by Aer-ki Jyr
into lizard territory were Bsidd.
Humans had become the shock troops, going where the
fighting was the toughest, but the Bsidd now made up the majority of Star
Force’s overall combat troops. Morgan didn’t begrudge them that status…she just
wanted the Ninja Monkeys to rise enough to even be in the discussion. Right now
their role was small, guarding a bit of the coreward border and doing their own
thing while hundreds of other agendas and missions were taking place across
Star Force territory. There were 99 other Clans out there, not to mention
dozens of factions larger than her personal holdings on the starmap.
But she’d put her people up against any others head to
head with equal numbers…that went for her combat troops down to her techs. Her
Clan had no civilian population. Everyone here was working on something to
better the Clan overall and that environment wasn’t unique to the Ninja
Monkeys, but it was the strongest here. Many people had stated in various
public records that they’d worked their asses off to qualify for Clan
membership with the intent on coming here because they were sick of the
‘civilian’ atmosphere within the rest of Star Force and they wanted to be part
of a united community. They wanted to be part of a team with a purpose.
And no Clan had a more obvious purpose than Morgan’s
Clan.
Maybe Davis had seen something in Yivati that had
warranted his inclusion here, but Morgan could vouch that Falconi had not been
twiddling his thumbs bored and needing a greater challenge. In fact the system
Davis had assigned him, while being larger and far older than Tor, was not as
taxing a position as Ninja Monkey Marquis had been. He’d told Morgan that
himself after the fact, making them both wonder why Davis had made the change.
He’d helped her build this new chapter in her Clan’s
history, and she missed his expertise badly right now. Yivati was not an
adequate replacement at the moment. Not even close.
But at the end of the day this was her Clan and was
run her way. People moving in and out wasn’t uncommon in the Clans, though it
was a bit odd at the higher ranks. That had changed once the new mandate had
come out, with a lot of people spending time in the ‘pressure cookers’ to test
and develop their higher end skills before transitioning back into Mainline or
Axius to a more normal posting.
Axius…that was another faction that Morgan was envious
of. Their integrated racial units were something that she’d been studying for a
long time, stealing what ideas she could in her military and civilian
alignments. Culture wasn’t an issue here, for all Ninja Monkeys ended up with
the same one given time. No, it was a matter of biologically fitting races
together into the most efficient packages.
Scionate worked well with Archons because they were
just as fast, if not faster over ground. An Archon could run as fast as they
liked and a Scionate unit could keep pace whereas Bsidd or Calavari were
downright sloths. That said, when you needed to hold a position the Bsidd were
very difficult to dislodge, and they themselves had different variants that
could be reorganized into numerous configurations. They were an army within an
army, and one that Morgan was still learning and experimenting with, for she
had a small chunk of her Clan made up of Bsidd recruits.
Then you had the fliers…Lacvamat, Hammid, and Triari
on the military front, then throw in a dozen others that could be incorporated
into tech or support roles. They were difficult to understand, in a tactical
sense, with the book still being written and new tech developed to allow them
to be efficient and effective rather than just tagalongs. Right now Morgan had
a solid group of Hammids that she was using as battlefield scouts and couriers,
and they too could keep up with an Archon on the run, but in a fight they did
poorly in comparison.
Then again a Human under water wasn’t all that
effective either. Elarioni were far superior, save that they lacked the
psionics that made Morgan a female version of Poseidon. Humans, and especially
Archons, could do everything. They’d learned tricks and how to train for even
the stuff they weren’t well built for, but Morgan knew that while that was a
necessity she didn’t dare do the same with the other races. She had to incorporate
their specialties while letting other Clans work on finding secondary
applications for them.
Morgan wasn’t going to have any fliers swimming, even
though there was some progress on that front elsewhere. And there was no point
whatsoever in having an Irondel trained as a Commando. They were the size of a
football and just as easy to kick. On their scale they definitely could fight,
but so many of the other races in the galaxy were larger than them that there
was little point in her Clan employing them in that regard.
What they were good at was fighting in mechs, or at
least specialized mechs. Because of their smaller size an identical mech to
what a Human piloted could be outfitted with stronger weapons, heavier armor,
or whatever else the extra volume that wasn’t necessary for the pilot to exist
within could be retasked for. That was one advantage she was exploring, though
she also knew that making specialized mechs could be a problem. Better to make
modifications to a Human mech to allow an Irondel to pilot it rather than make
a mech that a Human could not fit into if needed.
That said she was still looking into the possibility
of making stronger mechs for the smaller pilots, along with some other
applications that turned the little squirrel-like race into an advantage for
her Clan rather than baggage they had to carry.
That was one founding principle that she had set down
long ago. No one was carried here. If they couldn’t keep up they’d be washed
out, not in a mean way, because they’d go back into some other part of Star
Force that they were more suited for. They’d even have a chance to come back
later if they improved their skills, so Ninja Monkey culture hadn’t become a
nail biting endeavor with people worried about washing out. No, Morgan had specifically
seen to it that everyone knew and understood that this was a test of their
current abilities, not their potential. If someone wanted to be here badly
enough all they had to do was devote the years necessary to prep work, and even
if they failed in their first opportunity they’d be able to keep improving
until they were good enough to remain here under the increased standards and
schedule.
Her people were the best and not because they were
vicious with each other. They were supportive of one another, but they would
not cheat to keep someone here that didn’t belong. They’d expose weaknesses as
Morgan had asked them to, with those weak links being given a set of standards
to train to with an automatic return ticket if they completed that personal mission
elsewhere within the empire.
And Morgan wasn
’t one to talk without doing, which was
why she was always in motion, even when resting, as she was now. Fighting on
the front didn’t allow for her to carry out all the administrative duties
required of her and she had a lot of catching up to do. She get through a few
hours of it here and now before she finally got some food and sleep, then in
the morning she’d be back here after her first round of workouts.
There was no one here to distract her, so even ten
minutes snagged from her demanding schedule could be of use. To that end she
worked now, planning out the development of one of her colonies’ cities that
had only just begun to establish a spaceport. Her plans for it were years in
the future, but she wanted them in place in case the fighting heated up and she
didn’t have a chance to get back to it later. Administrators could design and
build cities independently, but Morgan wasn’t going to leave anything to chance
within her territory.
Every bit of it was going to be by her design, and her
new Marquis and existing staff were here to assist her in fleshing out the Clan
as she liked, not doing it for her. Every unit, every building, every ship that
the Ninja Monkeys had determined how much territory she could take from the
lizards and hold, and Morgan was insistent on squeezing any and all advantages
out of the limited resources and personnel that she had.
Her Clan was badly outmatched by the V’kit’no’sat, and
she couldn’t stand to see the Ninja Monkeys progress slower than they were
capable of. They’d been very fortunate to go unnoticed thus far, and there were
no promises for tomorrow. She had to get her Clan to the point where it could
at least hold its own in a fight, and they were far from that now…against the
V’kit’no’sat anyway.
The lizards were another story, and truthfully she was
using them to hone her Clan for the real war to come. That was the only way
Morgan could stand to see the wall of lizard systems in front of her and not go
after them all. She had to keep the big picture in mind as much as that galled
her…and she was grateful that Davis had given her permission to take down as
many of them as she could, so she didn’t actually have to hold back with
regards to her Clan.
But she was a trailblazer, and all it would take was
one call and she’d have a fleet of Mainline or Bsidd on her doorstep and she
could gut punch the lizard empire before her that was growing stronger and more
bold by the day. Her Clan wasn’t holding back, but she still was, as was Star
Force on the whole. She wished that wasn’t necessary, but Morgan knew they
couldn’t chase the lizards much further toward the galactic core. If they
tipped the V’kit’no’sat off to their presence now it’d be over before the
fighting even began.
They weren’t ready, and damn it all, the lizards had to be ignored on the other side of
the line, but that didn’t meant she couldn’t use them as target practice for
her Clan. Every one of them they killed diminished their strength and could
potentially save some system out of their reach, so Morgan didn’t have any
qualms about poking them in systems that she couldn’t take just yet.
And the lizards were obligingly poking back, giving
her people the challenge needed to continue the transformation process into a
Clan that could one day stand against the V’kit’no’sat.
Sadly, that day was far away and Morgan could feel
their vulnerability as if it were an illness they were all stricken with…which
was why she worked constantly to combat and kill that illness. No one in Clan
Ninja Monkey worked harder or longer hours than Morgan did, and her people knew
it. She didn’t do it for them, but leading by example did have its benefits.
She just hoped that one of those would include her
Marquis living up to her example, and doing so sooner rather than later.
February 9, 3106
Solar System
Mars
Po-1003886 came back from his workout fresh and lively
even though the newly minted ranger was dead tired. He’d leveled up to the
third tier of Archons four days ago and had been on a high ever since then,
proudly cleaning out his wardrobe of the acolyte silver stripes and replacing
his uniforms with the ones that bore the ranger green. He put on one of those
after a quick shower, then stopped by the cafeteria for all of two minutes to
grab a quick bite and a couple of sugar sticks to take with him as he headed
for the meeting he’d been anticipating.
His dead legs didn’t bother him, aching from a very
long run that he’d probably pushed a little too far. He had a habit of doing
that, but it was the only way he learned his current limits. He’d adjust now
that he had data to work with and find a way to approach higher level workouts
without tanking, as he always did. Right now though his future as an Archon was
about to be determined in a big way, and he wasn’t the only one. Several others
that had also just made ranger were gathering here as well, and when he walked
into the amphitheater he saw several dozen of them already sitting in the seats
while a few people were waiting up on the stage.
Po took a seat and chewed on his last sugar stick,
feeling his adrenaline spiking more than it did in combat. Ever since becoming
an Archon he’d been working out of this facility on Mars, as a base at least.
He’d had some field assignments, including one all the way down in Gamma
Region, but he’d always cycled back here same as the other adepts and acolytes
did, for this was Clan Null’s headquarters…with the name being a joke more than
anything, but the trailblazers seemed to like doing that sort of thing with
labeling.
All adepts and acolytes belonged to the Nulls, with
had their headquarters here on Mars and a super-sized sanctum to accommodate
them all. A good portion of those Archons were here in training and
participating in the internal trials…which were beyond intense, far more so
than anything he’d gone through in basic as a trainee. He knew the more
advanced Archon trials were mind boggling, but to date he hadn’t been able to
participate and get his butt kicked in any of them given the fact that he
wasn’t part of a Clan yet.
Today that would change, for him and the other new
rangers still coming into the chamber. While a Clan placement wasn’t permanent
most Archons never switched teams, unless there was a good reason to do so. Po
had heard that there was a fair amount of rangers moving from one Clan to
another, but with strikers and on up they were pretty much set. Each Clan had
taken a different development route, had different membership standards and
focuses, and was in itself unique…with the competition between them being
fierce.
“That looks like all of you,” Terry-201118 said as the
last person walked in. The Archon mage remotely closed the door and walked out
from behind the control pedestal, looking at all of the new rangers from the
<
br /> edge of the stage. “You know why you’re here. Time to choose a Clan and
transition to the next stage. The kid gloves are coming off and your inclusion
in the Nulls is now over. If on the odd chance that someone does not wish to
join a Clan, or are unable to do so, the training facility on Earth for
neutrals will become your new home. This facility no longer is. This is your
second graduation, and now it’s time to step up and play with the big dogs.”
The mage gestured and another person on stage, a
handler of some sort, took up position behind the pedestal and began operating
the amphitheater’s controls. All 100 symbols of the various Clans appeared in
hologram behind Terry and moved out to both sides, eventually ringing the
circular chamber up near the ceiling and enlarging until they created a halo
that crowned the entire room.
“Membership requirements vary for each Clan, and on
the information before you, you will see those which are open to you joining
them at your current skill levels. Some look for overall marks, others want
specialists,” he said as an individual holographic panel lit up in front of Po,
as well as every other person in the chamber. It had his data on it, and he
wondered how they knew what seat he was sitting in…then again, there weren’t
that many of them here, so maybe the assistant just matched up faces.
“On occasion a Clan will make a specific bid for an
individual they feel is noteworthy. If they want you badly enough they’ll leave
a message, otherwise they’re looking for recruits that meet their entry
standards…and be aware, you have to maintain those standards to stay in the
Clan. Keep that in mind when you’re choosing, for you don’t want to join one
then wash out within the year. Your schedules are going to alter, so if you’re
locked into a specific training pattern you might be forced to change it, and
that could created a plateau or even a backslide until you adjust.”
“The Clans are a pressure cooker for all their
personnel, from Archons down to techs. You’ve got to keep up with whatever
training pace they want, and most of you will be in over your heads from day
one. Make sure the Clan is a good fit for you, because you don’t want to waste
months or years on a bad match. Those of you with options, study them