Star Force Perseverance (SF81) (Star Force Origin Series)

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Star Force Perseverance (SF81) (Star Force Origin Series) Page 9

by Aer-ki Jyr


  deals for some of the prime ones, but overall their proposals are more goods

  oriented. They want to integrate further with Star Force without actually

  joining and we’re hammering out the details. They’ll be here for another week

  at least and we’re done for the day. What’s on your mind?”

  “I’ve finished my theoretical retooling.”

  Davis’s mood perked up slightly. “And?”

  “We have some options.”

  “I’ve got time,” Davis said as he sat back down in his

  chair. “Lay it out for me.”

  Wilson sat as well. “As Star Force grows we have an

  increasingly difficult task of command and control, which we’ve dealt with by

  developing and maintaining a core group of trustworthy individuals, whether

  they be Archons, Monarchs, Administrators, etc. Everything functions off of

  them, and remove that spine and you’d see the empire fall apart. Not

  immediately, since the factions and systems are redundant and somewhat

  self-sufficient, but we are the glue that holds it all together and the larger

  our territory gets the more glue we need.”

  “Agreed.”

  “The question has been whether that glue needs to be

  Human. The answer is no. It needs to be Star Force. Already you have a few

  non-Human Monarchs, so there’s no issue there, but with regards to the Archons

  it’s not so simple a matter because of their psionics. Ask yourself this

  though…could you ever see a very skillful Calavari becoming a trailblazer?”

  Davis frowned. “We aren’t producing any more

  trailblazers, Calavari or Human.”

  “Kara says otherwise. Special circumstances elevated

  her into their ranks, more or less. Assume something drastic happened and it

  involved a Calavari.”

  “They would tell me whether or not they wanted him. I

  wouldn’t make that decision.”

  “What would they judge him by?”

  “Skill, obviously. Trustworthiness. Experience would

  also be a factor, I imagine.”

  “You’re missing one.”

  Davis raised an eyebrow.

  “Brotherhood. That’s what bonds them together more

  than anything else. The things you mentions are prerequisites, but it’s the

  bond they have that’s the real glue with them and allows them to function

  without a chain of command. The rest of the empire has a structure, but they

  don’t. We don’t. You run things because you’re best at it, I’m best at training,

  but we never get into a bickerment over who gives orders.”

  “Bickerment?”

  Wilson smiled. “A term I coined long ago. There’s a

  difference between arguing and bickering.”

  “So there is. Bickerment then. I’ll add that to my

  vocabulary list.”

  “You and I are a team, without any constraints

  whatsoever. Originally I was your employee, but that didn’t last long.”

  “You’re saying we don’t dare mess with that core

  bond?”

  “We’re also all Human, and that factors in as well. We

  also all went through the process of building Star Force…and therein lies the

  key. We are Star Force, and we’re not going to be replaced. We can add a few

  worthy individuals to our ranks, but there’s no way anyone else has claim to

  our personal club. We built it, we earned it, and we’re the gatekeepers. Humans

  aren’t the gatekeepers, we are, and that’s a distinction that needs to be

  highlighted.”

  “Noted.”

  “So the real question becomes the lower elite ranks.

  You’ve already established protocol for the Monarchs…which is?”

  “I hand pick them all, mostly from existing

  Administrators, though a few from other placements.”

  “All experienced?”

  “To a degree, yes.”

  “That’s not how we choose Archons. We take them fresh

  off a testing package.”

  Davis nodded. “Should that change?”

  Wilson shook his head. “No, not at all. The process is

  very refined now. No need to tamper with it…for Humans anyway.”

  “If you’re going where I think you’re going with this,

  you don’t want non-Humans in the Archon basic training?”

  “I don’t want them in Archon training at all.”

  “That’s a much simpler thing to say, so I assume there

  is a caveat?”

  “Brotherhood develops in many ways. To make it the

  most potent you have to all be the same. Same race, same skills, same

  challenges. No one without the full psionic package can be Archons. We can etch

  that in stone right now.”

  “Consider it etched then. What else?”

  “The Protovic are close to Human physiology, no one

  else is. A few are similar, but the only real Archon question is them. If we

  give them, one day, full psionics, could they also be Archons?”

  “I’m guessing no, but I’d like to hear your reasons

  for it.”

  “For one they’re more rigid, due to their exoskeleton,

  and don’t have the flexibility range. That and other small differences are

  present, and aside from physically changing them into Human there’s no point in

  trying to make them Human. Archons are Human, pure and simple. That doesn’t

  mean the Protovic can’t be valuable to the empire, but they’re not Archons.”

  “Which brings us back to your trailblazer question.”

  “If they accepted a Protovic into their midst, how

  would they do it? I used Calavari because it’s a more drastic example, but

  either will suffice.”

  “Either way they’d have to be able to hold their

  ground in a fight,” Davis said, thinking hard. “Strategic skills…heavy dose of

  sarcasm.”

  “Would they expect them to match them exactly?”

  “I think Paul would say that Grand Admiral Thrawn

  answers that question.”

  Wilson laughed. “I was considering using that example.

  Odd how they got both of us to literally memorize those bits of fiction.”

  “They’re useful metaphors,” Davis agreed. “Thrawn

  wasn’t Human.”

  “No, and he had a slightly different way of

  commanding, but he still got the job done. I think that’s the bottom line.”

  “So if an individual can meet Archon standards,

  however they get around to it…”

  Wilson shook his head firmly. “No.”

  “No?”

  “We’re not going to hold back individuals trying to

  fit them into Human standards. We have some very good Calavari that have been

  serving as Commandos in the Human Mainline armies for centuries. They’re

  operating off of Human standards and ranked lower than their combat potential

  because they fight in different ways. At the time this wasn’t a problem because

  all of Mainline was Human. Now we have Mainline factions of Calavari, Bsidd,

  etc and there’s no need to integrate units except where advantageous. Those

  units that are hybrids function far better because each piece is suited to its

  role rather than being crunched down into a one form fits all.”

  “How does this affect the Archons?”<
br />
  “It’s simple. We allow them to have sidekicks.”

  Davis looked at Wilson for a few seconds as he tried

  to wrap his head around that idea. “What exactly are you inferring?”

  “If we create psionics, we create them specifically

  for the races and not to match what Humans have. They can become equals on the

  battlefield, in theory, doing it their own way. They won’t be Archons, won’t be

  part of that core group, from the beginning…but they could be adopted into it

  later as sidekicks.”

  “Define ‘sidekick’ then.”

  “Think of Archons like brothers and sisters, with

  sidekicks being cousins.”

  “Ah,” Davis said, almost in a sigh, as it finally

  clicked. “A strong bond but not quite what exists between Archons. Yet

  battlefield comradery and the potential to advance up to our level if they

  proved themselves worthy.”

  “You’re already doing that with the Monarchs.”

  “Their field involves giving orders, which can be

  accomplished by any race. Physical combat is far different.”

  “And I’ve already covered that, in theory,” Wilson

  said as he fished a data chip out of his pocket and tossed it to Davis. “My

  ideas of how to upgrade all the races we have someday. Not on the whole, but

  for select individuals. There won’t be a training program like the Archons,

  it’ll work more like the Arc Commandoes in that select individuals will be

  chosen based on experience and merit. They’ll work with the Archons and operate

  within that chain of command. Each will exist as part of Clan and organize in

  that fashion, with their skills being utilized for what they can and can’t do

  rather than trying to make them conform to Archon standards…which I’ll remind

  you, are designed to master all 5 divisions.”

  “I don’t think we really master aquatics,” Davis pointed out, “but we’re at least average compared

  to the Elarioni.”

  “We can do it all, and so can the Protovic. Not as

  well, but they can. Most of the other races are more slanted towards

  specialties. Specialists can’t be Archons. Archons have to do it all.”

  “Sidekicks can be specialists?”

  “Yes, and depending on how they’re psionically

  upgraded that may change in certain areas.”

  “And the current blue Protovic?”

  “You mean the new blue or the old blue?”

  “New blue.”

  “Theirs is a racial program, which seems to be working

  out well so far. We’ll have to wait and see what happens when they get some

  depth. I don’t think we need to mess with their abilities anytime soon. Leave

  them alone, with maybe a few bits of tinkering down the road. Let them be what

  they can be and forget about being Archons. If they have the merit to lead the

  empire, it’ll be as Protovic.”

  “They’re not getting my job,” Davis scoffed.

  “Nor should they. My point is Archons are Human for

  numerous reasons, and not just psionics. True equality comes on the

  battlefield, whether it be combat or economic, and not in the route you take to

  get there.”

  “We always have been fond of doing what works. This

  would be no different.”

  “It’s going to take a lot of trial and error to get

  the other races pegged down, even without giving them psionics. I haven’t

  trained them like Archons, and I’ll need to get to know how their bodies and

  psyches work better before I try to develop a really deep elite program for

  them. Their current training programs are solid, don’t get me wrong, but

  they’re not built for someone meant to hold so much responsibility, let alone

  problem solving, like the Archons are. I’ve got a lot of work to do if you want

  to head down this road, and it’ll change every time we can add a psionic or

  other ability.”

  “Other ability?”

  “We kind of use the word ‘psionic’ to refer to

  superpowers…and even that isn’t a strict definition.”

  “Guilty as charged.”

  “Getting some of the air breathing aquatics races

  liquid breathing upgrades would be one example.”

  Davis paused for a moment.

  “I don’t think we can do that with our bodies though,”

  Wilson added. “Too much tissue change.”

  “I wonder. The V’kit’no’sat didn’t include that in our

  genome or theirs, and I wonder if that’s because the backup oxygen is for more

  than just being under water.”

  “They didn’t use Zen’zat for underwater operations

  anyway.”

  “Not that we know of, but their armor still had an

  aquatics module. So it’s possible they were used in that sense on occasion.”

  “I’ve never seen any files detailing that.”

  “Neither have I. We’re too slow in the water compared

  to the swimmers to be worth deploying save for emergency situations. Unaugmented

  anyway,” Davis said as he slipped the datachip into a slot on his desk and

  pulled up the reports Wilson had compiled for him, seeing that, as usual, Star

  Force’s head trainer had been excessively thorough. “Who do you want to start

  with?”

  “I’m assuming we’re nowhere near developing any custom

  psionics?”

  “The timetable on that has gotten considerably hazy,

  but assume no for the foreseeable future.”

  “Then I want 100 Calavari here, on Earth, in Atlantis

  so I can personally develop this program. We’ll need some considerable

  remodeling first, though.”

  Davis nodded. “You still don’t trust the Archon

  trainees to anyone else?”

  “I want to be able to troubleshoot if needed, but most

  of the duties can be handled by others. That and I want to be the face they

  know from the outset. I won’t lose touch completely, but I can free up a lot of

  spare time if needed for this.”

  “How do you plan on choosing the candidates?”

  “These aren’t candidates. This is an advanced training

  group, pure and simple. I need to learn the Calavari better before I design the

  real one. I just need experienced, intuitive individuals that I can press and

  study. I need to know how they think and respond under pressure, and to do that

  I need to poke and prod them in very specific ways.”

  “Will a seafloor expansion suffice? We’re kind of

  lacking in internal space as it is.”

  “So long as I don’t have to hop on a dropship to move

  from one group to another.”

  “I’ll have them build you a private transit system to

  an adjacent facility. We have several nearby that can be repurposed easily and

  they’ll function as part of the city if the link is fast enough, which it will

  be.”

  “Adequate. How soon can I get my experiments?”

  Davis bit his lip. “I can rush the conversion inside

  of a year. Finding and recalling the volunteers might take longer. Do you want

  to handle that as well or should I just ask the Archons to do it?”

  “If this were the actual first class I’d do it, but

/>   since I’m not sure what to look for in Calavari they’d probably be better

  judges. Just ask the ones that have worked with them extensively. The others

  probably know less than I do about them at this point.”

  “Done deal.”

  Wilson nodded. “I don’t know how long this will

  actually take.”

  “No rush. No rush at all. Just another puzzle piece we

  need to get in motion.”

  “We have a lot of those, don’t we?”

  “The bigger the empire, the more pieces.”

  “About that…I have another request. A side project

  that’s long overdue.”

  “Yes?”

  “I need to run the Archons through psionic armor

  challenges. For that I’ll need an army trained to use them…which I’ll have to

  develop if no one else gets around to it. It’s been on the Archons’ to-do list

  for some time, but they’ve never implemented it as far as I know.”

  “Gun shy?”

  “Might be. Either way, it’s better something that I

  handle than them. Same reason they can’t create their own challenges…at least

  not ones as good as I can. You can’t think like yourself and your enemy at the

  same time.”

  “Terrorize them as you like.”

  “That’ll actually be a bigger logistical project than

  the Calavari.”

  “Recruit what personnel and resources that you

  need…although I would make one recommendation.”

  “Which is?”

  “Involve Vermaire. From an Archon’s point of view,

  nothing is more intimidating than a Black Knight immune to your powers, and

  Vermaire knows the trailblazers well enough to figure out how to hurt them.”

  “Vermaire isn’t here.”

  “He’s not?” Davis said, raising an eyebrow.

  “They came and got him not long ago. Said they needed

  him and his best Arc Knights on the front.”

  “I didn’t realize that. He rarely leaves Earth.”

  “They asked and he went. I don’t know much more than

  that.”

  “Do you know where he went?”

  “To the core world that the 2s are assaulting.”

  January 6, 3108

  Menchet System

  (lizard core)

  Tess

  “Are we sure about this?” Riona asked, looking down

  the narrow chasm that was the innards of one of the connecting columns that ran

 

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