Star Force: Knighthood (SF36)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  But that didn’t matter to Bronsor, who’d gotten accustomed to the Human designs. He was interested in seeing this new planet the Calavari would be building on, and as soon as the dropship left the jumpship’s bay he got a view of one of the Human stations in nearby orbit. It was perfectly round and colored deep gray like most of their ships were, and he knew from his recent reading that it was what they called a ‘seda,’ but because of the color he knew it didn’t belong to Canderous, which always had green sedas. That meant it was a Star Force seda, placed here as both an outpost and battle station to guard orbit and the planet below.

  The soldier in him wanted to know how they fought, for the Humans hadn’t provided any battle footage, only schematics and general details.

  As the dropship passed it by and moved down into the planet’s atmosphere the exterior cameras clouded up a bit by the aerial disruption, then cleared again letting the Calavari see the city below them on the arid planet. Bronsor knew there was no vegetation or native lifeforms, but the atmosphere and gravity were habitable, and would allow them to begin seeding the planet with forests if they could scrape up enough water from beneath the surface…otherwise they’d have to find a way to recycle the carbon dioxide into oxygen artificially.

  That wouldn’t be a problem inside sealed cities, but if they wanted to roam free on the surface it would eventually become a problem…and one that the Humans seemed to be on top of already, for he could see a narrow stripe of green around the northern edge of one of their cities, three of which could be seen on the small datapad he held in his hand. The one they were headed for was a military city, where the new Calavari army was going to be trained, with the females and infants being located elsewhere.

  As the dropship descended to the middle of the three visible cities, the other two slowly disappeared over the horizon and the landscape below them opened up into a very alien cityscape, far larger than Bronsor had expected it to be. He’d been told that the Calavari would be using Human tech in addition to anything they could build of their own on site, but he hadn’t realized how much infrastructure the Humans had already prepared for them.

  The city below them could hold millions of Calavari, judging by the size, making it abundantly clear, along with everything else the Humans had done for them, that their allies were overly intent on reestablishing the Calavari powerbase here, so that they could recover their strength and help the Humans in the war against both the Nestafar and the Cajdital.

  When the dropship landed and the rear hatch opened, Bronsor walked out onto the surface of his new home and looked up into the sky on the landing pad, seeing a slight pink haze and tasting the dry air as any doubts as to his coming here erased themselves from his mind. This was a place of power, and a sign of the respect the Humans had for the Calavari, making his success here all the more important, both to his own race and their ally.

  Purpose…that’s what he was feeling, and that’s what had been lost on him for some time now. This city, this world surged with hope, drive, and above all else, purpose. This was the Calavari’s future, even if they did manage to hold onto key systems in the war zone. Here they would build a force capable of rescuing the others…and that felt right to him in a way he couldn’t fully articulate.

  Fortunately he didn’t have to, for he and the other Calavari remained silent as they walked across the exterior spaceport deck and were passed on to another Human handler that showed them into and through the city, first onboard a hovertruck that took them along the city streets that were a mix of both Humans and Calavari pedestrians, as well as a number of other hovering vehicles. They also passed one of the Humans’ upright walkers as it stomped its way between buildings, loaded with weapon pods.

  Bronsor huffed his approval as they passed, as did several of the others beside him in the open aired vehicle that held 8 of them plus a driver. Their Human attendant stood beside the also Human driver without sitting, then led them off and into another blocky Human building when they’d arrived at their destination.

  Inside they were given individualized quarters, learning that this was the Humans’ form of a military barracks. To Bronsor it seemed like a lot of wasted space but he didn’t complain, for the sizing was all Calavari, right down to the table tops and doorways, making the few Humans walking around look especially tiny.

  He was given an access code for the door, and showed how he could alter it to whatever he wanted, not seeing the point. Calavari didn’t use locked doors except where outsiders were concerned. If your fellow soldiers couldn’t be trusted not to steal your stuff, then there was no way they could be trusted on the battlefield. None the less, with so many Humans around Bronsor thought it was an acceptable safety precaution, despite the fact that he didn’t have any possessions to steal, nor did any of the others.

  That was to change within a few hours, when their handler took them ‘shopping’ for all types of gear and personal items…all Human produced for the Calavari. Bronsor picked out several uniforms that he felt were acceptable, along with a comm device, datapad, data chips, person grooming device, and an assortment of other things that he’d not had the luxury of owning on the jumpship. He and the others carried multiple boxes full of items back to their quarters and began organizing them, taking away the empty feeling the multi-roomed chambers had as they were given the rest of the day off to settle in.

  Bronsor roamed around the building, then went out with a few of the others to scout the nearby area, discovering that while the architecture was Human, the buildings’ functions were familiarly Calavari. Everything was different, with a Human feel to it, but this had been designed as a city for the Calavari and followed many of their traditions…including a wrestling bar where they could lightly spar with one another over drinks, except that the Humans didn’t allow for any intoxicating or damaging confections.

  In their place they had a wide range of new liquids and snacks, most of which Bronsor actually took a liking to. He spent the next several hours there with the scattering of other Calavari in what he learned was still a very low populated city. It was near empty, in fact, making him and the others some of the first evacuees to arrive.

  Bronsor squared off with a tech, taking the slightly smaller Calavari down quickly 3 out of 4 times while having to work a bit harder on the fourth. Neither was injured, and the wrestling gave both of them a way to blow off steam against someone they weren’t familiar with, offering a refreshing sparring challenge compared to his fellow soldiers whose fighting styles he’d grown familiar with.

  From the tech he learned that the Humans, who preferred to be called Star Force, were having the Calavari learn their tech as well as teach them theirs as they designed new equipment specifically for the Calavari…including their own version of combat walkers to replace the tanks they traditionally used, though they were also upgrading those into remotely controlled drones, similar to the Star Force warfleet.

  Bronsor asked many questions, and the techs were eager to talk with their own kin after being surrounded by Humans for most of the day. At first, they admitted, they’d taken affront to Star Force redesigning their military, as if it hadn’t been good enough, despite the fact that the Calavari empire was infinitely stronger than the Human’s tiny territory, but quickly enough they saw it was combat efficiency that they were after. They wanted to keep existing troops deployments intact by building better equipment to protect the soldier, rather than training more soldiers to replace those that were lost.

  It was then that Bronsor learned how old some of the Humans were, and he suddenly understood the logic behind their military peculiarities. Some of them were hundreds of years old, with combat experience eclipsing the eldest Calavari…and they did it by making what normally would have been death blows into survivable defeats.

  That also told Bronsor that Star Force, small as it was in numbers, was far more powerful than others gave them credit for. For if they could preserve what they had, they could face down much larger enemies and pre
vail due to attrition being in their favor. The more Bronsor learned from the other Calavari who’d been here for a while, the more impressed he was becoming with the Humans and curious as to what else they had to offer in this newfound brotherhood.

  He eventually left the bar and returned to his quarters, sleeping well and too shortly, for his fatigue was greater than he’d realized. When his wakeup call came, he reported for training duty along with the others at the base of the building and was carried off through an underground transit system to a much larger facility, inside of which there were other Calavari soldiers going through a series of training drills…some he recognized, others that were entirely foreign.

  As he learned quickly enough, there were no training sessions here…just a long, arduous day with short breaks, none long enough for them to leave the facility. Bronsor was almost ashamed at how out of shape he was compared to the Human trainers that were doing the same workouts alongside them and were barely showing any fatigue. Most of them were Knights, but a handful were the tiny Archons who were unbelievably fast, not to mention overly strong for their size.

  Bronsor returned to his quarters at the end of the day with a couple of hours of free time to spare before heading to bed, but he was too tired to go anywhere so he just crashed on the circular pad that was one type of Calavari couch and turned on the vid screen. Half of the available channels were in the Human language, with the other half mostly being in the trade language. Two were native Calavari, but they weren’t the news programs he wanted, so he sat in the glory of sore muscles and well-earned fatigue, for Star Force was very keen on running workouts, and watched/listened to the planetary updates from Calavari commentators in the trade language.

  His interest kept him awake for half an hour, then he woke up to find that he’d dozed off for another 45 minutes in what felt like a matter of seconds. Pulling himself up and into his sleeping room he committed himself to an early start on his sleep cycle…only to begin again the next day in an arduous routine that would slowly transform his muscular form into a tight, fast, and powerful frame some months later.

  Only then would he realize that he’d completed basic training…and was going to advance to the next level of even harder trials.

  7

  July 3, 2440

  Prolio System

  HTC

  Bronsor woke up bleary eyed as normal, pulling himself off his sleeping pad and dressing in a rush. He had to get down to the cafeteria and grab something to eat before the others left for training. Normally he’d allow himself a bit more time to wake up, but today was special and he didn’t want to lag behind.

  Apparently the others felt the same, for when he got down to the eating hall most of them were already chowing down on foodstuff bars and cakes, all of Human fashion and designed not to be a drag on the stomach…though the Calavari still knew better than to overload himself with fuel before entering a training session. Their trainers didn’t take it easy on them, with heavy workouts hitting them the moment they arrived rather than seeing a gradual transition, so he carefully chose a plateful of items and a single bottle of water and began eating as fast as he could.

  He made up some time and left about middle of the pack, hopping into the subsurface rail lines that took him over to his designated training facility where he and the other ‘advanced’ students were shuffled off into a sort of briefing room, breaking with their normal routine. Inside there were no chairs, but rather a lighted demonstration area surrounded by stacks of crates, by which several of their Human trainers were standing…along with an Archon in his white uniform, though this one had a green stripe down the side.

  Bronsor stiffened. He’d learned about Star Force’s various ranks and knew that very few of the Humans rated a green stripe. It meant this person was what they called a ‘ranger’ and was one of their war leaders. Had he not seen what the other lower ranking Archons were capable of he would have assumed this Human was a fit weakling, judging by his size, but Bronsor’s eyes had become accustomed to sizing up their smaller race and he could tell by looking at him that this one was different, despite the uniform.

  “Today,” Jace-013 began speaking the trade language, “those of you who have progressed to training tier 4 are going to get an upgrade. Traditionally, you’re used to wearing shields as defense in combat…well, we’re one upping that and giving you proper armor, for which you were already measured. These suits are custom fitted for each of you, so no sharing or trading. We have units that can be adjustable, but trust me when I say that your custom set will be far more comfortable and agile than one of the generic ones.”

  The trailblazer glanced around the assembled Calavari, some 50 of them, and pointed to one.

  “Your name?”

  “Nratch,” the larger biped said, looking down towards the Human.

  “You get to be first. Step into the circle.”

  The Calavari huffed and walked over to the lighted area, leaving the dimly lit remainder of the room where the others were standing. As he came up the handlers opened one of the crates and began pulling out pieces of armor painted bright orange.

  “Your armor comes in pieces,” Jace explained. “When you strap it on the various pieces will interlock and you’ll have an airtight seal with a short term backup oxygen supply that will allow you to survive in vacuum for a brief period of time. It will also allow you to move under water and will lock down against airborne toxins automatically. When that happens you need to get to clean air before you run out of reserves, but it will allow you to survive in situations where others won’t if you’re quick enough.”

  Nratch stepped up at the prompting of one of the handlers as the Human slid an open boot underneath the Calavari’s thick, pedestal-like foot. When he stepped back down he gained a couple of inches of height, then the handler began cinching up the internal grip lines, ensuring that the boot wouldn’t slip around when moving, then he began locking the hard plates in place over top as Nratch stepped up to receive his other boot.

  “The armor has weight, obviously, which will slow your movements. This is why you must train for speed without it, mastering the required movements, then learn to repeat those movements with the extra weight, meaning you will be training in the armor as well. Over time it will become natural, like a second skin, but in the beginning it will be cumbersome and you will be going to bed stiff and sore.”

  “The armor has no powered joints, meaning your muscle is what moves it, same as our armor. As you become stronger you will gain access to stronger plates, increasing the durability of the armor in battle. While this may be new to you, it is something we Archons have grown accustomed to over the past 400 years.”

  With the boots locked in place and coming up to cover Nratch’s knees, the Calavari stepped up and down in place, testing the weight and traction, then three handlers came over with more sections, the first of which was the cod piece that locked around his waist and looped down between his legs. When it was attached like a belt, the other Humans brought in the upper leg pieces and wrapped them around his tree trunk-like quadriceps.

  The halves locked together smoothly, but were still loose where they butted up against the boots and cod piece.

  “Now,” Jace said, talking directly to Nratch. “Wiggle around and the pieces should lock together.”

  The Calavari wasn’t quite sure what he was supposed to do, but he followed orders and began moving his leg side to side. Suddenly there was a click on his right knee and the armor became more rigid, but still flexible enough to give him considerable range of movement. Nratch tried to mimic the same motion on the other leg and, after a few attempts, got it to lock as well.

  The hip movement was trickier to master, but after several embarrassing attempts in which he almost tipped over and fell, the leg pieces locked into place and the Calavari was fully armored from the waist down.

  “You can wear the armor with or without a uniform underneath,” Jace said as the handlers retrieved additional piece
s. “On occasion it will bunch up if you leave a crease, so be careful to smooth any out when you put the armor on. The inner gel layer will mold to your body, spreading out concussion from a single point to a wider area, allowing you to hit and get hit harder than normal, but you still have limits, so don’t go jumping off any cliffs and expecting the armor to save you.”

  “One advantage you have over our original designs is a built in shield generator,” he said as the torso piece was brought up and wrapped around the Calavari’s huge upper body…huge not only in size but in height, for it stretched out longer than a Human’s to accommodate the two sets of shoulders. “It’s extra protection, and will allow your armor to survive longer, but don’t get in the habit of walking out into the line of fire. That’s not what this armor is for…that’s what your physical shield is for, which we’ll get to later.”

  “You are to train and fight in the armor as if you had none on. Over time you will learn how far you can press your advantage, but now that you’re just learning, treat every situation as if you were still exposed…and we have several new training challenges waiting for you that will reinforce that point.”

  Nratch’s chest plate latched together with the back piece at multiple points along the side and near the neck, then he wiggled around to get it to attach at the waist without having to be prompted to do so, learning quickly.

  “The energy shield will stop plasma and other forms of energy weapons, but it will not stop physical impacts…that’s what the armored plates are for. Later on we might integrate physical shields, but so far it’s been more effective in this manner. We’re constantly experimenting with our own armor, and any advances we make will eventually trickle down to you, so you can consider this to be your prototype armor. By the time you see real combat, you’ll probably have an upgraded version.”