Star Force: Scorpion (Star Force Universe Book 42)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  Before the cutters could finish there were more tremors, then a violent crack as the structure broke. At that point they knew what was coming and the Knights of Quenar turned and ran as fast as they could, reengaging their telepathic inhibitors so the Uriti couldn’t grab hold of their minds. Right now it didn’t seem to even notice them, but the area of effect was still problematic. Two of the KoQ didn’t make it in time, falling to the ground with too much mental noise to be able to function, but their fellow Knights doubled back for them and manually engaged the countermeasures.

  After that they just ran, including the mechanical walkers, and got back to their waiting ship just in time to see the first piece of the nearly black Uriti poke up through the roof and soil over top, for the facility was situated underneath a network of canyons. It broke free with such ease that huge chunks of rocks flew off like they were little more than dust, then the entire landscape began to churn and the tremors threw the remaining infantry to the ground just shy of the ship that was both visible and hovering over the surface as the landscape twisted and thrust subsurface rock up at odd angles like knife blades.

  When the last of the Knights got onboard the ship slowly lifted off, with them looking out the cargo bay as the Uriti unfurled into a giant net as it reached up towards orbit. They’d come to claim it while sedate, but either the V’kit’no’sat caretakers were extremely careless or they’d intentionally woke it up to deny it to them.

  But that wasn’t going to happen. Once the Knights finished off the V’kit’no’sat they’d begin the hard work of resedating the Uriti. They’d been preparing for this for millions of years, but it wasn’t a task they envied. In the past each Uriti sedated came with unbelievably high losses of life sacrificed to deliver the sedative without damaging their target…for even light damage would counteract the effect.

  There would no need for the ground forces now, but fortunately the Knights of Quenar had come prepared for a wide variety of situations they might find on the other side of the galaxy from their headquarters, and this nightmare situation was one of them.

  Hamob boarded a drop pod as soon as he had secured the explosives against the Uriti’s body and sabotaged the sedation system. With the timer set he was able to get to his ship in orbit just before the Knights of Quenar troops got to the now sealed entrance. By the time he arrived on the command deck of his personal Kafcha the battle was even in more disarray as the enemy would not give an inch and viciously pursued their ships as the V’kit’no’sat began to retreat.

  Once the last of the avian troops holding a limited rear guard action boarded their ships, Hamob ordered a full retreat…but the KoQ would not disengage. They chased and blasted into the trailing ships all the way to the star where the V’kit’no’sat had to fight a holding action while Hamob’s ship and others jumped out.

  The KoQ didn’t follow through the jump, with Hamob’s Kafcha and the other heavy ships waiting at the end of the jumpline two days later to hit them as they came in…but they never did. Nor did the last third of the V’kit’no’sat ships that probably were destroyed holding the jumpline. Previous attempts to cloak and run hadn’t been successful, for the KoQ could still track them somehow, so Hamob figured they hadn’t been able to get away. If they did, they’d move through other systems and rendezvous here within days, but he wasn’t holding out much hope.

  And what was worse was the fact they had no eyes on the Uriti. The KoQ had completely run them out of the system in addition to stealing their prize. Hamob had no choice, unable to reengage without reinforcements, so he dispatched 8 courier ships to different destinations on the border of V’kit’no’sat territory to send the message of what had happened here.

  If the KoQ thought they were going to keep the Uriti from the V’kit’no’sat they were mistaken. If Bulmuthal couldn’t be kept sedated and studied, then it was going to provide the V’kit’no’sat with their first Uriti kill…and they were going to go right through the Knights of Quenar once Hamob’s message reached their empire and a proper war fleet was summoned.

  After the V’kit’no’sat were driven from the system, the Knights of Quenar proceeded to pulverize the remaining semi-active debris from their ships, eliminating the survivors and any potential threat they might have posed while Bulmuthal slowly made its way towards the star. Halfway there some of the KoQ ships intercepted it and opened fire, not doing any real damage but prompting the Uriti to reactively turn around and engage them.

  The Knights of Quenar then fled, trying to draw the Uriti further away from the star and lost a few ships in the process as the rest of their fleet assembled and began making strafing runs against it…but with sedative missiles, many of which didn’t make it through. A few did, smashing against the hull and squishing like goo that clung to it and began to seep into its body. The hard, rock-like skin of the Uriti drank it up greedily due to the energized charge within the sedative. The Uriti was built to shrug off physical damage, but it absorbed energy and the Ancients’ design for the sedative used this attribute to get the sedative inside and distributed quickly through the miles of tissue.

  The sedative itself was pulled along, often one molecule at a time, deep into the Uriti and began to slow its functionality…but it was so big even those few hits did not do much to hinder it. Unlike their ancestors, the Knights of Quenar had millions of years to study better ways to do this, and those first few missiles were only meant to dampen its senses. Bulmuthal had proximity discharge capability, so half the goo on its surface was blown off before it could sink in, looking like a nuclear blast wave as the entire net-like body pulsed outward, cleansing its surface.

  That’s what the KoQ couldn’t have for their second attack, and with the minor sedative effect in place they launched more missiles that purposely detonated prior to the Uriti as it shot many of them on its own. The ones that blew apart by design left debris clouds that were actually little orbs that held sedative and tiny gravity drives. They were no larger than a meter, but they gradually drifted closer as none of the missiles actually hit the Uriti. If they did and landed their goo, the Uriti would shrug it off again and destroy the clouds of orbs, so they couldn’t let any of the missiles get that far as the KoQ fleet continued to lose ships from the Uriti’s ranged weapons.

  They couldn’t shoot back, so they just had to take the losses as the clouds of ‘debris’ continued to build up and drift in towards the Uriti that didn’t see them as a threat. Hopefully they were too small to register, and eventually the first of them made contact with the hull…where they transformed into miniature walkers and began to spread out to different locations so they didn’t clump together enough to register as a larger object. They couldn’t walk far and didn’t want to fly in a way that would attract attention, but as the clouds ‘drifted’ in closer and closer, the little landers spread out and waited until the time was right.

  Eventually all of the initial clouds hit, with a second and third wave of missile ‘debris’ building up around the Uriti as it tried to chase the bulk of the KoQ fleet but couldn’t engage its medium-ranged weaponry. It was forced to snipe them with what amounted to dozens of massive beam cannons that would nearly destroy a KoQ ship with a single hit. Some survived and limped off, others didn’t, but the Uriti was so large that it wasn’t doubling up shots, rather shooting individual targets with single batteries.

  Bulmuthal’s greatest power lay in its siege capability, with the square holes between body strands being collection apertures that would gather energy orbs that would gradually grow in size, then it would release them down to the surface of a planet with devastating effect. It was the Chixzon’s first design, and they clearly had intended to use it as a planetary assault device, though subsequent versions were more suited to actual fleet combat and even had low level shields, such as Nami. Fortunately this one wasn’t, but it was still doing a lot of damage to the KoQ, though not as much as the V’kit’no’sat had.

  The Uriti would win out in the long run, for its l
ongevity was far superior, making the sedative the only true weapon the KoQ had to use against it. They could not kill it. Not one of this size with the fleet they had, and if they tried it would just run to the star to recharge and repair itself. Sedating it truly was the only viable option, and when they had enough landing orbs in place at key positions the KoQ sent an activation signal and all of the little orbs discharged their goo onto the surface.

  It wasn’t a large attack, just tiny little pinpricks so small the Uriti couldn’t notice a single one, and since they weren’t clustered together the totality of them all didn’t register either. It took several minutes to begin to take effect, but the activity level of the Uriti dipped considerably. Its firing rate diminished by 48% and multiple scans indicated that the surface of the Uriti where its proximity sensors were located were thoroughly numb in several spots.

  Gravity sensors were deeper, and could pick up a KoQ ship easily at this range, including their big, fat missiles, so they waited as the additional clouds drifted in and attached themselves. They didn’t wait to discharged, adding to the sedative effect as more missiles were launched and detonated prematurely, for they didn’t want even the slightest impact to register.

  Slowly the return fire diminished, and once it cut out completely the Knights of Quenar knew they had it. Many, many waves of sedative had to be applied to get it down to ‘safe’ status, though the telepathic aura was still dangerous and would take several days to scale down, for there was a lag effect. The Uriti wouldn’t truly ‘sleep’ until all its internal processes slowed down, but the KoQ couldn’t wait for that.

  After deeming it safe enough, a huge transport ship decloaked near the star and traveled out to the Uriti. The ship had to transform in order to match the Uriti’s shape, barely being able to stretch out wide enough to cover the diameter of the net, though as it went deeper and deeper into sedation it didn’t stay flat. It began to curl and twist, and the giant transport ship had to alter with it to avoid breaking, but the KoQ had prepared for this possibility when designing it, for they didn’t have information on all the Uriti. They didn’t always know what size or shape they would be dealing with, and this was no exception.

  But they’d almost miscalculated, for the transport dimensions barely fit the Uriti. They hadn’t expected one to be this big, and the curling action was also unexpected. Never the less they managed to keep it inside without breaking the hull as they directly applied more sedative at a regular rate. With it captured and now under their control, the Knights of Quenar collected what of their own survivors they could find and pulled all their ship debris into the star so no one could claim and study it. Then they amassed what fleet they had left, which was still considerable, and cloaked all their ships as they headed for the outgoing jumppoint that would start the very long journey around the perimeter of the galaxy, staying clear of V’kit’no’sat territory, that would eventually bring them to Star Force’s Uriti Preserve.

  7

  October 1, 4858

  Jamtren System (Era’tran capitol)

  Holloi

  When Hamob returned to his personal residence he found that Mak’to’ran had let himself in and was waiting for him. How the other Era’tran got here ahead of him wasn’t hard to understand, for he’d reported the attack and release of the Uriti through the Urrtren as soon as they got back into V’kit’no’sat territory. However, how Mak’to’ran had gotten past his security programs was something he didn’t have an answer to.

  “Your hacking skills are more formidable than I thought,” Hamob said, not getting angry at the intrusion and sounding like he could care less.

  “Why did you not remain?”

  “My scout ships could not stealth. The Knights of Quenar could detect them and pursued all with vengeance. I couldn’t leave any ships behind, and those that tried to get out after me were probably caught and destroyed. As to why we didn’t monitor surrounding systems, that should be obvious. The Uriti was awoken and out of both of our reach.”

  “Unless they had one of Star Force’s wranglers with them.”

  Hamob stopped walking and turned back to look at Mak’to’ran. “I was informed that the Knights of Quenar were recovering the Uriti without Star Force’s assistance.”

  “There is nothing to stop them from retrieving one now to subdue the Uriti. We needed surveillance.”

  “If we cannot be in the system, how can we surveil it?”

  “You ran,” Mak’to’ran accused.

  “There was no other viable option. If there was, state it.”

  “What was the range of their stealth detection?”

  “We saw no limit to it. And their vessels were of a design we’ve not encountered before. I suspect they were a battle fleet, and their power rivals ours. Releasing the Uriti was the only way we could deny it to them.”

  “I do not argue that point, but there was no real effort to defend made. Your ships were sloppily aligned and fought like hatchlings.”

  “I was on the ground when the battle began. I could not command them.”

  “I gave you a significant defense fleet and it was misused.”

  “I have not given that much thought,” Hamob admitted. “But I believe even if you were there to lead it, we would have lost. The Knights of Quenar had far more ships than we thought possible for a mere Order.”

  “If they are not actively engaged in warfare they can build up their forces over time even if their production facilities are small. I should not have to be lecturing you on these matters, Hamob.”

  The elder Era’tran sighed. “No, you should not. I admit I am rattled. That should not have happened and I can’t identify the underlying mistake.”

  “Then it is time I play the master and you the apprentice. You are thinking as the dominant destined for victory, rather than acknowledging that we should not have won that fight.”

  “You contradict yourself.”

  “You don’t know how to wage a losing fight. You panicked and ran.”

  Hamob glared at Mak’to’ran, but after the initial gut reaction his superior mind found no ground to disagree with the V’kit’no’sat leader on.

  “Perhaps we did.”

  “Even if they can detect our ships, that does not mean they can catch them. Their speed was formidable, but given enough of a head start they could not be captured in small numbers. By keeping your ships moving, you could have left some behind to monitor until fuel concerns warranted them leaving.”

  “And if they guarded the jumppoints and had hidden ships waiting in various locations to spring traps?”

  “I saw no evidence of that in the battle records.”

  “I would not be surprised if it did occur. We were not ready for that formidable a foe.”

  “And there Star Force is our better again. They have fought so well at such disadvantage that they shame us with their mere existence…and yet we will not learn from their example.”

  “Have you dispatched another fleet?”

  “I have. With a commander that I can trust to know how to fight ugly battles.”

  “If you came here to berate me, I would suggest it is not a matter worthy of your time.”

  “Do you consider this a violation of the truce?”

  Hamob tilted his head slightly. “You are worried Itaru will and demand an immediate invasion of Star Force? I will not support that. Star Force’s allies attacked, not Star Force. If we are to invade anyone, let it be the Knights of Quenar homeworld.”

  “I need you to go to Itaru and say just that.”

  “Why not just order the strike yourself?”

  “We only know the region they are in, not their exact location. We do not have a visible target to hit, and I suspect Itaru will not want to conduct a search. They will want blood and go to those they can get it from rather than those responsible.”

  “It sounds like you’re protecting Star Force.”

  “I am protecting our honor. They did not violate the truce and I will not
tolerate us doing so. They gave us the information I requested. I will not sanction an attack before due time.”

  “And then will you? Or are you going to find a reason to keep them alive further?”

  Mak’to’ran flashed his Saroto’kanse’vam, with his glowing red talons indicating that Hamob had hit a nerve. “I am tired beyond measure of the idiocy within the empire. Star Force has provided us with two things the V’kit’no’sat and even the Zak’de’ron never possessed. Information about the minds of the Hadarak and a weapon we can effectively use against them. Dorchav never would have conceived of the Harthur without being the victim of a similar version. Star Force has done more to hurt the Hadarak than the V’kit’no’sat have ever done!”

  “Your words border on treason, but I know they are not.”

  “I’ve been branded a traitor before,” Mak’to’ran pointed out.

  “That you have. The fissures in the empire have been sealed over, but they still exist. The Hadarak should be the uniting factor, and the success of the Harthur is rallying many to fulfill their oaths, but we are not a single entity. Far from it. What do the Oso’lon and J’gar have to say on the matter?”

  “The J’gar oppose, the Oso’lon encourage an immediate strike against Star Force. The Era’tran must be the tipping factor, and I need you to tip it into a quest to find the Knights of Quenar worlds and destroy them.”

  “They are working on behalf of Star Force.”

  “Our truce is not with the Knights of Quenar. As such, us attacking them is not a violation of it.”

  “True in detail, but not in spirit.”

  “If we break our word, what of us?”

  “You still think what we gained is worth the truce?”

  “It is our first achievement above and beyond the Zak’de’ron. Is that not worth it on the merits alone?”

  “You are playing a long term war, while others see only the immediate.”

  “That is why I lead and not them.”