Star Force: Collaboration (SF90) (Star Force Origin Series)

  1

  August 18, 3327

  Teelmot System (lizard territory)

  Bargon

  Sander-33091 jumped across a narrow ravine, clawing with his armored legs on the far embankment as he came up a bit short. The mage scrambled up the side and stayed low to the ground, taking a knee and telekinetically helping two others jump across. Their leaps were almost as good as his, but with the psionic help both of them landed beside him on the sandy hunk of rock and continued on running without delay.

  Sander got to his feet and chased after them, eventually passing the pair of Protovic Mavericks and retaking the lead on the trail as he scanned the skies for more lizard wisps. They’d already taken down 14 of them using their psionics, but both Sander and Jarron had melted spots in their armor where their shields hadn’t fully held up against the phaser strikes.

  The trio was making good speed over ground, far faster than the lizard infantry that had tried to pursue them, but the problem inherent at this moment was the lack of air cover, for there were very few Star Force troops on this planet. Rather than coming in with overwhelming force, Star Force was deploying more and more low key invasions that required more skill than firepower to successfully take a world and this one was no exception.

  With only a handful of lizard colonies here, a single warship had been dispatched along with three troop ships, the mechs from which were busy hammering one colony’s defenses while Sander and his two sidekicks had come out of a subterranean facility that they’d just finished scouting…except they’d come out in a location they hadn’t planned, for there had been far more lizards underground than above, and he was counting the entire planet.

  It was supposed to be a three man cleanout crew instead of using thousands of Scionate troops that didn’t fight so well in tight confines underground. They also had an Axius unit with them that was better suited to the task, but Sander had expected to take on the biggest challenges for himself and had gotten in over his head on this one. With so many det packs going off in close quarters, the trio had to get out of that underground facility by the quickest route possible and by the time they did their dropship pickup couldn’t get to them, for a swarm of wisps had come up out of hidden bunkers and laid claim to the area.

  Sander couldn’t call off fighters from the current engagements to cover them, so with very few reserves to work with the trio was moving overland and as far away from the base as they could while the few pilots they had available were trying to work out a retrieval plan. The faster and farther the Archon and Mavericks ran the better off they’d be, so they were covering ground as quickly as possible though the rough desert/scrub terrain was making it difficult in spots.

  The two Protovic wore armor identical to the Archon version he had, save for theirs was multicolored red/black that clashed with his monotone dark blue. That was so people would recognize the Mavericks for who and what they were more than for function’s sake. All Star Force armor was built around an agile frame, just with slight modifications per the mission profile. Given that Mavericks had the same mission profile as Archons it had seemed appropriate to give them the same style of armor, albeit with a different color scheme.

  And these two had had to earn it time and again following Sander around on missions. They were here to help him out and learn in the process, acting as the JV version of Archons and having one new psionic given to them. Both were yellows, the first tier of the Protovic ranking system past ‘final form,’ and while that didn’t incur any special powers it did note an incredible amount of skill and experience. Tiers 2 and 3 hadn’t yet been reached by any Protovic due to their difficulty level, and it wasn’t because they weren’t trying. The Trailblazers had simply made them stupidly hard to achieve.

  The Maverick program selected special individuals that had already achieved final form, drawing out of the pink Blues those who demonstrated Archon-like tendencies, most notably the ability to think outside the box. Those that qualified were sent to a separate training program that Wilson had designed along with Brad, crafting the new ‘Mavericks’ that functioned as Archon sidekicks with their own smaller batch of psionics to give them an advantage over most other races.

  The only addition to the standard skillset was the addition of a Protovic version of Rensiek, the heating ability that kept the Protovic from freezing in cold climates as well as having the ability to light things on fire with the touch of a very hot hand. It was speculated that over time a few more abilities would be given to the Mavericks, though giving them any V’kit’no’sat psionics had been a long standing point of contention. Thus far though, Sander thought it had been a good idea…and both of his sidekicks had proven their merit on multiple occasions.

  As they were now, keeping up with him over the rough terrain as another stupid wisp came at them alone. He telepathically told the two Mavericks to take it on their own, saving his own skills as backup as they continued to run hard to put more distance between themselves and the lizard base.

  A line of phaser blasts stitched by them as the wisp spun up with its nose going into the sky then rotating on around to point straight down as the lizard pilot flew into the ground with a loud screeching crunch…thanks to a telepathic haze covering its thoughts as if it were blind, into which a sensation was adding directing the pilot to head for the ground. It didn’t know where it was going, but the prompts the two Mavericks were working together to achieve directed the pilot through trickery, baiting him into killing himself.

  The Protovic telepathy wasn’t that good, so they’d been developing lots of cheats to copy what the Archons did. In this case it was tricking the lizard pilot to fly where they wanted him to rather than by taking control of its mind, which they couldn’t even do alone at this range. One of them had to blanket him with mental static while the other offered a way out of the mess that led to the fighter’s crash when the pilot took the only available route to him…from his point of view.

  It wasn’t a nice thing to do, but when someone was trying to kill you that wasn’t a big concern.

  Well done, Sander said telepathically. Hopefully they keep throwing them at us in singles.

  Why are they still doing it? Linnar asked as he vaulted over a boulder rather than run around it a few steps. That leap got him ahead of the Archon but he slowed a touch and fell back in line shoulder to shoulder with him.

  Not sure. Think we’re far enough away?

  Do it, Jarron said as all three of them kept running.

  Sander opened up his comm system, sending a powerful and very obvious signal up to orbit. Stealth wasn’t useful now, for the wisps could see them skittering across the surface easy enough. Why they didn’t send larger groups after them he wasn’t sure, though after the first bunch they’d brought down it would make sense for them not to waste anymore…yet they had just sent this one to its easy death.

  He’d probably never know the reason, so he tucked the small question away in his memory as a blob of energy fell from the sky behind them and mushroomed on top of the base, the sight of which got to them before the shockwave did. Sander gave them a heads up and all three skidded to a sliding halt as they hit the ground, face planting as the concussion ripple ripped through the atmosphere from the bloon strike.

  In the past such a tactic hadn’t been an option, but given that Star Force had stuck with the tech like a mynock on a power cable over the centuries they’d been able to upgrade the bloon launchers considerably…including the ability to send some varieties down into atmosphere without them falling apart from the friction. This one had been specifically designed for orbital bombardment and
Sander had commed the ship earlier to get into position as they were running away from the facility. It had to be situated just outside the atmosphere, and as the Archon looked up above the mushroom cloud he could see the small Warship-class jumpship in holding orbit overhead…which meant it was riding its gravity drives to stay in position with no lateral movement that a powerless orbit would entail.

  A few seconds later the ripple hit them and all three suits of armor were tossed across the ground with them digging their armored fingers in and scratching huge lines across the dry dirt until they settled again. Wind whipped around chaotically as the atmosphere began to compensate, but Sander was able to stand up again shortly and survey the damage from afar. He couldn’t see the crater that had been blasted into the ground and hopefully opening up the top of the base, but he could see the wisps that were still in the sky…and far too many of them.

  “Looks like we’re not going back in on foot,” he commented as the two Mavericks stood up and dusted their armor off with a few thigh and chest hits. Neither had had their shields up so they could get as close to the ground as possible. They’d needed the traction, whereas the shield would have been a slippery buffer and they didn’t have the mental skillset yet to raise and lower specific portions telepathically. “Too many fighters left.”

  “That had to take some of them down,” Jarron said earnestly.

  “Orbital count says 17. No, we’re going to have to go back in once we clear that cover. It’ll be a few days at least.”

  “Think they’ll seal over that hole?” Linnar asked.

  “Probably. But we can punch through their patches or dig some more tunnels of our own. There’s a lot less dirt covering it than before,” he said as he got a waypoint some 6 more miles out that a dropship pilot thought he could pluck them out from. Sander acknowledged the signal and highlighted the location on his HUD. “Pickup is 6 miles out. Let’s get going.”

  “How’s it look?” Jarron’s glowing blue/yellow face said as he walked into the small planning room onboard the Archer that Sander liked to use rather than the bridge to oversee planetary operations. It was quieter, not to mention not having to deal with ship’s duties. He could trust the Captain to oversee those while he focused on the larger picture…which was decidedly small compared to the past operations he’d been on against the lizards, but this was only the third solo mission for him.

  “The mechs are cleaning up perimeter opposition at city 3 and sweeper teams say city 2 is now clear above ground. I’m going to need you to go down and look for subsurface activity.”

  “My telepathy doesn’t have enough range for that.”

  “I don’t need you to scout, just help confirm the sweeps and guide them underground.”

  “With the Scionate?”

  “Mostly. I can send a pair of Protovic to help, but I’ll need the rest of the Axius unit when we hit 3.”

  “Alright. Is Linnar coming with me?”

  “No, he’s taking a Scionate squad out to some possible auxiliaries. Left about 20 minutes ago. You shower slow.”

  “Did you even shower?”

  “Not yet. I wanted to analyze that crater we made. It punched through some of their stealth coating and combined with our battlemap mapping we’ve got a decent floor plan for I’d guess half the facility. When we tackle it I want the Scionate as backup. It’s going to get tight down there with the rubble and all those bodies. If we had trouble, they’re going to have more.”

  “So Axius then.”

  “The three of us are going to take lead, Axius follows up and the Scionate sweep and hold. We’re not going to get to it for a few weeks, minimum.”

  “Still think it’s their primary base?”

  “Sure of it.”

  “So why not hit it first?”

  “It’s not going anywhere, and the more visible units we can delete the less they’ll have to flank us with later.”

  “Did they build it knowing we were coming?”

  “Looks like.”

  “Why waste the resources? Why are they even bothering to keep building when they know we’re on the way to annihilate them?”

  “They don’t quit,” Sander lectured, knowing how junior his two Mavericks were despite their age. “If they don’t have anything else to work towards wouldn’t you want to fortify as much as you could to make it as hard as possible for us to kill them?”

  “Then why build surface cities at all?”

  “Why don’t we build everything underground?”

  Jarron considered that. “I honestly don’t know.”

  “We build shield generators instead.”

  “So do the lizards.”

  “Not here.”

  “Maximizing resources then?”

  “That’d be my guess. Before we leave we’re going to have to do a very thorough planetary survey to make sure they don’t have any sleeper bases out there. It could be this is just a diversion and they’re hoping we pass them by.”

  “To what end? They don’t care about survival.”

  “We’ve seen it happen a few times. Hoping to ambush us, I’d guess. They work all kinds of angles.”

  “Alright then. Off to 2,” the Protovic said, wearing the simple black with red stripe uniform that mimicked the Archons’ as well. “Are we going to get a training block in sometime soon?”

  “Doesn’t look like it. Just have to squeeze in bits and pieces when we can.”

  “Plenty of time when the fighting is over,” he agreed, heading back out with the door swishing shut behind him.

  Sander turned his attention back to the holo table that showed all the activity on the planet in realtime as well as having links to filed recordings and reports. He was the only Archon in the system, but he had several veteran commanders in both his mech and commando units that he knew he could rely on. Sending the Mavericks with them only enhanced their combat potential, and the Protovic had learned a while back that they weren’t here to lead so much as to offer their assistance.

  It was a key distinction that some of them had to be schooled on, given all the Archon copying motifs with their program. They were trained to fill the void, leadership wise, if an Archon wasn’t there, but so many of Star Force’s personnel were experts at what they did that they didn’t need babysitting. Archons knew better than to give orders just for the sake of it, but it was an acquired skill for the Mavericks and the more little missions like this he sent them on without his presence the more comfortable they became with their roles.

  By now, after 12 years working together, they were both solid and reliable. They still had a lot to learn, but they were an asset rather than a hindrance, and when Archons were scarce, spread out across hundreds of different simultaneous assaults into lizard territory, having that pair along with him was a luxury that he did not want to give up. He’d canceled orders to reassign them twice now, wanting to keep them with him in order to maximize efficiency. Sander had vouched for his team’s skills enough to get this low key assignment with very little investment of troops and some people thought he was making it harder on himself than he should, but had he not offered such a low ‘bid’ he’d probably be backing up someone else’s assault right now.

  Which was fine, but the faster Star Force gobbled up lizard holdings the better and they were really pushing for bulk victories nowadays. The tech advantage, experience advantage, ship count…in just about every category Star Force stomped on the lizards and the most heavily defended and populated worlds were already bagged, leaving a large amount of medium to mediocre systems left to pick up, but those systems were still spreading into others and new worlds were falling to the lizards where Star Force just couldn’t get to them in time to help out. Hence the need for this push.

  Sander was making this mission work and hadn’t lost a man yet, and if he did he’d personally count it as a failure. The assault on the underground base was going to be the toughest, but if he led the way and was patient he knew they could clean out the lizard
s there and lay claim to the planet, after which they’d pack up and tag the world for a recycling team, then get assigned to another invasion.

  He’d worked with so many units over the past 50 years the only consistency he was getting was with his Mavericks. He hadn’t had them that long, but now that he’d ‘broken them in’ he really didn’t want to lose them. They weren’t as capable as a padawan apprentice, but having two of them made up for that in some ways.

  When this invasion was over he was going to keep them with him through at least a few more. After that who knew. Their mission was to assist Archons and give them the additional psionic support when Archons themselves were limited in number. These two weren’t ready to lead invasions of their own yet, but give them time and they might get there. But until then there was a lot of ground to cover and a lot of lizards to kill, for no matter how desperate and hopeless their situation was they still would not surrender or relent one iota.

  That made them dangerous, even in these small numbers, and if Sander wasn’t careful he could lose people. The Mavericks weren’t good enough to avoid that, but they were doing well in their limited roles across Star Force territory based on the reports. Building experience took time, and for their sake there were still plenty of lizard worlds to invade to gain experience from. Sander wondered what was going to happen when they ran out of them someday, but he didn’t spend too much time thinking about that. There was so much to do and so much still at stake that such things were best left up to the trailblazers.

  They had to think ahead, centuries ahead even, but for a mage like himself he had the luxury of focusing on the mission and everything it entailed. That was enough of a challenge for Sander. Troubleshooting other things could wait until he got some free time on his hands.

  2

  March 7, 3329

  Terson System (Occupation Zone)

  Meer (Sety world)

  Eileen Donovan followed the navigational beacons as she entered planetary orbit with her small jumpship. Purchased only four decades ago, it was an independent model of Star Force manufacture that had cost her family half its savings and was nearly a mile long. That made it small for most jumpships, but it had the speed needed to travel between stars and any independent business had to have that flexibility. Utilizing the Star Force transportation network was costly, but doable. However, she greatly preferred carrying her own ships from star to star as her family continued to extend its business interests.