Star Force: Mantle (SF92) (Star Force Origin Series)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  They could always get lucky and go unnoticed, but Thrawn knew better. Warfare on a grand scale was on the horizon, and once the races in this region realized how powerful the Li’vorkrachnika were they’d move against them, just as they had in the past, and Star Force wasn’t going to be here to protect them. They’d have to fight with courage and guile in order to just survive, and then to grow further and fulfill their mandate. Paul had told him even if they succeeded a lot of people out here were going to die, that no matter how well they all fought there were simply too many enemies, too much territory, and too little time to save them all. Thrawn was to save those he could, and Paul would do the same, but there was no chance for a full victory, for they were outmatched by the geography alone.

  But to not commit would mean far more would be killed, thus they’d taken it upon themselves to challenge fate, and for the first time since he’d been grown he felt himself fulfilling his true purpose. The fight had barely begun, but as he tasted the air of this planet he felt the righteousness of the mission, and it was one he had no problem dying to achieve if necessary.

  For without a purpose, what was the point in living?

  Paul had posed that question to him long ago, never fully answering it, but wanting him to think upon it and discover the answer for himself…and he had. Without a purpose one was lost, but a lost one could refind their path, so death wasn’t the inevitable outcome, but one did not truly live unless they were bound to a purpose, as he was now. It had been a long journey to this point, but he was here now, as were the rest of the Li’vorkrachnika that had been abandoned to die while the templars fled coreward…and they had their purpose as well, he could feel it in them. They could feel the danger and reveled in it, for it was why they existed.

  They were fighters, and fighters needed a quest to fulfill. Training alone was not enough. Thrawn and the others need to accomplish something, not prep indefinitely. It was a skill the Archons had mastered but they had not, and it was one that Thrawn truly didn’t want to obtain. He’d rather be the weapon always in use until the day he died.

  And with the size of the Rim Region and the threats opposing them, it looked like he was going to get his wish.

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