Star Force: Mak'to'ran (3) Read online

  1

  April 9, 3622

  Nezad System (V’kit’no’sat territory)

  Stellar Orbit

  Chaos was now the functioning state of the V’kit’no’sat empire. Races were split apart from one another and even within, with hundreds of factions forming and moving to secure resources in preparation for the ultimate betrayal to come. Few were left that were considered to be trustworthy, and individual planets…even individual cities were breaking apart and hunkering down. No one seemed to be interested in starting the civil war with direct fighting, but there were already conflicts occurring with stun weapons where one side would oust another from a position of power, whether it be a factory, defense station, ship, or even planet.

  Most were doing so in the name of self-defense, but tensions were running high as more assassinations were cropping up throughout multiple races almost as if they wanted insanity to follow, though the experienced and savvy galaxy-spanning empire was still refraining from doing that. They knew what a full civil war would result in, but there was now no hope in discovering who the traitor was except in waiting for them to strike.

  But no one would, not directly, so smaller proxy wars were taking place as the V’kit’no’sat map, while looking every bit as firm and dominant to outsiders as it had been for millennia, was being redrawn drastically from within though no one else knew it.

  What chance there was of identifying the traitor, or traitors, and having the rest of the empire stomp them flat was now considered to be naught given the capture of the planetary defense station on Terrax and the subsequent investigation that provided more problems than answers. The weapons were in fact unlocked, which Mak’to’ran’s fleet had discovered the hard way, but who had unlocked them had not been logged…or more likely erased after the fact, but what really made everyone go nuts was the fact that the Zen’zat had been rekeyed for FULL ACCESS to the defense station’s database.

  Only two races had full access, and that was the Oso’lon and the J’gar, meaning whoever had unlocked the weapons had also unlocked records and knowledge that the other V’kit’no’sat races did not have full access too, and that was blamed in part for the failure to conquer the bastardized Star Force as quickly as had been expected. The planet and system were now back in V’kit’no’sat hands, but the rest of their empire was proving every bit as hard to conquer and they were having to suffer egregious losses in order to make progress.

  That infuriated Mak’to’ran even more, with him continually cursing Itaru and their stupidity. Had he been reassigned to the invasion he would not have treated the Humans so lightly. They were very dangerous opponents even with a slight technological disadvantage, but time and again the arrogance that was poisoning the V’kit’no’sat had the empire sending more than enough troops and ships to get the job done, but was losing many of them in the process due to sheer sloppiness.

  The troops were not fighting poorly, but they were being deployed onto missions that were sloppily selected. Mak’to’ran blamed the leadership, for those actually doing the fighting were behaving as true V’kit’no’sat should and taking the fight hard against the enemy in order to break their resolve even if it cost them their lives…but they were being wasted, for this Star Force was not going to break. They were going to have to be conquered, but in order to do it properly they would have to be evaluated at a strength equal to one of the lesser races in the V’kit’no’sat and the arrogant would never accept that the heresy could have gone that far.

  Thus those commanders being sent were either approaching the battles cautiously and chipping away where they could without suffering heavy losses, or hammering their targets and achieving victory at great cost.

  To make matters worse the Oso’lon and J’gar were forbidden from participating, taking out the two strongest races from the invasion force, but there was no foolishness in that, for one of them had to be the traitor and after several years and the inability of the other races to hack their way in past the coding the Humans had input to sabotage the database, a single ship from both the Oso’lon and J’gar were dispatched to Terrax with their specialists and under observation they both attempted to find the answers the others couldn’t…all the while watching each other closely so that no evidence could be covered up.

  All those in Terraxis behaved aboveboard, but answers they could not find even with the override codes the two primary races brought with them. Someone had unlocked access for the Zen’zat and covered their tracks so well there was nothing left to find, and the physical damage done to specific components had to be replaced before full access to the defense station’s database and systems could be restored.

  What was lost in those components was unknown, but the many redundancies that no Zen’zat mind could access were also cleaned…save for the events of the planet’s fall to the Rit’ko’sor. The one bit of evidence they did find was that the J’gar had locked down the weaponry, absolving them of the negligent charge at least, but either they or the Oso’lon had at some later point gone back and unlocked not just it but the entire closely guarded trove of V’kit’no’sat secrets held in all planetary defense stations because some of the information was too sensitive to transmit over the Urrtren.

  And the fact that neither the Oso’lon nor J’gar tech specialists could discover the treachery of the other led to the theory that perhaps both were colluding against the rest of the races.

  That thought was beyond scary, but Mak’to’ran suspected there was something much more sinister happening here. If both the Oso’lon and J’gar wanted to take over the empire there was little they had to do, for they already controlled it. An invasion from the outside made no sense…which left the other V’kit’no’sat races with no answers and plenty of justified paranoia, for the first attempt made to kill the bastardized Hadarak had ended in total failure. Not only were the Hadarak more powerful than expected, there were also other unidentified races there to help Star Force defend them.

  The assault force had been forced to retreat, but had lost nearly half its ships in the first attempt. Mak’to’ran hoped a second would not be tried until they could learn more, but if the arrogant still held sway over Itaru then no matter how many factions formed they would still be able to gather fleets from the pieces of the races that they maintained control over. Unfortunately that meant they’d probably not come in with the overwhelming firepower that the empire could easily summon and that Mak’to’ran believed was necessary. Not now with so many hoarding ships to defensive duties while waiting for the unidentified traitors to finally strike in the open.

  The Hadarak boarder had been diminished down to a bare minimum to hold the lines, which was dangerous considering the beasts were not stupid and regularly prodded and poked the defenses to seek out weakness, and once they found it they’d push…and if that happened now they didn’t have enough strength there to keep them from successfully invading another system or two.

  And where had those ships gone? Some of them were right here in front of Mak’to’ran as his Kafcha dove into Nezad and passed by the defense fleet of Lir’nen as they blockaded the system that held a single world they shared with the larger Bav’tor. Both races were minor members of the V’kit’no’sat and relatively intact with regards to the splintering going on in others, but the two were also being used as proxies in the limited war that was already three years old between the two.

  When Mak’to’ran entered the system his ship ran into some 3 dozen Lir’nen ships, but before they could even respond he redirected it away from them at a speed they couldn’t match, breaking the first part of the blockade and heading in a roundabout route to the planet of Kabbter, but he wasn’t silent while doing so.

  “Attention all
loyal V’kit’no’sat within the Nezad System. I am Mak’to’ran, emissary of the sane and just, enemy of the foolish and treacherous. I led the first assault on Terraxis and suffered from the heresy first hand, but rather than return to counter a formidable foe I was recalled to Itaru to be used as an excuse for the misdeeds of the treasonous amongst us. I do not know their identity, but I have seen many who support a poison that has seeped into the very fabric of our empire. A poison that values appearance over substance, arrogance over confidence, and ego over superiority. Whether or not the two are linked I cannot say, but both are a threat that is even now tearing us apart from the inside out.”

  “We need not even be conquered by the forces assembling beyond our border, for we are rife with distrust and treachery within. Assassinations abound, but even more disturbing are the Stun Wars that have broken out. While you may not be killing one another, you are still wasting resources and weakening the bonds of brotherhood between us. I care not for what disagreements the Lir’nen and Bav’tor have had. The V’kit’no’sat are in peril and you foolishly fight the wrong opponent.”

  “If I showed you who the traitors were then you would rally to oppose them, which is good reason for them to have covered their tracks so well. Even now those we cannot trust are backing you. The Oso’lon for the Lir’nen and the J’gar for the Bav’tor. Do not deny it, for we have tracked your supply convoys. Both of their loyalties are in question, yet you accept aid from them in order to turn against your brothers?”

  “No. This insanity must stop. And if you will not stop it yourselves, then I will claim domain over this system. You have 2 hours to stand down all combat and report yourselves to me for negotiations. Failure to do so will result in my confiscation of this system from both parties. Either way this pointless combat ends. Choose wisely. I await your response…or lack thereof.”

  The message was transmitted as they traveled, then Mak’to’ran parked his Kafcha in extreme high orbit over Kabbter as a Lir’nen fleet sat between him and the planet with a much smaller Bav’tor task force huddled over a tiny section of planetary orbit and well within range of the planetary defense weaponry of the largest city on the planet that the biped/quadrupeds still held. The ships from both sides were holding off from combat, though there was some battle damage visible on several vessels but no debris fields and the updates Mak’to’ran was pulling from the local Urrtren showed him the stalemate that had resulted after the forcible seizure of several Bav’tor cargo ships.

  The fight had been brief and they’d been overwhelmed, then the ships had been boarded and captured before being taken out of the system to another location. Since then nothing had entered or left without Lir’nen approval while the Stun War was being carried out across multiple battlefields on the tropical planet below with the Bav’tor being at a slight advantage territory wise, though several cities were showing ruined areas that had been evacuated before being trashed.

  It was a waste of infrastructure even if lives hadn’t been lost, though there appeared to be a great number of prisoners on both sides being held in containment pens. Those he’d have to deal with sooner rather than later.

  The responses from the two sides didn’t take long to come in and Mak’to’ran negotiated with them in turn, but neither was bowing to his demands. Other contacts followed from various regions on the planet where he found more leeway, but they were in a precarious position. They couldn’t stand down their defenses unless the opposition did, else they’d be overrun, and right now the battles taking place were being advertised as a defensive purge to remove the other race from the planet in order to secure it against a future betrayal of massive proportions.

  It was the same reasoning Mak’to’ran had encountered before, and thanks to his experience in recent years he knew how to handle it and pick out those who were legitimately concerned and those who were using the concern to fuel other agendas. In a flurry of communications the Era’tran quickly identified and labeled who was useful and who was an impediment that would get in the way, sizing up the situation and lining out what he was going to do with the planet going forward by the time the two hours were up and his support fleet arrived shortly thereafter.

  Two additional Era’tran Kafchas came out of the same jumppoint in the face of the Lir’nen ships, essentially being an even match with the smaller vessels until additional ships followed from five different races.

  More followed in Mak’to’ran’s rebel fleet that he’d been collecting over the years crewed by loyalists and almost entirely seized from the arrogant…and he was about to add some more of the latter.

  There was a standoff at the jumppoint until the Lir’nen suddenly decided to withdraw and regroup with other vessels at the planet, but two of the ships didn’t make it that far. Both decelerated to a standstill as the others moved around stellar orbit, and soon Mak’to’ran got affirmation signals from both Lir’nen warships.

  “Take them,” he said in a pithy statement to the Jam’ju leader within his fleet. The small quadrupeds were about the same size as the Lir’nen and would be able to move through their shipboard hallways where the larger Era’tran and others couldn’t, and their hard exoskeletons were a good counter to the crew’s head-mounted bioshields.

  “It will be done,” the Jam’ju’s hologram answered after a delay, then Mak’to’ran belatedly saw boarding craft flying over to the two stalled ships without taking any fire…meaning the Zen’zat onboard the Lir’nen ships had successfully disabled them, but how long they could keep the Lir’nen under wraps was unknown. They needed reinforcements and would soon be getting them…as would those on the other ships in both the Lir’nen and Bav’tor fleets.

  Mak’to’ran watched as more and more stood down at various places in the system, with his people sending boarding parties across the system to them or ordering them to come closer as the rebel fleet screened for those vessels against the ones that did not have Zen’zat onboard or those that were holding to their racial loyalty above their higher duty to the empire.

  Those ships he would not be taking today, but if they wanted to start a fight they were going to be badly outnumbered.

  “To those warships insystem that have not come under my command, I suggest you leave now. I am claiming possession of this system and no interference from you will be tolerated. You will not be fired upon unless you take action against us, but if you do not wish to help reforge the V’kit’no’sat then this is not the place for you. Take the time to wisely consider your next actions as you stay out of our way beyond the third orbit. Come lower than that and you will be deemed a potential threat.”

  Not long after the Bav’tor leadership contacted him again, with the Iguanodon all but shaking with rage as its red eyes and yellow scales only amplified the visage of hatred being transmitted via hologram.

  “You have no right, Era’tran.”

  “Dominance is my right. I am V’kit’no’sat, and I am here to salvage this planet and what little loyalty still remains. I am not here seeking your death, nor am I here to cull. There is treason hidden among our territory, and I am here to secure this piece of it. Those with confirmed loyalties will take the lead. You will step aside or be thrust aside.”

  “How did you get the Zen’zat on our ships to betray their oaths?”

  “Their oaths are to the V’kit’no’sat, not you.”

  “Are the Lir’nen also to be removed?”

  “They are.”

  “At least your betrayal is balanced. You may have most of our ships, but you will not take the surface without a fight. And if you come down here, we will not hold to stun weapons.”

  “I have no intention of killing any of you, Bav’tor, but if you shed our blood that promise is rescinded. You may live to learn from your mistake or die in your stupidity. Regardless this system will be returned to the V’kit’no’sat.”

  “You don’t have enough ships to assault the surface, unless the Lir’nen were working with you. If they aren’t, then you
r rebellious faction will not be able to…” the Bav’tor said, flinching to the side as something off screen occurred. A moment later the mass of yellow scales stood up on its rear legs and ran off, leaving the hologram still transmitting as Mak’to’ran heard the telltale sounds of stun weapons.

  The Era’tran’s lips curled in a cruel, yet satisfied expression as he waited and gleaned what information he could from the live feed while simultaneously dealing with other matters. He left it open while he attended to the Lir’nen, then put them on hold as a Zen’zat appeared in view.

  “I am Tremar,” the small biped said as he withdrew his helmet to reveal a smooth face topped with stark white hair. “I and other loyal Zen’zat have secured the Bav’tor leadership. We have casualties, but all prisoners taken are alive and unconscious per our duty to the V’kit’no’sat. Assuming this comm is to the rogue forces in orbit, I request you take our prisoners into custody before others can come to their aid.”

  Mak’to’ran triggered his image to transmit, for he’d been connected in blank mode during the duration of the overthrow.

  “I am Mak’to’ran,” he said, seeing the Zen’zat straighten a bit at the mention of his name. “You have done well, Zen’zat. Once the planetary defenses are secured we will send drop pods with transitional overseers. Until then we cannot risk the loss of life even if the shields are lowered.”

  “Understood. We’ll hold here until you are able. Others are making a play for those facilities, but I do not know of their progress. Most of our local comm channels went down a few minutes ago.”

  “I will keep this line open. I suggest you secure the transmitter before it can be compromised.”

  “We will try, but our numbers are thinned. They did not use stun weapons when we attacked them.”

  Mak’to’ran huffed in obvious displeasure. “Your loyalty to the V’kit’no’sat is both commendable and most welcome given the current state of the empire. Your efforts will not be wasted.”