Star Force: Origin Series Box Set (13-16)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  He pulled up the files on all of Lens’s people, then started to stereotype them as much as he could, looking for trends in their other scores and eventually getting some partial results after two hours of study. Taking those, he selected 9 individuals he thought could be trained into the aquatics discipline by the experienced pair…and himself once he brushed up on Lens’ field notes.

  Next he chose 6 solid hand to hand specialists, followed by 10 mech pilots. That left him 9 slots to fill, choosing highly skilled multi-taskers that had displayed an ability to adapt well. That gave him the core 50 he and Morgan had agreed upon, with the balance of the remaining Archons either to be assigned after the core teams had been formed or left unassigned for field work or additional training, which all new graduating classes would be shunted into.

  43 of his 49 fellow Sabers were currently in the ocean floor sanctum, with the others already on Venus or deployed elsewhere off planet, which he would divert back to the Venus sanctum as soon as their current assignments allowed for it. Before Morgan or anyone else could stop him, he rounded up all of his new Clan and pulled rank, assigning a Cougar in low Earth orbit to come pick them up and carry them out to the high orbit starport. From there they would catch an inter-planetary starship out to Venus…which Paul had just given orders to delay its departure and wait for them to come out.

  Being the unofficial fleet commander did have its privileges, after all.

  Roger and Liam probably would have done the same thing, but they were still playing back in the pyramid and had no clue what was going on, and Paul was going to stick it to them while he had the advantage.

  While his new recruits were packing he had a load of simulator equipment collected from Atlantis’s stores, extra sparring gear, and 14 support staff with trainer credentials, including one cranky old miser by the name of Jenkins that insisted on bringing his wife and kids along, wanting to have relocated to another planet for some time but never truly feeling comfortable leaving Atlantis. Paul had convinced him to come out of ‘retirement’ to help his Clan kick some ass, and that was something that Jenkins simply couldn’t resist. He immediately volunteered and informed his family of the sudden move, eliciting a cheer from his six children, who’d long romanticized living in space.

  Paul stopped by to see Davis before he and the others shipped out, informing him of their grand scheme and how he was getting a jump on the others. The Director shook his head approvingly, not the least bit surprised that they’d had another brainstorm that would make the Archon ranks even more efficient and powerful than they already were.

  When Paul laid out the Battletech example they were copying the concept intrigued Davis. He pried him for more information and Paul saw a gleam fill his eye, after which the Director suggested that they take the project one step further and set up Clan infrastructure to accommodate the training groups and give them a greater sense of internal identity. In the case of Venus, they’d add another wing to the sanctum, maybe two if another clan wanted to set up there.

  Paul took the offer happily, knowing that Davis had something else up his sleeve but dismissed the suspicion to the recesses of his mind as he didn’t want to spend any more time in Atlantis than he needed to. Normally he liked visiting the city that he called home, but right now all he could think about was getting back to Venus and start building his new Clan.

  Davis could see the eagerness as well, so he didn’t hold him any longer than necessary. After Paul left his office, the Director put in a call to one of his requisitions officers, asking for any and all material from the now obsolete Battletech franchise that he could track down.

  Colonization

  1

  May 12, 2136

  Sara watched from the bridge of the Leo-class starship as it approached the spherical space station in Jupiter orbit. Unlike most Star Force constructs, the Canderian station was painted dark green, almost to the point of being black, which made it difficult to see save for the side that reflected the sunlight. It wasn’t the largest station ever built, by far, but it was still massive. Designed to hold upwards of 100,000 colonists, the prototype station was the first semi-operational Canderian outpost.

  Project Canderous had been in effect for several decades, first with stage 1 taking place in dedicated structures on the surface of Venus as various recycling measures were developed and tested in coordination with a small volunteer population. What they learned there, and the troubles that resulted, allowed Star Force to proceed to stage 2 whereupon a moderately sized group of colonists lived in smaller orbital stations, each tasked with testing a certain aspect of what was now all combined into a single stage 3 attempt to build a self-sufficient space station that could function as its own colony without the need to resupply for extended periods of time.

  That included all food production and the industry necessary to manufacture space parts needed for station maintenance using a surplus of materials, plus recycling measures. At the heart of the spherical station were a series of gravity discs and cylinders suspended within the zero g sections of the giant ‘ball.’ Among them was a large water reservoir, built up through small shipments sent along with each cargo run. Even Sara’s Leo was bringing another load to add to that reservoir, which was currently at 43% capacity.

  In addition to agriculture and industry, the Canderian station also had another critical component that hadn’t yet been fully integrated into a standing colony…the maturia.

  It was the reason why Sara was arriving. She’d helped design it along with Paul and a few of the other Archons and now it needed some tweaking. Each maturia was grouped into orisects, which was shorthand for ‘section of origin,’ that contained 100 infants starting within a few days of birth. As a necessity all were roughly the same age and grouped as closely as possible, but given that this was the first operational Canderian maturia the gaps were longer than wanted, given the low population levels, and currently ran at +/- 3 months for the eldest orisect.

  They were now 12 years old, having lived their entire lives on this one station. Sara had been monitoring their progress remotely, given that they were the first to go through a maturia in this fashion, and had spotted some troubling signs. Nothing major was wrong, but their track had gotten slightly off what the Archons and Davis had intended it to be, so she’d traveled out to Jupiter to make the corrections personally.

  Her Leo eventually docked against the ‘equator’ of the static station and began offloading cargo. Sara crossed over with it, seeing the usual amount of personal items and novelties that the station couldn’t yet produce for itself. In the future there would be many Canderian stations that, while self-sufficient to a point, would be able to trade with each other for specialized items and equipment, but for now this lone station was still having to rely on Star Force for occasional shipments along with the material and water stockpiles that hadn’t been fully realized yet.

  Sara transferred through the zero g cargo bay and moved her way into the gravity sections that ran down the polar spine of the station. There was an amicable amount of personnel traffic in the corridors, but the station wasn’t fully populated. It didn’t feel empty to her, but there was definitely a lot of elbow room to go around as she bypassed a visit to the command center and went straight to the maturia.

  “Legionmaster,” she said, announcing herself as she walked in through his half open office door.

  A trim man with short blonde hair rose out of his seat immediately upon recognizing her. “Archon,” he said with a nod of respect.

  “Here to troubleshoot,” she said, closing the door behind her.

  “Much appreciated,” he thanked her, sitting back down as she walked over to one of the three large windows that bracketed the maturia director’s office. She stopped in front of the far left one that gave her a view into the nearest of the infant wards. Small pods were arrayed in rows, 10 by 10, with a dozen or so handlers moving about attending to the needs of the recently born. After a few months this orisect would
transfer to another chamber, taking 3/4ths of the handlers with them for the sake of familiarity for the children to the next age-zone.

  When they reached approximately 1 year of age they would shift again, with 3/4ths of their handlers going with them, but only retaining 1/2 of their original staff. By the time they reached level 5 at age 3, all of their handlers that they had begun with at birth would have recycled back down to level 1 with a new orisect, allowing the older one to transition forward while retaining a specific age range for each handler to specialize in. All of them would be assigned 4 levels out of the 10 that comprised the maturia, allowing enough time for bonding to occur to facilitate their training, but at the same time rotating their handlers out a quarter at a time with each transfer so that the children would have access to progressively higher-rated instructors as they matured.

  This was intended to aid the development process, whereas a single handler taking charge of their training through all the levels might not push them as hard as necessary, remembering them as infants or small children rather than assessing them for what they were in the here and now. With the higher end handlers not knowing their charges until they arrived in their age-specific window, they could offer an unbiased assessment and ‘tug’ the children on towards maturity faster than someone who would be sentimental. Also, the segmentation allowed the handlers to specialize in a specific age range of development rather than throwing the entire 20 year process at a single person and expecting them to master all the prerequisite training aspects.

  The handlers also worked in groups that had ranks. The more experienced ones handled the most duties while the newer ones observed and assisted the primary handlers when needed, lending their eyes and hands while learning the ropes for a few hours each day before switching off with another group. In order to maintain the fitness and professionality of the handlers, they were only allowed to work a maximum 6 hour shift during their 30 hour Canderian days. This required a larger number of handlers, but kept the maturia from being the entirety of their lives.

  “Any recent developments?” Sara asked as she watched the level 1 handlers go about their duties.

  “The lethargy is growing fast in the first three orisects,” the Legionmaster said, frowning. “I can’t explain it, but they just don’t want to do anything. The laziness didn’t manifest itself till they hit level 8, but I can’t fault any of the trainers for it because I can’t see that they’re doing anything wrong.”

  Sara turned around and leaned back against the window, crossing her arms over her chest. “They’re working on theoreticals. Archons don’t start training until they’re adults, so we have no experience with dealing with this developmental stage in a controlled setting.”

  “I was only a year older than them when I entered the maturia,” the Legionmaster told her. “I was a bit gun shy at first, but as soon as I adapted I was extremely motivated. So were my brothers and sisters.”

  Sara shook her head. “We’re dealing with an entirely different model here. You were an orphan, with knowledge of who your parents had been and of life outside the maturia. You could see how much cooler what we offered you was than what you had, thus you were motivated.”

  “So you think this orisect’s problem is they’re ignorant of how good they’ve got it?”

  “No, I think their lack of benchmarks is the problem. They’re the first ones to go through so they’re setting all the standards. They don’t have upper level orisects to look at and want to emulate. If we can get this first group on track, I think the problem will take care of itself.”

  “How do you plan to tackle that one?”

  “We’ll start with some meet and greet, then work our way up from there.”

  The Legionmaster smiled. “Some ass-kicking always works wonders?”

  “In so far as it lets them see their potential,” Sara explained. “Where are they now?”

  “A001 should just be finishing up their sleep cycle.”

  “Good,” Sara said with a smile. “Get them to the challenge zone.”

  “I thought we were supposed to be running?” one of the girls asked the boy to her left as the entire orisect stood at attention in 5 rows of 20 waiting for their handlers to give them instructions.

  “Me too,” the boy answered.

  “I’m glad we’re not,” another one said. “I’m tired of stomping around that track.”

  “Then pick up your feet, slacker,” someone else said, none of them turning their heads more than an inch or so as they whispered.

  “Legionmaster,” someone else warned, with the whispering dying out.

  The maturia commander walked out onto the wide promenade that separated various training zones used for structured challenges and stopped at the edge of the orisect formation, but the woman next to him, who was even more blonde than him, kept moving and strode out in front of all of them, beginning to speak as soon as she passed the first child.

  “I am Archon Sara-012,” she said, seeing some of their little eyes go wide with surprise. “I helped create Canderous and I have been watching your progress very closely. Up until recently I’ve been pleased with the reports I saw…but not lately,” she said, stopping in front of the center of the formation and placing her hands on her hips as a frown found its way onto her face. “So what gives?”

  She let the question hang there for a moment, but no one responded. “Your training scores suck. Someone tell me why.”

  “It’s boring,” one extra small boy said from the second row.

  “Boring?” Sara repeated, sounding as if his words were unbelievably close to treason. “Training is everything!”

  She looked across the entire formation, making eye contact in all directions with one long sweep of her head. “Sit down, younglings,” she said, motioning with her hand.

  As a group they sat, cross-legged, but still maintaining their rows.

  “Do you want to grow old and die?” she asked, beginning to pace up and down the line but keeping a good two meters between her and them at all times so it didn’t feel like she was towering over them. “Do you want your body to slowly fall apart? Do you want it to malfunction and rot away while you’re still alive? Of course not, but then again you’ve never seen it happen. You’ve never seen old people. All your handlers are fit, and aside from me they’re probably the only other people you’ve met face to face.”

  “But you have seen the pictures…I know, because I incorporated them into your studies. What the pictures don’t tell you is how much pain they’re in. People lie about growing old being a natural part of life, but what it really is is failure. Failure of your body hurts…a lot. Before I joined Star Force I knew a lot of old people, and they complained about aches and pains on a regular basis. Others tried to pretend there was nothing wrong, but every now and then you could see them hurting anyway. Old age is not pleasant. It is not fun. It is not funny. It is what will happen to you if you don’t learn to train and keep training. That’s why you’re here, in this maturia. That’s why I designed it. To teach you from the beginning how to maintain and improve your bodies so you never have to find out the hard way what old age is like.”

  “Now, some of you are wondering why we call it ‘old age’ when it doesn’t have anything to do with how old you are. You’re right to wonder that, and if you read your studies closely you’ll remember that the name comes from a very common lie that most people cling to as an excuse for why their bodies are falling apart. They lie, saying it’s because of the years, but we know that’s not true.”

  “Those old people you saw in the pictures…as far as the years are concerned, they’re younger than me! What’s the difference? Training. It’s all about the training.”

  “I’m 118 years old. Almost every single person born the same year or before me is now dead. Why? They didn’t know how to train properly. They didn’t even have a clue that they could avoid old age. Most of them thought it was impossible, others were just plain lazy. I don’t want that
to happen to any of you.”

  “Remember, your bodies will take care of themselves in almost every way needed. Almost,” she repeated. “Now that small bit that your body can’t do on its own is up to you. There are three things you need to feed your body. Water, food, and workouts. Your body can’t get those things on its own, so you have to provide them.”

  “Feed your body what it needs. It needs workouts, so don’t start skimping. You need to train to maintain the fitness you have. Look at you,” she said, pointing to them all. “None of you are fat or ugly.”

  That remark brought some giggles with it.

  “You know why?” Sara continued. “Because you’re fit. Fit people aren’t fat. Fit people aren’t ugly. You’re all in good condition because of the training you’ve done, so don’t stop now.”

  Sara looked around, pausing for a moment. “Maybe some of you are thinking that since you’re already fit you can just do a little training and stay the same? Well, you’re probably right about that. It depends on what training you do and when. But there’s another reason to train, and that’s to improve yourself. To get stronger, faster, smarter.”

  “Maybe you don’t really know what that is. You don’t have any older orisects around to look at, and your trainers don’t like showing off, but I can promise you that I don’t have that setback,” Sara said, snapping her fingers at the Legionmaster.

  He likewise signaled to two handlers who were standing off to the side. They brought a stun sword and a training rifle forward and handed Sara the sword.

  “Who’s the best shot here?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

  Several hands shot up, but she looked around the tiny Canderians until she found the face she wanted. “Terry, get up here.”

  The small boy smiled and leapt to his feet, stepping his way past the others and up to the handlers who gave him the training rifle.