by Aer-ki Jyr
“Best way to track someone down is to scan everywhere and review the data later. The question is how many orbital assets do they have and are they overhead. They might not be, but I’m not making assumptions regarding our luck on that.”
“No,” Esna agreed, biting her lip. “What did you decide to put in the message?”
“My identity.”
Esna frowned. That wasn’t something they’d discussed.
“What for?”
“If Star Force is here, they need to know who to talk to. We can’t risk giving clues, Esna. I’m sorry. But if I tell them who I am, they might give us a clue.”
“You’re worried that whatever we tell them the Viks will be able to figure out?”
“I have no idea what has transpired over the past centuries and how much they’ve learned of us. But Star Force will know of me and what I know…and there’s a chance they could construct a message that the Viks won’t be able to understand.”
“And if not, they still know you’re here…for sure.”
“Yes.”
“But not me?”
“There may come a time when I have to lead the Viks away from you. Best not to confirm the fact that you’re with me.”
Esna grew angry and pointed a tiny finger at the Calavari’s big head.
“No seppin way. I don’t care if you buy me another week. I can’t make it without you and you know it. If we die, we die together.”
“If we’re together you die for sure. If we split there’s a small chance you could make it. I’ll take a small chance over your certain death if it comes to it.”
“I won’t.”
“You have to be a survivor, Esna. It’s part of my training, but even I had to learn and adapt when the moment came. You’re already learning from me and…” Rammak paused, then suddenly Esna’s HUD lit up. “There. I updated your battlemap with every hideout I have on this planet. If we get separated, find your way to them and survive. I’ll set mine to delete if I should die so the Viks won’t have it, and hopefully they’ll kill me before they can pull it from my mind…”
“Stop it!” Esna yelled, then disconnected and pulled her helmet off, tossing it to the side not wanting the information it now contained. “I am not leaving you. If you take off without me I’ll follow, I promise you.”
Rammak pulled his own helmet off and locked eyes with her under the bright white lights of the camp they were in.
“I don’t like it either, but if I’m going to die I’d rather be accomplishing something in the process. I hate the idea of a no-win scenario.”
“Why can’t the Viks be beaten? Why are you so scared of them? If they had a ship shooting at us that’s one thing, but why can’t you fight them? You’re huge and stronger than I could ever imagine being. And you said they’re Human, right? The Zen’zat. Why can’t you at least hold your own?”
“They are smaller in mass, but just as tall. And most of them are far older than me. Do you understand what that means?”
“No,” she said, but as the word was coming out the understanding of his statement hit her. “Wait, you mean training time?”
“Yes. They’ve had centuries, even millennia to grow stronger day after day. And don’t think they sent their weak ones here to fight Star Force.”
“But you have four arms…”
“A small advantage. They will also be wearing armor newer than mine, and who knows how much more advanced it’s gotten. I can slow them down at best, but unless they sent an inferior Zen’zat to hunt us there is no hope.”
“Even if I fight with you?”
“You will be of no help.”
Esna put her hands on her hips, clacking armor against armor.
“I’m not as weak as I was when you found me. I’ve made progress. And I’ve always been able to shoot straight.”
“Yes you have, and I’m proud of what you’ve accomplished, but it won’t be enough. The only way we stay alive is to stay hidden. I know you don’t understand this, but there is no chance of victory, Esna. None. I may be strong compared to you, but I am one of the weakest fighters in Star Force.”
“You? I don’t believe that.”
“Archons are the strongest, though some of them I could defeat when they are young. If we are of the same training age, they are the stronger. Next are the Mavericks. Then the Knights. After that comes the Commandos, and there are many forms of us. Protovic have powers of their own, weaker than the Archons, but it gives them advantages that I don’t have. But they are small, like you, and I have a muscle advantage over them. The same goes for every other faction within Star Force. We have advantages and weaknesses, but when we fight together we cover for one another and become stronger for it. We are a team, but on that team I am the least capable unit.”
“But you can still beat an Archon?”
“Many races fight wars using expendable units barely able to do more than carry and fire a weapon. You already are better trained than most of them. Star Force doesn’t view people as expendable. Machines yes, but not people, so the weakest warriors they will send into battle have to be far better than everyone else. I was very proud to have achieved the rank of Commando. It took a lot of training, failure, and repetition until I grew strong enough and skilled enough to earn that title and this armor. But even then I wasn’t ready to fight. I had to keep training and improving until I wasn’t so weak, then I was put into battle and I continued to grow stronger year after year…but so does everyone else, because we all train. Even civilians train to some extent.”
“So you’re saying you’re all supersoldiers?”
“The term ‘soldier’ has mixed meanings within Star Force, but yours is correct. I’m amongst the weakest of the supersoldiers, and we only use supersoldiers in battle, though we’re all trained to fight in the maturia.”
“Everyone knows how to fight…and you still lost,” she said, her voice trailing off.
“The Viks do not send weak units into battle either, and they have an enormous empire to recruit from. Their hatred of us insures they send their best.”
Esna looked at the ground, feeling a mixture of embarrassment and anger.
“If they kill us, how will they do it? Weapons or hand to hand?”
“Weapons are needed to get through our armor, but they can have weapons built into their armor as well as carry them free as we do. So a punch could contain a shot as well as a fist.”
“What else?”
“Their psionics. You being a Human means you’re immune to Ikrid, their mind control, but the rest you are not. Your armor is designed to block most of them, but it requires a lot of power and isn’t left on all the time. When we go into battle we turn it on and it gives us a chance to survive.”
“If you can’t beat them, what did you fight?”
“Three Commandos could kill a Zen’zat under the right conditions. Put 10 of us together supporting a Knight and they won’t engage at all. It’s about strength and numbers, as well as terrain, weaponry, surprise, and a lot of other things learned over centuries of training. Things I can’t do with you, meaning it would be a 1v1 that I would lose.”
“You mean team tactics?”
“Yes.”
“Teren and I were good at that, and we didn’t even have to practice.”
“You did practice, you just didn’t think you were. Living together counts.”
“But it’s not training, right? Otherwise I could just hang out with you and get better?” she said, lightening the mood a bit.
“Everything you do, no matter how small, has an effect on you. Being around someone else and observing them gives you information on how they think, react, what their habits are. Those things help you fight alongside someone. For Commandos, we’re all trained to fight in a similar way so we can engage in battle side by side with another we’ve never met before. But knowing someone, such as your brother, is a skill even if you didn’t intend for it to be.”
“That means we’re lear
ning each other too, doesn’t it?”
“We are, but you can’t keep up with me in any way in combat, so it is of little use in a fight.”
“I could still shoot him once or twice.”
“Their armor shields are strong. It will take more than that, but if they should catch up to us and I can’t distract them away from you, put as many shots into them as you can.”
“So there is a chance?”
“Sometimes blind luck does occur. I’m living proof of that. If you’re going to die, might as well play those astronomical odds.”
“You just don’t like going down without a fight.”
“Why make it easy for them?”
“We won’t,” she said, reinforcing the fact that she wasn’t going to let him send her away.
“Hopefully we won’t have to face that situation.”
“Time for sparring?” Esna suggested.
“Sleep first, then hard training right before we leave. Best if you can sleep some of the way on the speeder.”
“Makes sense,” she said, picking up her helmet.
“Esna.”
She turned back and looked at him.
“What?”
“Thank you.”
“For?”
“You may not be able to help me in a fight, but it’s been a long time since anyone has wanted to.”
“Did you have a brother?”
“I had 99 brothers and sisters in the maturia. They aren’t of the same lineage, but Star Force doesn’t record such things. Everyone in the maturia grows up in a group of 100, then you split up upon graduation and go your separate ways…or stay together. Whatever you prefer.”
“And you?”
“I wanted to be a Commando. None of the others did.”
“Did they die?”
“I know of 3 that did. They didn’t make it out with the evacuation ships when the worlds they were on were attacked. How they died I don’t know. Their names were simply listed as not having made it off, so they were probably killed in the fighting. When the shields go down…”
“Yeah,” she agreed, wincing at what she thought that must have been like.
“Sleep,” he reminded her.
“Sleeping,” she said, walking off to find the basic bunk that he’d let her use while he camped out on the equipment room floor that was still a vast improvement over cave rock.
16
“We’re here,” Rammak said, jostling Esna as she sat on the back of the bike.
“Wha… What?” she said, her mind trying to figure out where she was as she came out of the grogginess of sleep.
“We’re stopping here,” the Calavari said, sliding off the bike.
“Why so soon?” she asked, sliding off the side and missing her foot plant, which dumped her straight to the ground and drew a look from Rammak.
“You were sleeping well.”
Esna belated looked at the time on her HUD.
“Wait, it’s too soon. We were supposed to keep going for another 7 hours.”
“That was the plan.”
“What changed?” she asked, pulling herself to her feet as her head cleared and she saw that they were parked under an overhang of rock up inside the hillside where wind erosion had eaten out a crack in the ground.
He pointed back out into the valley. “We have company.”
Esna fully snapped awake and pulled her pistol from her back rack.
“They haven’t seen us,” Rammak said, waving her off, “but I saw them. There’s an encampment ahead that wasn’t there the last time I passed this way. We’ll stay here until night, then try and slip by in the lesser light.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. Ragtag equipment, clunky vehicles, lots of weaponry. Hunters of some sort.”
“Hunting what? Us?”
“I doubt it.”
“How many?”
“I only saw a bit with my zoom, but they have lookouts with anti-air batteries. You don’t see those casually built, and that means an organization of some sort.”
“Who flies?”
“More than you’re probably aware of. I made certain they hadn’t spotted us, so you can grab some more sleep here if you’re able.”
“They’re going to give away our position, won’t they?”
“If we have to go through them, probably. I’m going to have a look around and see if there are other options. Stay here, stay down. I won’t go out of comm range.”
“If they have anti-air, they might have something that flies too.”
“I know what to look for. Stay under the ledge just in case. Get something to eat, but don’t set up any equipment. Keep everything ready to move.”
“I don’t like this.”
“Our battlemap is linked, if either one of us spots something the other will know. Stay here.”
“Alright. Don’t be long.”
“I won’t,” the big Calavari said as he ran off faster than Esna had ever seen him move, disappearing further into the cut in the hillside and around a bend.
“Wonderful,” she cursed, kicking a small rock out of her way. “We come all this way undetected only to get spotted again. What a waste.”
Esna sat down on the ground and stretched out her legs, thinking hard and getting no answers. They could turn around and go back, but if someone was following they’d run right into them. If they left the valley they’d be more visible to sensors, but wouldn’t that be better than actually being seen by someone? And if they had to fight their way through, or just caused a noisy pursuit, that’d attract enough attention that the Viks could pick up on.
Rammak took his time, long enough that Esna started to drift back towards sleep. The workout he’d put her through before leaving had exhausted her and she hadn’t recovered from it yet. Her lips wanted water, but she was too blissfully comfortable laying down on the rocky ground to get up and pull some off the speeder. She just lay there half-conscious while her mind spun through different ways this could all go wrong.
Rammak’s dot on her battlemap caught her attention when he came up on her faster than she’d expected. Had she fallen asleep again? Last she’d checked he’d been more than 1000 meters away.
The dot was on the other side of the speeder when she sat up, with Esna wondering how he’d gotten past her.
“Find anything?” she asked as a shorter figure wearing red and black armor walked around the speeder and into view.
“Ahhhhh!” she shrieked, scrambling backwards and onto her feet with her hand fumbling around her rack for a weapon that flew out of her grasp as soon as she disconnected it. The yank pulled her off balance and she stumbled forward as her pistol floated slowly across the air and into the person’s outstretched hand.
“Be silent,” Rammak’s voice said in her helmet. “Don’t move or do anything until I get there.”
Esna froze up, not reaching for her other weapons, and just stared at the individual who turned his back on her and looked out into the valley. On her battlemap Rammak’s actual dot was much further away, but running back here so fast it could have been a speeder.
It still took far too long, with her watching the figure ahead of her and the dot on the battlemap at the same time. When the armored figure suddenly turned around she jerked out of reflex, then Rammak’s dark brown cloak came flying into view and stopped beside her, his eyes fixed on the Vik, but neither one of them moved for several seconds.
During that awkward moment Esna realized there was a comm channel flashing on her HUD. Using her eye line activation, she clicked it on and suddenly heard Rammak’s voice.
“…not for some time.”
“Are either of you wounded?” another voice said, and suddenly she realized the other person was talking to him and she’d been missing out on the conversation.
“She was, but her injuries have fully healed. Her brother was killed, but not by the V’kit’no’sat. The locals attacked them out of fear of Humans.”
“Rumors tha
t they would bring calamity or some bullshit like that?”
“Yes,” Rammak said, and she could hear the reverence in his voice.
“Those up ahead have been arranged to draw you into the open. Your approximate area has been pinned down, but it’s so large they’re having to organize a huge net. This is one point on the perimeter. If there’s even so much as a sniff of your presence they’ll report it to the Zen’zat. There are at least two here. We hurt one, but couldn’t finish him before the other intervened. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more, and with our presence here they may very well have called for additional support.”
“Hello,” Esna finally managed to say, drawing looks from both Rammak and the mystery individual.
“Hello,” the smaller of the two said back.
“Esna, he’s not V’kit’no’sat. He is Star Force.”
Her shoulders slumped with relief, but her heart didn’t stop beating a like a machine gun.
“You’re Human?”
“No, I’m not,” he said softly as his faceplate disassembled itself into tiny pieces that disappeared behind his glowing head. “I’m Protovic. My name is Javvin, and I have been looking for the two of you for a very long time.”
Esna couldn’t say anything, so transfixed on his glowing blue eyes that bathed her dull cloak in the same tint as the shadows under the overhang along with the mix of blues on his face. One matched his eyes while the other was a paler aqua, with both arranged in a mash of tattoo-like patterns. There wasn’t a bit of skin on his face that wasn’t glowing as bright as a floodlight, though the top of his head was pure black.
“He is a Maverick,” Rammak said into the silence.
“How did you find us?”
“You didn’t make it easy,” he said, his helmet reforming over his face, returning the surrounding rock to its normal lifeless hues. “I had to guess and this was the first time I was right.”
“How close are they?” Rammak asked.
“Last one I saw was 50 miles to the south, but they’re moving around a lot on foot and by ship. It’s currently parked 210 miles east of here. I think they’re trying to draw us out to ambush the lone one, but we won’t try that again. We took an opportunity and missed. Our mission is to find you and get you off planet before they can kill you. Finding survivors is rare and I think they take it as a personal insult if any are recovered.”