by Jyr, Aer-ki
As Kara was approaching the edge of the colony ahead she got a ‘request for assistance’ beacon on her battlemap. It was coming from a city to her west that had Lacvamat patrolling from the air and they seemed to have located a nest of lizard tanks operating in the rubble. They were making strafing runs on them, but reported enough of an anti-air presence that they couldn’t press the issue on their own and required assistance.
Kara banked to the left and picked up speed, elongating her personal shields into a needlepoint above her head and cutting through the air as aerodynamically as possible. There were several other units responding to the call as well, with a squadron of Calavari Valeries closer than she was, but there was only so much one could do from the air and the Lacvamat had rightly called for what they referred to as ‘groundpounder’ backup.
Signaling that she was incoming, the honorary trailblazer watched the landscape zip by underneath her during the long trip. Fast as she was, there was only so many kilometers that she could eat up per minute and the planet was, obviously, huge. When she eventually did reach the location she zipped down from altitude and shot through the gaps in the Lacvamat flocks, coming down to an altitude that they weren’t risking and landing directly in the center of a formation of six tanks that were firing up into the air trying to hit the Lacvamat and doing a bad job of it.
“Surrender and I’ll let you live,” she said in their native language, broadcasting the edict loudly from her armor’s external speakers as well as sending it over the lizard comm channels.
Kara just stood there in her red scales staring at them from behind her head covering, which had no visor nor any other openings to signify a face, just more red scales covering and protecting her eyes that were seeing a camera image displayed before them. Even though she could see it coming, the tank to her left swiveled around and fired a blast at her from less than 50 meters away.
She didn’t dodge, but took the shot on her shields as she stared it down, with the other lizard troops likewise turning towards her and opening up with a lot of infantry weapons, for they were literally crawling around in every nook and cranny she could see from street level, and it was obvious that they had no intention of accepting her generous offer.
“Can’t say I didn’t try,” she said to herself, using her anti-grav to juke her out of the way of the next tank blast and transition into a flying run inches over the ground as she summoned up an orb of green/white energy and delivered it to the closest tank by hand.
10
May 1, 2762
Pagaliss System (Calavari Region)
Varasiss
A part of the 22nd mainline Star Force fleet, some twenty warships strong, entered planetary orbit around Varasiss and broke off from the cargo convoy they were escorting, heading towards the large starport in low orbit while the 226 fat transports began sending down dropships to the surface as a flock of even more flew up to them to begin unloading the supplies and personnel being brought in to the revived Calavari capitol. The warships had convoyed out with the cargo jumpships as a matter of convenience, but they would not be returning with them. Rather, they were here to use the Pagaliss System as a base of regional operations as they contributed to the ongoing assaults on lizard worlds nearby.
The starport they were rendezvousing at was Atlas-class, and more of a battle station than commerce center. It was the size of two command ships and had enough shields, armor, and weaponry to make it a strongpoint defense rather than a helpless target that the fleets would have to guard, but its primary purpose was still to facilitate traffic to and from the surface now that Varasiss was linked into the Star Force transit grid.
There were dozens of civilian ships too large for the hangar bays docked with an outer ring around the disc-like station, but the warships wouldn’t be availing themselves of that capability. They were sitting themselves into nearby parking orbits and sending over dropships of their own, knowing that they’d be waiting here for at least 2 weeks before joining up with a H’kar raiding fleet and heading out. Giving the troops and crew a chance to get off the warships and have some free time was permissible given the secure nature of the system, with 16 Sentinels and thousands of drones patrolling orbit as the surface of the planet was being slowly reworked.
‘Slow’ was a point of view, and while visible from orbit as small dots the actual construction on three different cities was occurring at a blinding pace. Star Force had devoted an enormous amount of resources to get the first city built to operational status within 15 months, then using a combination of supplies shipped in from the ADZ and local resources either harvested or recycled, they’d begun expanding on it rapidly for another two years before now having branched out to another pair of locations on the planet.
The original city was easily identifiable from orbit as the dropships from the 22nd fleet crossed over to the starport, depositing Bronsor and a number of other Knights and commandos onto the massive station. They were most likely remaining there for their downtime and mingling with the civilian population that was about half Calavari and half a mix of everything else. The ADZ knew that Star Force had big plans for Varasiss going forward and many people wanted in on the action, with a lot of entrepreneurs already having set up shop on the starport while the surface cities were currently reserved only for Calavari citizens and Star Force personnel.
Bronsor was rare in that he was a Calavari, but not part of the Calavari faction within Star Force. He’d joined the mainline fleet long ago and had never had cause to regret that decision. Virtually all of his fellow soldiers were Humans and he had to live by their standards, which were far harder than those the Calavari used because the smaller race was more agile than them, hence they expected mobility that few Calavari could ever hope to match. It had been a struggle for him, but gradually over the years he’d developed enough speed in his big body to keep up with the Humans, to a degree, which allowed his natural bulk to become an asset rather than a liability to the assault teams he was deployed with.
The Knight left his fellow soldiers to their own business and saw about arranging transport down to the surface, which his position allowed. There was little in the way of entertainment facilities down there, unlike the starport that had commerce as its number 1 priority, but Bronsor wasn’t taking this trip to unwind. It was of a personal nature, for he hadn’t set foot on the Calavari capitol for more than 300 years.
He was one of a rare few that still remained that remembered the time before the Calavari had joined Star Force, with most of their current population having been born after that fact. He regretted losing so many friends and kin over the years since, but most of the losses were due to lack of self-sufficiency and them simply choosing to wither away rather than train. He wished that hadn’t been the case, but their choices were their own. Nowadays self-sufficiency wasn’t such an outlandish concept, and any race that was part of Star Force practically lived and breathed it, with those who chose otherwise being the outcasts of society rather than the dominate drivers of it.
Not all Calavari, and not even all Humans, achieved and maintained self-sufficiency, for it was a personal war that one had to continually fight and for whatever reason people would find a reason to quit. The stronger one was the more time they had to reconsider before they lost all their strength, but Bronsor accepted that there would always be the cowardly and the stupid in the galaxy. He just wished that more of his former kin had lived in this era, for he was sure they would have made it had their old culture not held them back from taking the Humans at their word in those early years.
Bronsor was now amongst the oldest of the Calavari, and was by far the strongest. His training had not only maintained his self-sufficiency, but built on it, leveling him up at a modest pace over the years with his Human peers pushing him in ways he’d never expected. A few other Calavari had followed his example and worked their way into the mainline ranks, but none of them could take him hand to hand. Some in the Calavari military had tried, years ago when
he’d had some downtime to spend helping to illuminate them as to the greater potential they had, and only two had bested him.
Those two stood more than two feet taller than him and had taken their training to heart. To his credit Bronsor beat both of them in a rematch once he got used to dealing with their larger size, for fighting with and against Humans required different movements, and he’d been momentarily caught off guard in the transition. Credit was due to those who had temporarily bested him though, but since that day he’d never let it happen again.
Bronsor eventually found his way onto a dropship heading down to the original city, with him seeing that it now stretched out across more than 50 miles with densely packed spires built in Calavari fashion. Rather than blocks they were smooth lines with no sharp corners whatsoever, but beyond that it was standard Star Force, with him knowing that those buildings were packed with structural supports and space saving designs to maximize every square mile of the landscape. The Calavari had a slightly different way of doing things than the Mainline did, but they had learned quite a lot from the Humans and assimilated a great deal of their architectural principles.
As the dropship headed for one of the spaceports he could see the gigantic central spires that looked like they were literally holding up the entire city. At present there were five of them, with one located dead center and the other four spread out around it in compass points. More would be added as the cityscape expanded, with Bronsor knowing that each was a shield general/defense turret. If needed a very powerful defensive barrier would go up over top of the city that could block a considerable amount of orbital bombardment while the spires returned fire with the brand new Keema weapons.
Inefficient and power hungry as the prototypes were, they offered so much range and firepower combined that they made the cleansing beams look like toys in comparison. The energy was an exotic type, requiring several rare arc elements to produce, but the result was a clear beam that carried a slight visual distortion with it, making the energy conduit look like glass even in the void of space. It didn’t have any special effects like the Ta’lin’yi did when it hit matter, or the maulers with their shield disrupting nature. No, the Keema were just a straight up, normal weapon that was simply overpowering in intensity.
Each spire had one Keema atop, with lots of secondary weapons, including cleansing beams so they could attack both starships in orbit and troops or aircraft on the planet. So far this was the only location to have any functioning Keema weapons, for the drone warships were too small to accommodate the crude designs. Even Earth’s planetary defense hadn’t constructed any, wanting to wait until better models reduced the size and energy expenditure, but here, near lizard territory, the Calavari had wanted the big guns immediately, just in case the lizards decided to try and retake the planet before Star Force dug in deeper.
Right now the fighting was still going their way, but the lizard worlds were getting harder to take. Bronsor and the others had their work cut out for them in the coming years, but that was what they were here for. This little trip down to the surface was an addendum, and had there not been time nor the opportunity Bronsor wouldn’t have thought twice about it.
But so long as he was here, he was going to take the moment to revisit the planet.
When the dropship landed in the city he exited it with the other passengers then promptly let himself get lost in the cityscape and just roam, tasting the distinctive air once again and having a flood of memories rush back. The Calavari were better for the changes that had been made to them, and eternal thanks to the Humans for that, but something had always been missing for them, and standing on the surface of Varasiss again he now understood what it was.
Legitimacy.
For three centuries they’d been refugees, despite the numerous former Calavari worlds they’d already retaken and begun repopulating, and even though Bronsor didn’t think of himself in that way, and hadn’t for a very long time, something deep inside of him that had been buried came to the surface with the taste of the planet’s atmosphere, prompting him to head for the city’s perimeter and find his way out into the wilds surrounding the construction sites.
It took him a while to pass through and around them, for there were so many construction mechs working that it looked like the planet belonged to a race of metallic giants, but eventually he found some clear space and jogged off through the grassy plains on an impulsive workout and just got some distance from himself and the city, feeling the natural gravity of the planet that further brought out the old memories.
The sights, sounds, and smells of the grasslands were the same as they had been when he’d first come here, so long ago. He hadn’t been born on Varasiss, but he’d done his military training here and immediately considered it to be home, as did virtually all Calavari. There was something unique about the planet, and only now did he truly understand what it was after all his training and experience gained with Star Force.
It was pride, and knowing that this was their home and that they belonged here. Even now that his own pride was centered in the mainline fleet and his acceptance by the Humans into their hallowed ranks, a piece of him remembered that old pride and being back here, with the planet no longer in enemy hands and rightfully returned to the Calavari, the long missing piece in his buried psyche was finally unlocked and he could feel himself healing the last of the lingering damage from the near destruction of his race.
And being here, now, made those memories feel as if they’d just been yesterday, almost as if part of his brain had shut down during all these years of service with Star Force and he was permitting it to finally wake up. With it came the pain that would always be with him, for the losses suffered were not something that one ever forgot. The memories could be set aside, along with all others, until they became relevant again, but the key to healing wasn’t in forgetting or forgiving, it was in getting oneself on the proper path…and a hefty dose of payback.
The Calavari now had it. Varasiss was their capitol again and millions of Calavari citizens were flocking back to their homeworld as fast as the infrastructure expansion could accommodate them, but above and beyond that Star Force was investing heavily in the system, intending to make it one of the rare few cornerstones in the overall empire, or so the rumors went. From the mass of construction already having occurred in a just a few years, Bronsor didn’t have any doubts as to Star Force’s intent for the system.
With a lot of running and a loss of a sense of time, the unarmored Calavari eventually made his way across the grasslands to a clump of trees that created a little island in the otherwise flat and empty horizon preceding the main forest still some 20 miles away. He decided to stop there, slowing to a walk as he got to the edge and exploring the bit of untouched countryside that was a rarity on the planet after two massive wars had been fought on its surface.
These trees were large and old, telling Bronsor that they too had been here before the lizards had invaded. He walked over to one of them and brushed his bare hand against the slick, smooth bark trying to soak in as many sights and sensations as he could and reconnect. When he touched the tree he let his hand linger, eventually closing his eyes and taking several deep, slow breaths, then opening his eyes again.
What he saw was victory. After so many years and battles and losses and horrors, the Calavari stood here victorious. The lizards were being beaten back and the Nestafar were gone. Bronsor and only a few others would truly appreciate this, and he felt both isolated and privileged to have that unique perspective. He was one of the last survivors from that time period, and now he stood here as a representative of all his kin that had fallen.
“We won,” he said, speaking to the dead. “We won.”
Several hours later Bronsor made his return run across the grasslands, having put the last bits of unfinished business to rest in his memories as his mind turned to the future as the horizon in front of him was filled with the spires of the ever growing Calavari city. He felt so small compared to t
hem and the grandiose landscape he was in that it was both humbling and exhilarating. He was a part of something so vast and complicated that he could never hope to understand it all, but he didn’t have to. Star Force had earned his trust long ago and never given him cause to second guess them, and his people had assimilated to their way enough that they were now equally Star Force and also deserving of that trust.
That meant Bronsor could revel in all that they’d accomplished together without having to be responsible for anything other than his tiny role in all of it…and he knew that’s the way it worked for everyone else, even the trailblazers, for right now they had no idea he was out here running across the wilds getting in a workout. That workout was his responsibility and totally off their radar. He held up his end, they’d hold up theirs. That was how Star Force worked and downright thrived, not through forcing or constricting people into a philosophy and supplanting their own judgement with an exterior edict, but in trusting each person to figure things out on their own and do what was needed without monitoring or nudging.
The population in general would always have losers, in various forms, but so long as enough people held true to their personal responsibilities they could carry the rest of the living baggage with ease. Bronsor was part of an empire that thrived on freedom and trust, giving people time to experiment and learn and fail, then grow stronger from it if they chose. Some wouldn’t, some would, but those that did would add to their ranks, for they would never grow old and the longer Star Force remained in existence the greater the numbers of the responsible ones would grow and overshadow the losers.
Those would eventually die off from their own stupidity and laziness, but Bronsor and the others would remain indefinitely, continuing to grow and learn from each other, further strengthening the empire in ways that the Calavari had never before dreamed possible. Bronsor was literally living a dream right now, after having fought his way through a very long gauntlet to earn it.