Star Force: Divide (SF76) (Star Force Origin Series) Read online

  1

  May 3, 2938

  Epsilon Eridani System

  Corneria

  Hightower stood in his office, surrounded by nothing but blackness into which a number of holograms were situated. There were no windows or doors visible, and not even the floor registered to his eyes. All that existed was the pertinent data, and he’d found that this configuration helped him to think more clearly. He’d gotten the idea from Paul long ago, but hadn’t ever truly considered it until the past century. What had been artwork in the original was replaced with maps for Hightower, along with statistics that he was currently viewing directly ahead of him while a close-in map to his right showed a Sentinel defense station disconnecting one of its five segments.

  He was watching the disassembly occur, having made the choice earlier and wanting to keep appraised of their progress, though not because he was concerned about its implementation. The Sentinels were designed to be taken apart and moved if needed, but he knew taking away pieces of the defense network he’d been layering on the system for centuries was not something to be taken lightly. There hadn’t been an attack here since the earliest days of colonization, but one shouldn’t assume that it couldn’t happen. That was an invitation for the bad luck monkey to punch you in the face.

  Keeping himself wary of that fact, he made a point of watching this Sentinel be disassembled as most of his focus was on the economic statistics for the entire Star Force core region excluding Epsilon Eridani and Sol. The industrial powerhouse of those two fed the rest of the empire, with the core systems being the closest neighbors and almost exclusively Human-occupied. Epsilon Eridani was one of the few exceptions, given that they also housed a Hycre world, and if/when the V’kit’no’sat ever came back it was this region that they would hit first.

  Hightower didn’t know how exactly they’d respond, but he figured the Human worlds would be the first targets. They might then go on to eradicate anyone who had had contact with them or their tech, or some version falling in between those two nightmares. While the lizards were the current concern they were not the major one, nor the only one. Star Force had many enemies out there, and even within their own borders. While Hightower was definitely aware of the lizards and the pushback the Archons were making into their territory, he had the responsibility for seeing all the puzzle pieces in motion.

  With most people focusing on the lizards he felt it was needed that he pour more focus into the ‘other’ threats, along with an eye towards the V’kit’no’sat. Hopefully they stayed in the galactic core for a very long time, but if they did return to Earth then they’d be at Corneria in the blink of an eye, for right now it took less than a day for Star Force ships to make the jump between the two neighboring systems. They were also the most heavily defended systems in the empire, but Epsilon Eridani was Hightower’s to command.

  Though by ‘command’ many people could misinterpret his role. He was in charge of the system and shaping it to his designs, but the Archons were always in charge. They didn’t outrank one another, for that’s not how Star Force’s leadership worked, nor did its lower levels for the most part. Everyone was loyal to the mission, and took responsibility on themselves to see that it got done. Hightower’s role was to sit here, build, and prepare. The Archons were the ones who took action, always on the move, and they needed people like Hightower who had the luxury of staying put…just as he needed people who could bounce around from place to place as needed, for an interstellar empire didn’t function like most people assumed. It wasn’t a single entity, but rather a conglomeration of little kingdoms.

  Even with the relay network and the proximity of Sol to Epsilon Eridani, the two systems might have been on the other side of the galaxy from one another. They were totally disconnected, with only a limited flow of ships moving between them. That ‘flow’ was huge in number, but small in percentage to the commerce and activities taking place within each system. Most things were accomplished locally, making Hightower’s system a private fiefdom that he controlled, not for his own sake, but to facilitate others.

  Likewise Davis ran Sol, but even if he’d wanted to he couldn’t micromanage Epsilon Eridani, let alone the rest of the systems spread across the empire, not to mention the factions. The very definition of an ‘empire’ was that it had different layers and sections, not that it was controlled by one ‘emperor.’ In fact that was laughable, for while Davis was definitely in the lead, he didn’t control much at all. It was a team effort, and without that team functioning in unity an organization this large would quickly collapse on itself.

  Structure, wisdom, and trust kept it all together and functioning efficiently, and Davis had been totally responsible for designing and implementing it all. Others had added to it, like the trailblazers who had designed their entire military from scratch, but it was Davis’ genius that had made it all possible from the outset, not to mention him continually tinkering to guide them forward into uncharted territory. The larger Star Force got the more it could do, but it was also more of a challenge to manage. Things could be happening in another star system without Davis’s knowledge, even entire wars if the relay network went down or someone chose to withhold information. The disconnected nature of interstellar empires was one that prevented the kind of oversight that many less inspired cultures relied upon.

  Trust was the only way an empire could function across star systems, and while Star Force’s internal structure was layered into tiers, there were always some pieces that operated independently of the others…because their trust was absolute. The trailblazers were one example, but Hightower was another. Davis watched what happened in Epsilon Eridani, as he did in all systems, but he was not involved with it unless there was a special situation that arose. He ran Sol, that was his personal kingdom, while he’d entrusted Epsilon Eridani to Hightower.

  That was out of necessity, but it also was a bold statement to the rest of the galaxy. Whereas others would have competed with each other internally in power grabs, Star Force laughed at such notions. They were united, and behaved as such, with Hightower ‘ruling’ here adding to the power of Davis in Sol rather than challenging him. The same was true of the other ‘Monarchs’ as they’d come to be called.

  Davis had started the program back with the Clans when he’d assigned Hightower as Marquis of Clan Saber so he could learn to operate independently. And it was still true that no Duke achieved that rank without first being a Marquis and running a Clan that spanned multiple star systems. Though Hightower only controlled one now, that one was so big it eclipsed what any dozen Clans could amount to combined.

  That’s how big Epsilon Eridani was, and how important it was. Sol was even bigger, with the two of them being the crown jewels in the empire that just happened to sit next to one another.

  But because Epsilon Eridani had gotten so large and important it exerted an influence over the rest of Star Force territory, almost as much as Sol did, with the two systems ruling the rest through materiel and personnel. All Star Force systems were built to be self-sufficient, but when problems arose it was the two big systems that were turned to for help, so not only did Hightower have to consider his star system and those nearby, he was partly responsible for the entire empire, along with Davis, and required a slightly different mindset from the Duke that he had been for many, many years.

  Davis maintained the title of ‘Director’ but had promoted Hightower and Vectir to the position of Arch Duke. While Sol and Epsilon Eridani were the big boys within the empire, Rotunna was their aspiring little brother. It wasn’t located within the core region, but down in Beta and Randy’s personal stomping grounds ever s
ince the Skarron war. But as an Archon, Randy had to move around when needed and spend a lot of his time training. Arch Dukes trained, as did all Star Force personnel, but Hightower’s workouts took him less than 2 hours a day when Archons were known to sometimes spend all their waking hours in a sanctum pressing their skills to new levels.

  Randy couldn’t run the system, and as needed a Duke had been assigned to oversee and grow it. Rotunna, with 7 habitable planets and two habitable moons, was geographically more valuable than either Sol or Epsilon Eridani, though it hadn’t been built up nearly as much. That wasn’t due to resources, but time. It was a newer system, but one that was coming into prominence as another ‘watchtower’ for the empire, and as such it required an equivalent to Davis and Hightower, in the form of only the second Arch Duke appointed to date.

  The trio of Davis, Hightower, and Vectir were supplemented with well over 100 Dukes, all of which had cycled through the Clans at one point. Those Dukes either ran systems or oversaw less developed regions, but common to all was the lack of oversight. Each was entrusted to make things work in their personal kingdoms, and due to that fact there was no overlap of monarchs.

  There were a few currently in Epsilon Eridani, but only Hightower was assigned here. The others were passing through, doing research, or taking various forms of vacations. Now that Star Force had a large pool of personnel to pull from, Davis had implemented the new policy of using high level Administrators to oversee planets within a system such as this rather than assigning Barons or others that would be somewhat conflicting with the Arch Duke. Davis wanted each monarch to be in sole control of their assignment, and going along with that motif Davis had made them all trans-tier positions.

  At present Star Force had 9 tiers within their hierarchy, and as the empire grew they were adding new ones. Davis had originally held the highest tier along with the trailblazers and a few others, but he’d changed that to make the leadership cadre above the tiers. There were many level 9 Administrators working for Hightower and helping him run Epsilon Eridani, but while they oversaw planets that were far larger and a greater challenge to manage, a Baron assigned to a frontier startup colony still outranked them.

  It wasn’t the type of ranking that allowed one to travel into someone’s backyard and supersede their authority, but then again it kind of was. The trick of it, though, was in understanding that someone completely new to a planet or system wasn’t going to have the knowledge needed to just jump in and start reworking things, so there was an almost default level of deference in such matters. But all Administrators knew why the Barons outranked them, despite their posting…and that was because they had no one telling them what to do, with the outcome of their assignment entirely riding on their judgement and decisions.

  Hightower’s Administrators operated off of his playbook and it allowed them to compartmentalize. Monarchs did not have that luxury. Some Administrators would end up advancing into the Monarch ranks down the road, many would not. Though they appeared to be similar, if not identical roles, there was a chilling difference between the two that not all people were well suited for, and some did not want to be Monarchs for just that reason. They were comfortable in their leadership roles, but wanted to be assigned a mission with parameters. Monarchs operated without parameters, setting them for others to follow.

  That was why Davis had made the change to not have Monarchs operating in the same system at the same time, unless two planets were completely unconnected from one another. On the frontier that was possible, but with well-established systems like Epsilon Eridani Hightower had oversight on everything, including some other regional systems that were being run by Administrator and not by a Monarch.

  Those were usually locations that were not tasked for major development, mining sites and such, and Hightower had oversight on four of those, including the Merovingian System that held the Prometheus star forge. But the data he was looking through now was not limited to just his command offshoots, but the systems controlled by Barons, Counts, and Dukes. The Marquises were exempt, because their mandate kept their economies separate from the rest of the empire, but the influence that Hightower exerted from Epsilon Eridani could reach every other system in the empire, and as such he had to monitor their activities in order to know where to use his influence…and to do so without stepping on Davis’s or Vectir’s toes.

  The latter part was difficult with communication lag, but they coordinated with each other well enough. Most of Hightower’s efforts were monitoring and anticipating problems before they occurred, with him currently spotting a potential corovon shortage on the outer edge of Delta Region. There was no issue yet, but move the economic chess pieces around and he could see it occurring soon. Given shipping delays and the need to get ahead of problems, he pulled up another holographic panel that glowed blue in the pitch black room and input a transit order to ship 30 cubic meters of raw corovon from his Epsilon Eridani’s surplus stores to Duke Methis, with a note telling her to sit on it for potential shortages and a posting to Davis and Vectir so they were aware of the transfer in case they were watching the numbers and thinking of doing the same.

  A few seconds after he finished a flashing orb appeared to his left and he tapped on it, accepting the incoming comm with the orb flashing into the upper torso of one of his personal staff that handled the majority of the regular Administratorial duties for him so he could be left to mentally roam and put out fires before they even began. That said, some things needed to be directed to him to handle personally, so it wasn’t uncommon for him being interrupted. The orb was there so he could choose whether or not to accept the comm without it becoming a full interruption, but nothing he was doing now was so important that he couldn’t take a short break.

  “Yes?”

  “A request from the Hycre for a direct line.”

  “Put them through.”

  His staffer nodded, then the Human’s hologram disappeared and the floating gas bag that was a Hycre replaced him, filling most of Hightower’s view. Below the hologram was an ID tag, allowing the Arch Duke to identify who the caller was, for his skills in picking out differences in Hycre physiology were still lacking, though this one he was familiar with.

  “Hello, Nephanie.”

  WE HAVE A REQUEST TO MAKE, the Hycre said via computer translator.

  “Make it.”

  OUR FLEET IS DEPARTING SOON TO THE HECHMA SYSTEM. WE ANTICIPATE AN EVEN BATTLE AND HAVE DECIDED TO AUGMENT OUR INVASION FLEET WITH OUR DEFENSIVE FLEET. OUR WORLD WILL BE WITHOUT PATROL. WE DO NOT EXPECT AN ATTACK HERE BUT WE DO NOT WISH TO CHANCE. WE ASK THAT YOU COVER OUR WEAKNESS SO THAT WE MAY PRESENT A GREATER THREAT TO THE CAJDITAL.

  Hightower smiled. “You should know by now that I’ve always got your back. If the lizards poke their nose anywhere in this system we’re going after them.”

  THE CAJDITAL ARE NOT THE ONLY THREATS IN THIS GALAXY.

  “True,” Hightower granted.

  IT IS BETTER TO ASK BEFORE SUCH REINFORCEMENTS ARE NEEDED. WE DO NOT WISH A RAIDER TO MAKE ITS WAY INTO ORBIT AND STRIKE A SHIP FOR LACK OF A PATROL.

  “I’ll cycle some drones out to Threshold to replace your patrols. Hechma isn’t one of your former systems, is it?”

  IT IS NOT. IT IS THE HOMEWORLD OF AN ALLY THE CAJDITAL ERADICATED. WE INTEND TO AVENGE THEM AND TAKE SOME SMALL BURDEN OFF YOUR FORCES AT THE SAME TIME. WE ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE GROWN BEYOND US, BUT THE CAJDITAL HAVE ALSO BECOME NEARLY OUR EQUALS. WE CANNOT EXERT THE INFLUENCE WE ONCE HAD. WE CAN TAKE THIS SYSTEM FROM THEM. I HAVE INFORMED THE ARCHONS. I NOW INFORM YOU AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR COVERING OUR PATROLS HERE.

  “Happy hunting,” Hightower offered, then the Hycre cut the transmission. He didn’t take offense at that, for the Hycre social interactions were always a bit stiff, though practical. The Arch Duke pulled up another prompt and sent the order to cover the gas giant Threshold with a drone patrol to replace the considerable amount of Hycre warships that were always present there. The planet and the orbit around
it was filled with both ships and stations, and if someone want to make a mess of things they could with a sneak attack…but the odds of that happening here were nil. Though like Nephanie had said, you could never know for sure.

  Even though the drones were military, Hightower could still send them where he wanted. If the Archons needed them they could always reposition them where they liked, but they had a workable relationship that didn’t involve any sort of tug of war over ships. Even the Sentinels hadn’t been ordered away, rather the trailblazers had informed him of their need and he’d decided to start compromising this system’s security in order to give them what they needed to defeat the lizards in Gvaris. He’d been monitoring that conflict with keen interest, for it was the largest Star Force had ever fought to date and the sort of scale that he’d been preparing to defend Epsilon Eridani against should the lizards ever feel like hitting Star Force at its heart.

  Paul had told him the lizards were holding back, and now he was seeing in detail just how much naval muscle they had with so many ships continuing to pour into the system that the Sentinels were needed just to stem the tide. A few dozen had already been set up but there weren’t enough new ones available coming out of the shipyards to give them what they needed, so Hightower was sending them some of his. He didn’t like lessening his defenses here, but he did have over 700 of them spread out across the system.

  He glanced back at the hologram of the one Sentinel as a jump cradle moved in and slowly wrapped its long, spindly arms around it, encasing it in an IDF field so it could carry it away to the distant battlefield. Paul needed them right now, but Hightower knew better than to ever grow complacent. Epsilon Eridani was a fortress system, but even fortresses could fall…and it was often that they would get hit when they were temporarily weakened.

  This wasn’t the first time Star Force had to pull reinforcements from defensive fleets to the front, but it was the first in recent memory. Star Force hadn’t been pressed this hard since the Skarron invasion, but Epsilon Eridani existed for just this reason…to send support to other systems and the front when needed, and he had no doubt Sol would be doing the same. They both had Sentinels to spare, and if Paul needed to spam them against the lizards then that was one tactic Hightower was going to give him.