Star Force: Scorpion (Star Force Universe Book 42)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  The sight of the Uriti was far more intimidating now, even in its sedated state, than all the holograms of combat he’d studied in seclusion. He could feel its presence, and that visceral aura imbued power on a scale that Hamob had not felt since his days of combat against the Hadarak. He’d been on a planet with a Hadarak implanted on the surface multiple times and the telepathic presence was similar, but he’d never been this close before. Add on to that the fact that the Uriti was sedated. How powerful its telepathy would be when awoken sent a shiver of genuine fear down the Era’tran’s tail, and Hamob found it to be a valuable epiphany after so many years spent in analysis away combat.

  Hamob continued to walk a few miles, then stopped as the attacks began to hit home. He took it as a challenge and managed to stabilize himself, so he held position and studied the Uriti for some time as his Zen’zat fought off the futile headaches that the Uriti’s presence was causing them.

  “We are the inferior,” he finally said aloud. “These Chixzon possessed a power that we have not even begun to approach…yet they were defeated because they relied on a single avenue of attack. The sedative was their bane and something they could not anticipate. They trusted in the Uriti too much and it was what killed him, but what they accomplished is not to be underestimated.”

  “What are we going to do with it?” one of the Zen’zat asked him.

  “Deny it to those who can use it against us and search for their means of control. If we can harness but one Uriti, it will provide a weapon against the Hadarak that we badly need. You may withdraw. I am not going further.”

  The Zen’zat didn’t argue, turning and running back to the distant entrance as Hamob remained. It was an effort to do so, but he had not been tested like this in such a long time the he did not want to retreat. He knew he could not stay indefinitely, but an Era’tran that ran too quickly from an opponent was one that could not be depended on. Wisdom knew when to retreat, but retreat was always reluctant and Hamob’s mental strength was holding…though dwindling.

  “Bulmuthal,” he said, addressing the Uriti both in words and telepathy. “You are a mighty warrior far older than I. I apologize for not being able to release you from your capture, but we must protect you from those who do not understand your full potential. So here you shall stay until we can come to an accord. There is a galactic core of Hadarak threats that we must defeat, and you are the key to that, though you do not realize it. Your former masters misused you greatly. I promise that we shall not…”

  Jessica Avril walked into Davis’ new office…though by the size it was more of a command deck now with a view of a spectacular beach beyond. The Meintre planet was absolutely gorgeous, but she hadn’t been summoned her for sunbathing. Rather she and every other Duke were here along with all 8 Arch Dukes for a summit meeting the likes of which had never happened before as far as she knew.

  Jessica wore a cape over top of a pair of very short shorts that showed off her legs while her arms were covered all the way up to her wrists and her blonde hair was pulled back in an elegant braid a bit more gaudy than what the other Dukes were wearing, but they all had their own unique twists to the standard Star Force uniforms. Most were Human, but there were two Protovic here as well. Dargok and Vera’de. She’d never met either of them, but both had advanced up through the Monarch ranks at an astonishing pace and their reputations were well known…however, they were amongst the newest of the Dukes and still had a lot of learning to do, so they were the most junior members here.

  Davis had told everyone to be here at 4:32 am local time, and all the Dukes had been prompt to arrive and take their seats at a monstrous circular table with Jessica sitting down between Dukes Zarren and Covne, the latter of which she was fairly close friends with.

  8 Arch Dukes and 251 Dukes made up the circle that contained exactly that many seats, but oddly Davis had none. Rather, when he began to speak, he slowly walked around the circle behind them all as a huge holographic map of their empire glowed to life in exquisite detail.

  “I apologize for pulling you away from your duties, but this conversation is one that we all need to be here in person to deal with. Lag times are too inefficient, and this is a realization that the Archons came to long ago. We have much to discuss over the following days as we come to a potential cataclysm that I wish to avoid. It is so evident that even some of our enemies have noticed it, and we must address it now.”

  Davis theatrically snapped his fingers and the hologram altered, splitting Star Force territory into two sections. One being the core of what they had left, the other being a band of newly acquired systems with some shotgun exceptions across the choppy dividing line.

  “We are annexing territory at a significant rate, reaching out and trying to stabilize as many imperiled planets as possible. We are doing this for a number of reasons, top of which is to help those who are in need. But in doing so we are weakening our empire while strengthening it, and we are weakening it by diluting our experience levels. Note, we are gaining more and more experienced personnel now that our major war has been put on pause, but on average we are losing ground and losing it fast.”

  “This is because we are pulling in people barely out of indoctrination and throwing them into populations that truly know what it means to be Star Force. For those of you here in the early years, you will remember that it took a long time to define what that meant in the lower level populations who learn as much through osmosis as they do the maturias. That osmosis comes from the civilians around them…and our civilian pool is becoming tainted with too many refugees.”

  “We integrate the refugees into the populace so that they may learn from osmosis and shorten their learning curve, but there is a reverse effect as well. Every outsider we take in dilutes our identity in exchange for enhancing that outsider and making them more Star Force. By the time they reach a tier 2 colony, let alone a tier 3, they’re fully one of us based off of their need to calibrate to reality…or at least enough that their lingering culture isn’t a negative. But in the tier 1s we are seeing degeneration. It’s not a lot at this point, but I can see the writing on the wall and apparently so can others. We have to counter this without stopping our influx of refugees.”

  “The tier 3 and 4 colonies are taking care of themselves due to their entry requirements, but it’s the tier 1 and somewhat the 2s that are the problem. We have people in newly annexed worlds leaving those worlds and traveling anywhere else in the empire they wish. This is now coming to an end. Migration within our borders will remain open to those who come out of a maturia, but those who go through indoctrination will be restricted to the new Frontier Region barring special circumstances.”

  Davis pointed and the outer band on the map highlighted with three slow pulses of blue highlights.

  “We’re going to keep the barbaric refugees out of our main territory and keep them there. This is going to be a big negative to those tier 1 and 2 worlds in the Frontier Region, but from the refugees point of view it will still be a huge upgrade. There they will remain with their offspring going through the maturias and being free to relocate, but the originals will be stuck within the Frontier Region unless their skill level rises to tier 3, then they’ll be free to relocate freely.”

  “I know this will create cesspools in the Frontier Region, but we can no longer allow the refugees to culturally contaminate our existing worlds. To do so will create a cascade negative that will then spread everywhere, destroying what it means to be Star Force and undoing centuries of work we’ve all done to create Star Force culture. It has to remain a refuge, and many of you have already noted the increase in crimes that have come from the influx of refugees. The more they group together the worse it gets, including pulling in weak minded people who came through the maturia system.”

  “While we all have strong minds, the majority of our populace do not. We must guard their freedom and enlightenment, for they cannot guard it themselves. They will go whatever way the wind blows, and the winds of mat
uria training fade after graduation. They are never completely forgotten, but they should be reinforced by the culture the younglings enter. Now they are seeing a negative cultural trend after graduation. We have to put an end to this before it gets any worse.”

  “If we cut the inflow of refugees now, those already here will stabilize as their percentage decreases. Their offspring will not carry their taint, and those who do not train will eventually die out anyway. Time is our ally, as it always has been, so long as we are not introducing a large number of outsiders. I am not going to abandon the people out there that need our help, but we’re going to have to help them in a different way than we have been due to the increasing numbers involved.”

  “Migration to the Frontier Region will remain open, and the more Star Force culture we can transmit out to it by osmosis the better, but we will not allow the influx. That is the price of annexation going forward. If you earn tier 3 you will be fully integrated into the empire. If not, then you will remain within the Frontier Region. It will become a second rate part of Star Force, but it will still be Star Force…though more like many of our worlds used to be a millennia or two ago.”

  “Axius has taught us much about integration, both the benefits and problems. Too much integration is a bad thing, and this is now where we’re drawing the line for the civies. Scarven?”

  “The problem is the worst in some Axius colonies,” the Arch Duke who oversaw Axius testified. “We have to maintain a delicate balance to abridge the variations between races, and that balance is based off of common experiences gained through maturia training. Indoctrination is far less exhaustive, so we’re seeing disturbing trends developing from the remnants of exterior cultures brought in and mashed up. Quite a few individuals now see our security forces as an enemy to be countered rather than defenders. They obey the rules when they have to because of the threat of the security forces rather than because the rules are there for the sake of wisdom. This distrust is toxic and spreading, with many ungrateful individuals attempting power grabs by casting Star Force as the villain.”

  “This is laughable to those who came through the maturia system, but when we have so many differing races overlapping there are inherent conflicts that have to be overlooked in good humor. Take that away and Axius is a ticking time bomb. Trust and brotherhood is what binds Axius together, and exterior cultures based on quite different things are a threat. Indoctrination is not enough to eliminate this. Therefore we have to keep indoctrinated individuals out and in their own Axius colonies. I do not like the state those colonies will be in, but as Davis said, they’ll be in far better condition from where they came from.”

  “The bigger we grow,” Davis added as he paced around the backs of all the Dukes’ chairs, including Jessica’s with him patting her on the head for emphasis, “the more problems we will face along with the strength we gain. Some of us are working on projects with the distant future in mind, but present problems are why we are bifurcating our territory now. This is a stopgap protocol, and a rolling one, I expect. Once certain planets in the Frontier Region reach a certain level of civility they will be moved across the line while more planets are being colonized or annexed. This is a transitional status, and one that will require heavy policing of the jumplanes. We cannot allow the civilian traffic to circumvent this protocol, so cross line trading will have to occur through designated intermediaries. No direct trading will be permitted without special license.”

  “Independent businesses can choose to operate on one side or the other, but aside from credits, none of their property flows between the two and we must outline and maintain protocols for trading with parties originating outside our territory.”

  “Bottom line, people…we have to tighten the screws before our empire wobbles itself into pieces. More regulation separating pocketed freedom. And I want to hear brainstorming on the most effective way to implement it. The floor is open. Start talking,” Davis said, floating a donut from one of many trays on the huge table over to his hand and taking a bite as the assembled Dukes began to chat amongst themselves.

  6

  February 18, 4858

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

  Unnamed Planet (Uriti Shell)

  Hamob was sleeping on a cushioned pedestal, half sunk into the soft material with his tail curled around and almost touching his face when the alarm sounded. He wasn’t onboard a ship, but rather in a V’kit’no’sat facility built nearby the Uriti shell, and his first thought was that Bulmuthal was waking up and breaking free…but as Hamob’s mind snapped out of its lethargy he realized it was the wrong alarm for that.

  He stood and hopped off his sleeping pad, racing for the nearby door while reaching out telepathically to interface with the alarm system, drawing information from it and realizing the heavy defense fleet the V’kit’no’sat had brought in to secure the Uriti was under attack by an even larger force and was suffering heavy losses.

  When Hamob got to the nearest command deck…which required a quick walk outside to a nearby building…he mentally asserted himself and bumped the Les’i’kron defense coordinator from his command position with the heavy avian reluctantly stepping aside as the Era’tran began altering the holographic displays to see who it was that was attacking them.

  The ships were not known to the computer tracking systems, but Hamob knew instantly who it was despite the new ship designs. The technology was the same, but employed differently, and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was the Knights of Quenar. These ships had never been seen in the Uriti Preserve, but it was them none the less and their firepower was far greater than what they’d demonstrated in their previous limited combat with the V’kit’no’sat in the Preserve.

  “They are here for the Uriti,” Hamob declared. “It is the Knights of Quenar. I’m assuming this is their version of a battle fleet and what they had in Star Force territory is expeditionary ships, that’s why they don’t register.”

  “They did not show on our Neavi sensor. They were upon us before we realized it,” a Brat’mar reported.

  “They must have a way to shield themselves. Assume they can reach the planet undetected. Are we set up to repel a ground assault?”

  “No,” the Les’i’kron said. “We do not have sufficient troops to fight a full scale battle, only enough to defeat a light force. We did not expect anyone to be able to get past our fleet.”

  “I estimate four hours, Hamob,” the Brat’mar added warily. “Then we will have no fleet left.”

  The Era’tran glared at the tri-horned quadruped. “Are we that badly outmatched?”

  “Yes. Their ships are comparable to ours, perhaps slightly more potent, and they have 4 times the tonnage that we do. We are going to lose this without reinforcements, and there are none nearby to call for. I see no way to hold the Uriti.”

  Hamob growled angrily, and no one else on the command deck spoke. Neither did he, merely staring at the tactical display of the V’kit’no’sat ships engaging in very close range to the Knights of Quenar and ripping each other to pieces. This foe did not stand off like Star Force did, they were coming face to face and blasting away as if they were the dominant one…and in this lopsided engagement, it appeared they were.

  Hamob did not want to relinquish the Uriti. It was vitally important to the V’kit’no’sat, and to Mak’to’ran in particular, but his analytical mind had already come to the conclusion his emotions did not want to accept. They could not hold the Uriti, and wasting ships in a losing effort was pointless.

  “Evacuate the planet immediately,” he ordered, drawing several gasps along with a bolt of plasma into the air from the Les’i’kron.

  “We cannot!” he declared as the flames subsided. “We must defend the Uriti at all costs.”

  “No. What we must do is deny it to the Knights of Quenar if we are unable to hold it. Thus we are leaving, and now,” Hamob said firmly.

  “How do we deny it to them by…” the Les’i’kron asked b
efore the obvious answer hit him.

  “It is our only play if our fleet cannot hold. Or am I wrong?”

  No answer came, and eventually Hamob ignored the conflicted avian and began to walk out of the command deck. “Evacuate immediately. I will see to the Uriti personally.”

  Nearby the Uriti shell a KoQ ship landed under stealth, disgorging hundreds of mechanical walkers along with infantry that followed a short distance behind. The crab-like Knights moved far faster than they looked capable of, hopping more than running to keep up as the first of the V’kit’no’sat fliers began to strafe them from the sky…drawing immediate return fire from the walkers that downed two I’rar’et immediately with overlapping and well-coordinated firepower.

  That forced the others back and lower to the ground, still taking shots at the invading troops but limiting the number of return shots they had to take. They continued to do so as the KoQ advanced easily all the way up to the Uriti shell, encountering no ground troops whatsoever. Only the avians were fighting back, and soon the infantry were at the entrance and cutting through the doorway with quick efficiency.

  They had a four meter wide hole half completed when the first tremor was felt. The cutters continued, but the rest of the infantry exchanged glances and lowered their telepathic inhibitors. They’d known the presence of the Uriti could have a negative effect on them so they’d come prepared, but only when they turned them off did they realize the Uriti’s aura was deafeningly loud. Too loud at this range if it was still sedated.