Star Force: Fracture (Star Force Universe Book 47)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  He walked with the others clustered around him slowly, for there was little room to move around. The V’kit’no’sat had packed them in close rather than allowing them to stay in the Star Force structures as they had initially, but now everything they lived and worked in was built by the invaders.

  Gardo filed out with the others under the watch of Zen’zat guards, then split off with those that were headed to the production facility that he was assigned to work. There was nothing there to sabotage, for the facility was processing materials used to make equipment for the Bsidd. Other similar ones produced their food while the V’kit’no’sat did not use the prisoners for their own supply chain.

  That meant any sabotage would only hurt the Bsidd further, and word had it from the few Bsidd that actually spoke V’kit’no’sat that the Oso’lon had given the Zen’zat orders to keep the Bsidd alive as long as possible because no queens had been captured. That meant the prisoners could not reproduce new living shields for the enemy to use to hold the Uriti at bay. Gardo had seen the massive Sivir come down to the planet then leave, and he’d heard it had nearly crushed others before pulling back at the last moment.

  Star Force wasn’t going to kill their own, and the V’kit’no’sat were using that against them. Gardo was a pawn, and while he knew Star Force would never give up on him he doubted they had the ability to retake this planet without killing him and the others in the process. And at this point, who knew how bad of shape the empire was in? They hadn’t expected to win the war easily, merely survive it, and now the Braum System was firmly in enemy hands.

  Gardo kind of hoped that when he and the others died off Star Force would come back and obliterate it from orbit, but that wasn’t going to happy anytime soon. He and the other Bsidd were doing little workouts here and there where they could, mostly grappling with each other for a crude sort of resistance workout. They were doing anything they could to fight off the stagnation while having to endure the repetitive and mundane work the V’kit’no’sat had them doing.

  Most of it was useless work that machines could have handled. Perhaps the V’kit’no’sat thought it would keep them busy or that it would substitute for workouts, but it did not. It was far better than being locked in their dormitories all day every day, but there was no purpose in it. No chance to advance, or to help Star Force do so. It was just day in and day out, methodically, spirit-breaking work that had them lifting heavy canisters that mechs normally would. They had to work together to do it, and it was wearing on Gardo’s joints since he didn’t have the proper nutritional supplements to counteract the damage.

  The V’kit’no’sat food for them was limited, and they were on rations. Everything seemed to be in it that was needed to sustain them, but not at levels that would allow them to increase in strength. It was like they wanted them alive forever, but stuck in the same state. The universe didn’t work that way, and if you weren’t improving you were most likely declining, as Gardo and the others were, but their guards did not care. Maybe they would when more died off, but for now the dead were simply removed to a medical station where a regenerator would bring them back to life…at least until their bodies were so weak from multiple treatments that they became unsavable.

  Something would break, they’d heal it, but then it would break again because the new tissue was always weaker than the original. That was a drawback of the technology, but was easily overcome with training that the Bsidd were not allowed to do…and they would not let Gardo or the others get treatment until something big broke, meaning his aching joints he would have to endure until something snapped.

  He’d fought internally before, trying to resist in some way, any way, against what was happening to his body, but it was no use. He and the others couldn’t do enough, and the strength of the Bsidd on the planet had waned considerably over the past 18 years. They couldn’t train, they couldn’t fight, they couldn’t easily die either…they were just stuck in place. Treated like war prizes rather than people. Star Force prisons allowed for training. They even encouraged it as a form of rehab. But the V’kit’no’sat seemed totally indifferent, making it clear the Bsidd would only live so long as they were of use to the enemy.

  Gardo’s daily routine did not change for years, but today something did. The Zen’zat leading his group took a different turn, prompting surprise amongst them all. One of them asked where they were going in the few V’kit’no’sat words that they all had learned, but the Zen’zat just telekinetically slapped the one that spoke and told him to shut up.

  The Bsidd did as told and the group followed the pair of Zen’zat in front while a few others paced beside them and two more followed up in the rear. Had the Bsidd wanted to overpower them they could have just with their numbers, for there were 428 in this group, but they didn’t have weapons, armor, or must stamina left. And even if they did take the Zen’zat down, where would they go?

  In the past some had tried just that, but they couldn’t kill the Zen’zat in their armor, only knock them down, and with the enemy Dre’mo’dons built into the forearms of their armor, they couldn’t be disarmed either.

  Gardo wondered if this change was good or bad. He hadn’t heard of any group executions ever taking place. Maybe they had opened up a new facility, but if they had the construction would have made the rounds of the comm grid they’d set up via relay…with that relay being word of mouth only. With nothing to do here, even the smallest change or bit of information gleamed spread quickly throughout this prisoner colony set at the base of the huge shield generator that towered over them to the south. It blocked the sun most of the day, but it was early enough now that the sunlight made it past the monolith and down into the trench-like valleys between the much shorter V’kit’no’sat buildings that surrounded the site.

  They eventually were taken to a spaceport…a place they had never been allowed to go before…and they were made to wait out in the open in rows as more Bsidd arrived behind them in stages. They were not told what was happening, which was normal. They’d know when they needed to know, and not before. That was practically the Zen’zat motto around here, and the first inclination of something being up came when a break in the clouds showed a fleet of ships in orbit.

  That wasn’t unusual, for the V’kit’no’sat had many up there. Some came low enough you could make out their dimensions easily, for they were large enough to be seen without magnification, but none looked like what the Bsidd were now seeing.

  “Those are our jumpships,” someone said beside Gardo as all the Bsidd craned their necks up to look.

  There were 4 of them, each more than 20 miles long with their submarine-like shape easily distinguishable. If they had a flock of drones around them those would be harder to see, but Gardo couldn’t make out the usual dark fog that they represented when passing in front of the grey beasts.

  Had the V’kit’no’sat captured them? That would explain there being no drones…or were there drones and they were pushed further away. With it being daylight now he couldn’t see them blocking out starlight, and the black drones were meant to be hard to see anyway.

  A cloud passed over the spot, cutting off their view, but a few minutes later silver drops began to poke through the clouds and Gardo’s heartbeat skyrocketed. Those were Star Force dropships! Not V’kit’no’sat drop pods.

  He watched as they flew down to several locations nearby, then one big one…a Dragon-class that typically carried mechs and heavy cargo…turned towards them. It’s wide, fat wings sliced through the air quickly, then it set down on the landing pad half a mile away from them. The small cargo ramp on the side opened and lowered, with a pair of Calavari commandos walking out in their orange armor and coming towards the Bsidd.

  Gardo was watching them so closely he didn’t notice that the Zen’zat had disappeared, but word spread from the others as they saw the Zen’zat walking away from them without any instructions.

  “Hey guys,” one of the Calavari said from behind his helmet. “You need a rid
e?”

  A bazillion questions were blasted out, with Gardo included blurting a ‘what’s going on’ before one of the Calavari raised his lower right hand and they took the cue to quiet down.

  “Relax. The V’kit’no’sat are turning you over to us. Now let’s get everyone onboard before they change their mind,” he said, thumbing back towards the dropship. “Move…now,” he ordered.

  Gardo didn’t hesitate, nor did the others. Sore joints or not, he scrambled with them towards the beautiful dropship and felt an overwhelming sense of relief when his mandible nubs touched the material of the ramp. It was like a shower washing the V’kit’no’sat stench off of him, and when he saw the few other Star Force personnel in the cargo hold giving them directions on how to pack in tightly because they wanted to squeeze in as many as possible to avoid making too many trips, he finally realized this was real and that he and the others were being freed.

  “Long story short,” another Calavari said loudly so all could hear. “The war is over. We won. Our allies around the galaxy all attacked at once and forced the V’kit’no’sat to back off. All prisoners are being freed while we negotiate an end to the fighting. Everything in this region is settling down, but the V’kit’no’sat are getting their asses kicked around the galaxy and we’re not going to call them off until we get all of you out.”

  “What allies?” someone else asked, though Gardo was thinking the same thing.

  “The Director made a lot of friends when we weren’t looking. They hate the V’kit’no’sat as much as we do and decided to join up into what’s being called the Rim Consortium. They’re not part of Star Force, we’re just working together to kick the crap out of the V’kit’no’sat. And it worked. Pack in tight and you’ll get more information once you get to orbit. If anyone is in bad shape let us know, we’ve got a few regenerators here if needed. We don’t want to lose you on the way up.”

  Gardo felt like he was going to have a heart attack…and he might, given his current lack of fitness. But he didn’t. He just ached all over, but it was good ache. A very good ache. It was like a breath he’d been holding in for years had just been let out, and his body was hurting because it was no longer there to brace against.

  Others were not so lucky, and some of them did have heart attacks at the sudden joy of release. A medtech got to them quickly so none would be lost, then more and more prisoners were brought onto the dropship until it was literally packed with people from one side to the other…then some more were shoved in and Gardo had to crunch down into a tight sitting position to make room, but he didn’t care. When the doors closed and the dropship took off, he knew all he had to do was just sit and ride along, and that was something he had plenty of experience doing in recent years.

  Everyone was talking in hushed tones, not wanting to get noisy, but they couldn’t help but talk. Some were wondering if this wasn’t some trap, and that made Gardo’s joy hesitate. The Calavari all had their helmets on, so maybe they weren’t Calavari. Or maybe they were and working with the…

  No, no. That was crazy. He was being stupid. This was Star Force. It had to be. The V’kit’no’sat had never tried to trick them before. They hadn’t cared to. They just told them what to do and beat those that didn’t comply…then sent them to a regenerator station to fix the broken bones.

  Gardo was sure this was really Star Force, but others were not so sure until the dropship doors opened again and they were ushered out onto the hangar deck of a Star Force Calavari jumpship with crew all over without armor on and other large groups of Bsidd filing off of other dropships.

  “It’s real,” Gardo said to the others. “It’s real…”

  “You bet your stick ass its real,” a Calavari said from behind Gardo. “Now keep moving. We’ve got a lot more people to bring up and they don’t want to wait while you look around. Keep walking, sticky.”

  The Bsidd smiled at the nickname some in the empire had given to the Bsidd. A nickname, and sometimes an insult, that he hadn’t heard in a long, long time. He tapped the Calavari in the chest with the rounded end of one of his mandibles then walked on, for he didn’t want to delay any of the others from being brought up.

  “Make sure you get everyone,” someone else pleaded. “Don’t leave anyone behind.”

  “We won’t,” the Calavari promised. “Report everything you know to the debriefers. All the locations of holding sites. All the work places. Everything. We’ll make sure the Viks don’t hold anyone back.”

  “Are they keeping the planet?” Gardo asked as he continued to walk.

  “Hasn’t been decided yet. We’re just getting you guys off first. Director Davis will only negotiate after we have all the prisoners returned. You can send him a thank you message later. Right now, keep moving and get the debriefers all the intel you can. We’re not trusting these bastards one iota.”

  And with that Gardo finally had an assignment that was worthwhile. He had a purpose again and set his wildly fluctuating mind to it. He had to give the Star Force personnel that would be interviewing them everything he knew about the current state of the planet, so he started mentally preparing the most succinct report he could and exchanged notes with the others as they walked and then waited while others were questioned…but not all of them. There wasn’t time. So they were picking certain individuals out and Gardo got tagged by some of the other Bsidd to represent them.

  They gave him everything they knew, most of which Gardo already knew, then he left for a private meeting with a Calavari Maverick no less, and started spilling out every bit of reconnaissance he could on the state of the prisoners and what the V’kit’no’sat had been up to on the planet since they’d taken control of it 18 years ago.

  9

  October 2, 4915

  Bearadan System (V’kit’no’sat territory)

  Tewvo

  Tre’sti watched with horror as the still unidentified attackers received another batch of reinforcements. It was only 1,289 ships, but those ships outmassed the V’kit’no’sat ones, making them at least an even match given the V’kit’no’sat’s superior weaponry. But along with this group came something else. At first he thought it was a sensor echo of a tightly packed fleet, but once the analysts began to chew on it they saw that it was not a fleet…but rather one massive vessel with numerous holes in it.

  It was more than 1000 miles long and half that high, built in a honeycomb fashion with a lot of internal space missing. The I’rar’et ran a quick check through the V’kit’no’sat database, but there were no matches. Nothing even close. Whoever this race was, they’d completely avoided detection and had amassed an impressive fleet…and now they were throwing themselves at the V’kit’no’sat in numbers that Tre’sti could not counter. He’d already lost another planet, sadly the I’rar’et one, with the survivors having been moved to Tewvo and Hamjew, the latter being the Brat’mar world whose planetary shields had not yet been penetrated.

  Tre’sti was currently engaged in a staring match with the enemy fleet over Tewvo as the ground troops fought for possession of the planet. He was daring the enemy to come in low over the intact planetary defenses but they weren’t taking the bait…though they might as soon as those reinforcements got out there. If they did he’d hurt them as badly as possible. If they didn’t, then this system was going to fall and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Hamjew would hold out a while, but everyone moving there would have nowhere to flee and some 28 billion people were going to die, for the enemy was not taking prisoners.

  But while the Urrtren was still intact he could at least warn the others of this new ship. It might just be a cargo hauler, but Tre’sti had a sinking feeling it was not, and that the V’kit’no’sat were going to lose multiple systems in very short order before the enemy stretched themselves thin enough that the planetary defense stations could hold their own.

  But here they were being overwhelmed, despite doing massive damage to the attacking fleets and ground assaults…with the enemy choosing t
he latter after the first three costly orbital strikes.

  Tre’sti couldn’t believe what was happening. Who had the ability to do this? Who was this enemy? And where was the rest of the V’kit’no’sat fleets? This system wasn’t that far from the Star Force front. Were they all skipping by it to head to other engagements? And where were the 38 races that had chosen to stay and fight on the Hadarak front? Was no one else coming? Did no one else care?

  Tre’sti couldn’t evacuate what was left. He didn’t have the ships. And if those on the planets were going to get wiped out, then the I’rar’et fleet was going to go down with them and hurt this enemy as much as possible when they made their final assault on the Brat’mar world. There would be no pulling back. They’d go all in and protect the planetary defenses as long as possible. The Tar’vem’jic had the biggest punch, so the longer Tre’sti could keep them in operation the less ships the enemy would have afterward, and the enemy was going to have to face at least one of them to punch an initial hole in the shields…so that’s where he and the I’rar’et fleet would make their last stand, along with what ships remained from the system defenders.

  And when they were destroyed, those on the planet would have to die with honor…for there was no escape for them and Tre’sti wasn’t going to run away. He was going to make this mysterious foe pay as high a price as possible to claim total possession of the Bearadan System.

  13,042 lightyears away…

  The Nooron System was one of the handful of V’kit’no’sat border systems in line with the conduit to Star Force territory. It had been used as a waypoint in the initial attack on Terraxis that had taken their capitol and then destroyed the Humans’ most valuable systems. During the most recent war it had been one of several transfer points, as well as being in a region that was not coming under attack by the Rim Consortium…a name just now beginning to filter through the Urrtren as the empire came under attack on virtually all fronts.