armor that Star Force used.

  “Calm yourself,” Morgan said, taking off her helmet as she stood in front of him a couple of meters and stared down into his fixed eyes across the console. “We’re here to talk, not to fight…at least not yet. I will release you, but if you flee or attempt an alarm I’ll immobilize you again. Understand?”

  Ken’slan couldn’t answer, but a moment later his body returned to his control and he took an involuntary step back into a combat crouch…which was when he noticed two more Humans behind him. He half looked back at them, then eased up slightly, but he was still ready to pounce if needed.

  “What did you do to me?” he growled.

  “We have abilities that others do not,” Morgan said evasively. “Get used to it.”

  Ken’slan’s eyes narrowed. “Why are you here?”

  “Vensiol has to go, one way or another. We’re offering you the chance to do it yourselves before we’re forced to do it.”

  Ken’slan didn’t reply, but just stared into the Human’s pale face. “Tell me what has happened on your world. I only have pieces of information.”

  Morgan crossed her arms over her chest, black armor rubbing against itself with a whisper of a scrape. “The Scionate violated the terms of colonization. Meat farms were established outside the ADZ and you’ve been smuggling it in trying to avoid detection. We found out and are even now putting a stop to it on other Scionate worlds. The three of us came here the other day to deliver a message and a warning to your leaders that such violations would not be tolerated. We delivered it personally to the Chieftans, leaving a few injuries as a reminder but killing no one. I doubt you missed the spectacle?”

  Ken’slan growled again, more at what the Human was saying than as a threat. “I am aware that there was a disturbance, but nothing has been said of it officially. Our troops were summoned to battle and little has been mentioned of it since.”

  Morgan looked to Paul. “So much for our big demonstration.”

  The other trailblazer sent her a telepathic question, letting her handle the meet and greet.

  “Your troops,” Morgan continued, “were sent to our world where they launched an invasion and subsequently got a lot of themselves killed. We lost some people, which is something we cannot let pass. We’d prefer not to have to conquer your entire civilization, but we will if we have to. We’re here to seek another option, one that has your bloodline replacing Vensiol.”

  Ken’slan wanted to hiss in defiance of what would essentially be treason, but he held his composure and considered what the Human was saying, still unnerved by its ability to take control of his own body away from him, but with a growing anger at the leading bloodline if the Human’s claims were even half true.

  “If you have slain Scionate blood, you will have blood in return.”

  Morgan pointed a finger at his blunt muzzle. “We came here to break bone and flesh, but we did not kill. We also wanted to show you that we are not incapable of enforcing the terms of colonization,” she said, hacking into his mind again and forcing the Scionate to sit on the floor and look up at him, unable to do anything but watch. “Your leaders didn’t get the message,” she added, finally releasing him.

  Ken’slan stood up again, angry, but wise enough to continue to listen. “There were rumors floating around from the incident at the den, but we dismissed them as the ravings of those who had failed to acquit their duties.”

  “Not rumors,” Morgan said, telekinetically lifting him into the air on her own accord without having to link with Paul for extra power. Ken’slan’s eyes went wide with shock and horror at his own helplessness, and Morgan let him paw the air for several seconds allowing that to sink in.

  “If we wanted you dead, you would be,” she said simply, then lowered him down and released her grip. “You’re supposed to be our allies. It’s time you started acting like it. Either you fix your empire or we will, and we don’t have a lot of time to offer you. We have to deal with Vensiol quickly before an interstellar war erupts between Star Force and the Scionate. You would lose that war, but it would be costly enough to us that it could jeopardize the safety of the ADZ…and if we have to go to those lengths to rectify the situation, your race will lose your sovereignty as a consequence.”

  This time Ken’slan did growl reflexively, then thought better of it and began thinking…hard and fast.

  “Are you certain that we spilt blood first?”

  “The first blood was on our world when you invaded it, though technically Scionate died before Humans did because your people fought stupidly. We were forced to slaughter hundreds of thousands of them in order to defend ourselves, perhaps millions. The actual number we are uncertain of, but it was on our world that your people were assaulting. Your fleet began by destroying a defense platform in orbit. It was unmanned, though I’m not sure if they knew it or not. We didn’t start this fight, but we did finish it…and now we have to truly finish it before it escalates. If your bloodline is unwilling to take the lead then we will find another, and another, and another until we run out of candidates or simply grow bored from looking and decide to do things the hard way.”

  “You keep repeating that threat as if it is your preferred choice.”

  “No, I keep repeating it because we said the same thing to your leaders and they ignored it. This is the Scionate’s last chance to regain their honor and fix their own problem before we have to do it for them…and on our terms, which I can guarantee that you will not like. You are independent, and with that privilege comes responsibilities.”

  “So it does,” he finally agreed. “But you will find that Scionate do not respond well to bullying.”

  “Humans don’t respond well to oathbreakers.”

  Ken’slan hissed. “Nor do we. If your claims are true then there is an accounting that must take place here, but I will not take your word for it. I must see it for myself.”

  “Kara?”

  Ken’slan turned when he heard the faint whisper of footsteps behind him. The one Human that wasn’t dressed in traditional armor walked up next to the Scionate, seemingly unphased by the combat th
reat that he was, and nudged him aside to get her arm to his console…whereupon it began to malfunction, shutting off and reactivating with new displays and a wealth of information.

  “See for yourself then,” Morgan said, pointing down at the images as Kara retreated back to her waiting position with Paul as the two made sure to keep any visitors out with subtle Jedi mind tricks being played on anyone that approached in the exterior hallway to keep them walking past and forgetful of the door that led to this chamber. “Data from the meat farm and the interrogation of the pseudo-independent group running them, their link to the Scionate, and a full copy of the battle data from yesterday.”

  “Your technological edge has been severely underestimated,” he said with annoyance as he stepped forward and started looking through the images, statistics, and reports written in the trade language, knowing that this might be part propaganda as well, but he was curious and the Humans didn’t seem to be in a mind to take ‘no’ for an answer.

  Still on edge with the Humans’ presence, Ken’slan searched through the records from the farm, seeing that most of the individuals involved were not Scionate, as the Human had indicated. A few were, but they were rogues and not part of the empire’s forces…but it was the linkage between the organization and its employers that was damning, as was the records of where they had been shipping the meat and to whom.

  The Scionate had not liked the meatless edict that Star Force had imposed on the ADZ originally, but they had agreed to it like the others and now their youngest generation had lived their entire lives without eating meat, which was becoming the norm even for Ken’slan. Though he still craved the taste of it, even he now admitted it was a dishonorable practice. That hadn’t always been the case, but since it had been forced on them he’d gained a new perspective and was now in agreement with Star Force…though not nearly as passionate about it.

  What their records indicated was that the Scionate leadership had organized special privileges for favored individuals to get the meat shipments. While the Humans were probably unaware of the significance of the locations the meat was being shipped to Ken’slan was not, and right then and there his allegiance to Vensiol ended. Grisst had reluctantly worked with them in the past because they appeared mostly level headed and honorable, but the kind of backroom dealing these records implied…and there was no way the Humans could have faked them without knowing the inner relationships between the bloodlines…was dishonorable.