by Aer-ki Jyr
“The amount of cargo ships required for that would be staggering.”
“Which is why we need secure routes prior to the grid point system being moved. That will have to occur last.”
“They are so large I do not know how you would go about moving them in any efficient manner.”
“We’re good at solving tech problems. We can handle it and prop up this region, allowing you to withdraw and the Meintre to rebuild in isolation from the rest of The Nexus’s threats even as they’re being systematically destroyed. Given time, if you can hold on long enough, their regrowth can help supplement and stabilize your patrol fleets.”
The Sety looked at the map again, then back at Davis.
“I will relay your proposal, but to give them as much information as possible, for the sake of consideration only, let’s negotiate in theory the details of this agreement…starting with the security of the evacuation routes.
4
August 2, 3429
Ollo System (lizard territory)
Tella
The lizard jumpship sat in stellar orbit briefly as it dispatched three cruisers, then it left the system after transmitting a message to the single inhabited planet of Tella. The lizards on the world accepted the announcement of couriers arriving and met with two of the cruisers in orbit to exchange crews and transmit mastermind markers while the third cruiser headed down to the surface. It was granted access through lowered planetary shields and wisp patrols, finally landing at one of the lizard spaceports with a stream of standard variants pouring out.
A lizard administrator and two librarians were awaiting them along with a host of their own standard variants, but when a much larger lizard appeared coming down the ramp off the cruiser they all flinched. They’d been told a courier was coming, not a mastermind.
The largest of all the lizards casually walked across the wide landing pad with his phalanx of escorts as the administrator moved to intercept his path…which was not headed for him.
“We were not told of your arrival,” he apologized as he came up alongside the escorts, but neither they nor the mastermind stopped walking to address him. “What are your orders?”
“Cease all outgoing transmissions from this system. Hold all ships that arrival until I give orders for them to be released,” the mastermind said while barely looking at the administrator.
The tall but thin lizard gestured to one of the librarians and it began to catalog and transmit the order.
“All Star Force vessels are to be considered neutral from this point forward. If one arrives in this system it is to be ignored. I have come to an arrangement that will spare this world. They will not land on the surface, and we will not engage or hinder them in any way in space. See to it that agreement is not violated, administrator.”
“It will be done.”
The mastermind stopped and extended a hand towards the administrator, who brushed his own against it to receive the mastermind’s mark.
“A great many things are changing, and we have to retool quickly in order to serve our purpose. I need a full report on system logistics.”
The administrator turned to the other librarian who was already tapping orders onto a handheld device. “You will have it shortly. What we are retooling?”
“With the agreement made with Star Force we no longer have to worry about the security of this system. We are retooling into an aggressive industrial expansion per the protocols I will be supplying.”
“Our resource base is currently thin. We’ve been relying on imports for several key items.”
“No longer. We must produce everything locally.”
“That will cause considerable delays in production.”
“That is why I am here to deal with the matter myself,” the mastermind said, deciding the conversation was finished and walking on with his phalanx as the administrator stayed put for a moment and conversed with the librarians, then the three of them moved off to begin implementing orders and readying the planet for whatever changes were to come.
And as simple as that, Star Force added another planet full of lizards to its quickly growing collection.
“Where is he?” Keev-4211 asked his command staff in a small huddle around a holographic map at the back of the bridge of his Warship-class flagship.
“Probably Lutell,” an analyst said, pointing at a dot on the map representing the star system, “but Innwest and Boulo are also possibilities. His genetic markers are in all three systems.”
“The rest of these are clean?” Keev asked, gesturing to the 28 systems in the same geographical region.
“That’s what our scouts reported.”
“Why hasn’t he claimed them all?” Keev’s padawan asked. “They’re close enough to remain in relay contact with.”
“Maybe that’s all he thinks he needs,” Captain Jarren speculated.
“They’re not acting with coordination anymore,” Keev noted. “They know they’re going to die soon, so they’re fortifying key systems to try and do as much damage as possible. There’s no need for him to spread marker instructions to these feeder systems. Their tasks are simplistic and probably beneath his notice. We’ve seen administrators run fully developed planets on their own, so I’m not surprised the rest of these systems don’t have a marker. If they stay clean their fate is certain, but we need to find out where he is. I don’t want to launch three separate attacks if we can only manage one.”
“Do you think he’s even there?” his padawan asked. “Why sacrifice himself if he can keep moving around?”
“If he’s put down markers,” the analyst suggested, “then he’s fairly well involved in the oversight. He won’t leave prematurely.”
“But he might run to one of these other systems when the fireworks start,” the Captain suggested.
Keev sighed. “We don’t have signal jammers, so we’re going to have to do this the old fashioned way. Blockade the systems, orbital bombardment to pluck their transmission capability, then we can send the masterminds down and find out exactly where this bastard is. On two worlds we won’t have to fight them to the death, but I really don’t want to have to batter my way through three planetary defense networks to get to that point. Can’t we narrow this down any more?”
“Masterminds are slippery,” the analyst reminded him. “If we didn’t have marker scouts going in we wouldn’t have been able to narrow it down to these three. I’m trusting that the Saber lizards’ intel is accurate, and this is as close as we can get based on it.”
“We could assault them in sequence and hope we guess right the first or second time,” the Captain suggested.
“No,” Keev said with an emphatic shake of his head. “We have to do this simultaneously. Even if we kill him we might not even know for sure until we sort through the rubble. If he is likely to go mobile we can’t spook him. Assuming he is on one of these three systems, we have to blockade all of them simultaneously and take out their comm capability.”
“And if he’s elsewhere?” his padawan asked.
“Then we’ll be able to tell by how they respond to our attack,” the analyst answered the Archon. “We don’t have to physically see the mastermind to know of his presence.”
“Once we confirm that we’ve got him isolated,” Keev continued, “we send out our own masterminds to the unmarked systems and assume control. If there is a mastermind hiding out on one of them then we’re screwed, because he’ll be able to spill our secret before we knock the transmitters down. But even though they could grow one for each world they don’t, so I highly doubt there are any there or just visiting without throwing down a marker.”
The Captain nodded. “We’ve got him pinned down to worlds that in the past wouldn’t have ever warranted one. That suggests he’s run before and was transplanted here rather than grown. If we assault this region piecemeal he could run again if we hit the wrong system first. I don’t like it either, but I agree with the titan. We’ve got to assault all three simultaneously
.”
“We don’t have enough ships for that,” his padawan said, stating the obvious.
“Enough to blockade,” the analyst suggested, with all eyes going to her. “If we can tell by early reactions to our presence where the mastermind is, we can pull the ships from the other two systems out and concentrate our assault on just the one he is at.”
“A feint?” Keev considered. “That’s assuming we can isolate him through naval combat alone.”
The analyst shrugged. “Best suggestion I’ve got.”
“And worth a try. If we have to sit in blockade mode for a while until we get reinforcements, so be it. Our main priority is locating the mastermind. After that happens and we cut his comm lines we can proceed however we like. So…best guesses people.”
“Lutell is the obvious place,” his padawan said deviously. “So that probably means he’s not there?”
“If he has markers on three worlds, that means he’s either been to all three or sent representatives to transmit for him,” the analyst detailed. “Lutell is the most advanced and would therefore require the most oversight…but as was noted, none of these systems truly require a mastermind for operation.”
“Then what is he up to?” the Captain asked.
“Good question,” Keev echoed. “There’s always some angle in play and as far as we know they haven’t caught on to our ability to read their markers. So we know these three systems are highlighted, but he doesn’t.”
“He’s doing what he’s programmed to,” another analyst interjected. “He has little to work with so he’s trying to expand upon it before he can do anything clever.”
“Maybe,” Keev half agreed, “but they can cause trouble with very little in the right circumstances. If he is trying to build, where would he be?”
“Lutell,” the first analyst repeated.
Keev sighed. “Alright. We’ll split 50/25/25 with the bulk going to Lutell. Let’s hope we get lucky and this guy wants to go down fighting with as big a swing as possible. If he hides or runs we’re going to have a mess to deal with. Captain, pick your favorite assault ships.”
Jarren smiled. “Happy to, Archon.”
Further back in the occupation zone, the mastermind known as 118 had fully assimilated the planet of Tella to his purposes, for there hadn’t been any dissent upon his arrival. He was a mastermind and they followed his orders…it was as simple as that. Reworking the current lizard infrastructure towards what he needed was the challenge, but by the first arrival of a lizard jumpship to the system that he wasn’t confiscating, he was ready with the prerequisite amount of cargo, making his first contribution a success.
It hadn’t been assured, for creating the new factories was tiresome enough, but securing all the needed resources from the system had required additional mines off planet following a slew of mineral scouting expeditions to the rocky, lifeless worlds further out and encompassed by the asteroid field that ringed the star. He’d been lucky enough to get a few finds right away, and along with some tricky conversion methods that had come from the Sabers he was able to convert some high volume/low value materials into the more valuable ones while using replacement parts made of lesser quality materials but that would still get the job done in order to meet his first quota.
He’d been instructed that the quota wasn’t a firm requirement, but rather a benchmark to work towards. Each planet had a unique situation for the mastermind sent to it to adjust to, but the main priority for them to be here was to lock down the population while putting them to good use. There were too many lizards to be evacuated en mass, and the idea of fighting those they couldn’t move was so inefficient that it had been deemed necessary to adopt a ‘take and hold’ strategy. Perhaps one day this world would be evacuated, but for now it was going to remain in lizard hands…but the mastermind obeyed the Archons, thus this world would as well.
The lizards here didn’t know that, nor did they need to. Orders would flow through the mastermind and that was that.
When the convoy of four lizard jumpships entered the system they were easily identified as such, but their shape and coloration were different from standard varieties. They were smaller and colored blue rather than yellow/tan, but that didn’t make any difference to the comm/ID systems. Plus, if they were hostile, it would be up to 118 to determine that…and he knew they weren’t.
He granted them permission to enter and his lizard naval forces automatically accepted their presence here. When they reached low orbit they began to dispel landing craft, also of new design, that traveled down to the surface and began picking up the cargo he’d had stacked up into small mountains across several pads. Each crate contained Star Force building materials, made exactly to the specifications they required, but produced by the lizards and with their technology.
Now that this initial allotment had been reached and on time, he was able to give the lizards in orbit estimates for future production and a report of his activities here…for he hadn’t had previous contact with Star Force since his arrival. The interstellar communication device was of no use to that end given its limited range, but a recently started construction project was enlarging it so that it would be able to reach other claimed lizard worlds who could bounce the reports on to a proper Star Force receiver.
Until then he only had couriers to work with, and those were the cargo convoys that would be arriving periodically. They weren’t under his command, but they would still convey messages back and forth. His report going out stipulated that the planet was fully under his control and producing adequate amounts of the desired parts and would continue to do so until he received further orders.
But that didn’t mean he didn’t have plenty of work to do. Maintaining the quotas was the first priority, but beyond that he had a lot of building to do regardless of what the eventual fate of this planet was. More factories, more mines, and more shipyards. He’d been instructed to keep the population as low as possible, but he could grow as many as needed and he intended to do so in order to create as much mobile equipment as he could. He had the new designs and intended to add at least one jumpship to his arsenal, not to mention a few warships that he could send on back to Clan Saber for them to use however they liked.
He had operational autonomy, as any mastermind was meant to, and he intended to use his to enhance the Saber’s powerbase as much as he could while maintaining this planet’s population of lizards on site so that evacuation resources could be saved and Tella could contribute to Star Force rather than be a drain on it.
It was a worthy assignment, and his first, but it would not be his last. Someday in the future, when he’d completed enough assignments successfully, he’d earn his name. Right now only one mastermind had one, and that was their progenitor, Thrawn. 118 would get his in time, but he had to demonstrate his skills and further develop them in order to attain that hallowed level. Thrawn was far older and more experienced than him, but he also had some of his memories and his overall template. 118 was sure he’d live up to his progenitor’s example, but one thing that had become clear to both of them was that Star Force favored results over genetic predisposition…and that was something he could wholeheartedly agree with. Identical genetics often yielded differing results, his memories from Thrawn confirmed this, and if 118 was to have a name he’d have to earn it on his own merits.
And that was what he intended to do, first by meeting the cargo quotas, and then by building up this planet in a way beneficial to Clan Saber while not hampering their eventual evacuation plans. Mobile units were the key, and he planned on developing a few new variations on his own with a think tank of his scientists already working on several projects.
5
July 29, 3430
Solar System
Earth
“Do we have a deal?” Arch Duke Vectir asked Davis from across the planning table that the Director’s desk had stretched out into, taking up a bit more of the otherwise empty space in his office atop Atlantis.
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��Yes, but there have been revisions that I have accepted. The courier was sent four days ago.”
“What do you need from us?” Arch Duke Hightower asked, with his counterparts from Rotunna, Zerus, and Pagaliss likewise seated around the table for this ultra-high level 5 man conference. Never could he remember a time when they were all in the same system at once, given the fact that they each oversaw one of Star Force’s primary systems. Hightower’s was just next door to Sol, but the others were quite far away with Rotunna in Beta Region, Zerus in Alpha Region, and Pagaliss in the Calavari Region.
All were still in the ADZ or close to it, however, and Star Force had grown considerably beyond that dense region, which was in point the reason why they had all been summoned back to Earth.
“The Sety want to increase the number of systems given to them so they can harbor other races beyond the Meintre, including portions of the Gfatt and Arbos. They mean to make this a part of their long term strategy, and so long as we maintain the security of the region so they can build uninterrupted, they will relocate a closer grid point pair to facilitate the transfer, then move the Meintre link to fill the gap once they’ve evacuated.”
“How aggressive is the opposition getting?” Arch Duke Karthen asked, who headed up the Bsidd faction from their capitol in Zerus, though he was Human like the other four men at the table. Most of the administrators within the Bsidd were of their race, but the highest positions required more experience and as their race grew by leaps and bounds no less than an Arch Duke was required to turn their reproductive strength away from tragedy and into a powerful advantage. The lesson of the Kiritas had been learned well, and the Bsidd had never fallen into the trap of overpopulation.
“I’m not sure, but the Sety seem to think that pulling back will buy them a great deal of time. It will look like losses, but if they’re able to withdraw a significant portion of the population and critical equipment they will be in a better position than their enemies know.”