Star Force: Reclamation (SF91) (Star Force Origin Series)

  1

  May 19, 3402

  Denichor System (occupation zone)

  Karrach (original H’kar homeworld)

  Flynn-046 took in a deep breath of the new world’s air, soaking it in for a moment before he took off running across the stubby grass clumps that covered the flat plain he stood upon. He wasn’t wearing armor or even a standard uniform, just a pair of shorts and running shoes in the 103F heat as he began his first workout on this planet…the first of many to come now that he’d been assigned here on a permanent basis.

  He’d chosen this plain for the simple reason that it wasn’t located near to any of the reclamation sites, just a barren bit of landscape untouched by either the H’kar or the lizards after they’d conquered their homeworld and rebuilt it into one of the larger fortress worlds rimward of Krachnika. It’d fallen with more effort than the neighboring systems due in no small part to the presence of a mastermind, but he’d been unable to prevent the beatdown that both Star Force and the H’kar fleet had put on it. Now that was all over as the invasion fleets pressed on, leaving this planet and the rest of the system in reclamation mode.

  Except now he was here, running across the uncivilized barrens of Karrach and getting a feel for the ‘cool’ atmosphere that the H’kar had developed in as a string of transports could be seen coming down from orbit to a position west of his on the plain. It was miles away, but the flow of ships was continuous as they deposited cargo and personnel that would begin rebuilding the planet.

  It was an abnormally important acquisition for the H’kar. They’d been taking their planets back from the lizards for a while now, but none had been reinhabited with more than supply bases. All had stayed in the possession of Star Force as they were gradually cleaned up, until now. Karrach was almost sacred to them, and given the fact that they’d probably thought they’d never see it again, let alone inhabit it, he didn’t fault them for sentimentality, but the rituals they had wanted to perform he’d already nixed. He hadn’t come here to watch them waste time with a bunch of pageantry, but rather to put them to work.

  And work they were eager for as well, he’d found out. Reclaiming Karrach wasn’t the end of their goals…they wanted to rebuild it and reestablish their old homeland, this system and others, and fully take back all that the lizards had stolen from them. Flynn was going to help them do that, but not in the way they’d originally thought, for the H’kar, now that Karrach had been reclaimed as promised, were joining Star Force…and they weren’t a broken civilization or a scattering of refugees. They were already a massive empire that was about to get a lot bigger.

  Star Force hadn’t made the invite, and the H’kar had hinted at such for a long time before finally making the request after getting approval from The Nexus. There would be no separation pains, for in secret The Nexus were glad to be rid of them, needing to downsize as much as possible and more than happy to let the threats to the region where the H’kar had come to make their new home fall under Star Force’s responsibility to deal with.

  But Flynn wasn’t going there, though those worlds would eventually become part of Star Force as well. No, both he and Davis had decided they’d start here and rebuild the H’kar in Star Force form on their homeworld first, get all the adjustments made to incorporate their biology and technology into the empire, then begin seeding other worlds in their former territory with new colonies, followed up by the slow assimilation of their Nexus worlds. Flynn was going to lead the effort, but most of the work was going to be done by the H’kar themselves after Karrach got established. Star Force resources were already stretched across an ever growing empire and there was no rush to annex the H’kar. Things could be taken more slowly, drawing upon their current strength to fuel the transition, but for this first step Star Force had to take the lead.

  Which was why there was as large a Star Force fleet in orbit as there was H’kar, with an army of techs ready and eager to build proper infrastructure on the planet to get the ball rolling. After that it would be up to Flynn and his much smaller staff to design what would become standard H’kar infrastructure, ships, food, clothing, etc. It was a long and tedious process, but one that would bear fruit down the road…especially in giving Star Force a strong foothold on the far end of the occupation zone if/when it eventually came to include all lizard systems rimward of the border line. They weren’t near to achieving that yet, but the bulk of systems remaining were medium to small civilizations with only a sprinkling of hard nuts to tackle like this world had been.

  The writing was definitely on the wall, there was just a lot of wall to cover as the lizards continued to spread as quickly as they could ahead of the Star Force advance. The H’kar had begun to push back hard from their Nexus border now that the lizards couldn’t pull reinforcements from their core worlds and others to counter them, but each of those fleets was now led by at least one Archon, for their military integration into Star Force had already happened as far as command and control was concerned.

  A faction of the H’kar really didn’t like that, but the groundswell of nostalgia and support for both Star Force membership and a return to their original territory left the H’kar rulers with little choice other than to fight a losing civil war. Instead they’d thought they could play an insiders game, but that had been immediately shut down as Scott-055 had assumed command of the active fleets and made the H’kar rulers obsolete.

  They’d immediately tried to backtrack from their position, but there was nothing they could do. The military was now fiercely loyal to the Archons who had taught them how to truly fight and were promising to do even more in the years to come. Once command was transferred there was no going back, but Flynn didn’t think they fully understood that the same would be happening for the rest of their civilization. The ruling class within the H’kar was going to be disbanded, and for the foreseeable future Flynn was going to be their leader, much as Larisa had been to the Bsidd and Paul now was to the Kvash, whose small but powerful naval fleet was already assisting in anti-lizard combat with surprising efficiency.

  Surprising had they not been under Paul’s tutelage, but their rapid turnaround from being thought extinct to a very powerful, yet very small naval presence had surprised Flynn and most of the other trailblazers. That said, the Kvash wouldn’t be matching the H’kar anytime soon, for Flynn had an existing empire to retool rather than having to build one from scratch, though at first that’s exactly what he was going to do here…save for the fact that he’d be getting continuous supply convoys coming from the H’kar’s Nexus worlds with material and whatever personnel he requested, and that would let him rebuild this world far faster than any other faction leader had the luxury of doing during their stints transforming and adding new races to the empire.

  Larissa’s Bsidd now made up the largest chunk of that empire, population wise, while Randy’s Kiritas were a close second. More than half the trailblazers now had a race under their direction, whether they be full blown factions, sub-factions, or wards, and now it was Flynn’s turn…yet somehow he had gotten the biggest one of them all to work with.

  But it wouldn’t be the last. In addition to the list of small races requesting membership in Star Force from all around their current borders, there were two other Nexus members that had expressed official interest in pursuing a change in membership and many more rumored to be considering it. When Davis had talked with him about the H’kar he’d stressed the need to have not just a well-established presence in the other end of the occupation zone, but a foothold from which more acquisitions from Nexus territory could be integrated.

  In fact, the Direc
tor had told him that as the lizard threat was swept away a great many things would be changing and that if they moved quickly and decidedly they could amass a far greater standing in the expanded region…while at the same time if they botched this there would be a lot of interest in claiming the empty worlds left in the lizards’ absence. If Star Force wasn’t proactive in growing their empire others would see it as a weakness and try to move in on them. Maintaining patrols throughout the occupation zone was already a pain in the butt, though nothing compared to what could happen if word got out that Star Force couldn’t hold on to that territory.

  There’d be a mad scramble from all the little guys to grab a planet or two, but it would be the larger players moving in and stubbornly staking a claim and making Star Force evict them that had Davis worried. Right now fighting the lizards was the priority, and if someone decided to move in behind them Star Force would have to pull forces away from the frontier to deal with any major threats and that would only allow the lizards to keep expanding to yet more worlds.

  Annexing the H’kar had already sent a big message to the region, letting everyone know that Star Force wasn’t just evicting the lizards from their current holdings, but laying firm claim to them. The ADZ was a long way from here, so establishing another major powerbase was essential…and annexing an existing one, from The Nexus no less, had already sent a message that the neighbors were not going to ignore.

  Which meant Flynn had some breathing room to work with so long as he didn’t screw this up.

  But how events played out would take a long time to unfold. Right now the cargo crates were just being delivered and the small colonies of temporary, prefab structures were being erected to give his people a base to work out of. He’d been transitioning from planet to orbit daily to make use of the Prime’s sanctum and the small Clan Cybertron fleet he had in orbit. He’d be relying on them for security and his home away from home while he oversaw the army of Star Force experts that would be tearing apart the H’kar civilization and making recommendations of how to change it. The final form was left up to Flynn’s discretion, and it was the biggest challenge assigned to him to date…numbers wise, anyway. Compared to fighting the Black Knight though, this would be relatively easy. It’d just affect far more people than his personal training did.

  With all that in mind and on his metaphorical shoulders, he’d decided the best thing to do was snub it all and take his time, so while the cargo and personnel transfer was taking place at a rapid pace he was off and running across the empty landscape on a casual workout while his lungs adjusted to the alien air without the filtration his armor helmet normally gave him.

  The air wasn’t bad, just had a few additional elements to the oxygen/nitrogen mix, most notably of which was helium. There wasn’t enough to make him talk squeaky, but it did give the air a different taste to it that his lungs could attest to…but really the biggest challenge was the heat that was continually increasing as the day progressed.

  It was a mild challenge and one that Flynn embraced as he sweated out what felt like half his body weight on some 15 or so miles crisscrossing the plain before he eventually circled back around to the now larger makeshift colony as yet more structures were popping up in minutes as they were unfolded and assembled by an all Star Force crew that was a mix of Humans, Bsidd, and Kiritak. The structures weren’t much good against weaponsfire, but they’d hold up against the weather and provide quick working and living space for the arriving crews. Everything Star Force built was durable, but there was no substitute for proper infrastructure and he’d have to wait on that for later. Right now he and his team would make do with the ‘Lego’ substitutes.

  When Flynn got back he found the nearest water station and gulped down the cool liquid for what felt like minutes before he finally gasped and got his breathing back under control. This planet was harsh to Humans, and he knew the Kiritas wouldn’t fare much better. The Bsidd could handle the heat fairly well, but he was going to need to keep everyone’s external exposure limited to shorter spans than normal. And on top of that, he was going to need to get baselines on the H’kar as well. Just because this was their original homeworld didn’t mean those coming here would immediately acclimate to it. Flynn knew their body chemistry favored higher temperatures, but he needed to know just how high and if they’d have any adverse effects before he started them on exterior work crews.

  That was going to put a wrinkle in his plans, but it was just one of thousands of small decisions that needed to be made and why a trailblazer was necessary for this kind of work. He literally held the fate of trillions of people in his hands, even if they weren’t all here. The repercussions of what he did would flow outward through their civilization, with it eventually reaching even the H’kar in the Nexus territories. Right now though he needed to start getting those volunteers coming here trained, and he’d planned to do it with basic work crews led by Star Force vets.

  They wouldn’t be doing anything more than moving around supplies and basic Star Force construction and prep, maybe taking over some of the recycling duties immediately, but the point was to get some H’kar indoctrinated into Star Force protocols via field work. Though now he’d have to make an environmental checklist before sending them out there for any extended period of time.

  Flynn grabbed a quick shower as he thought through his next twenty steps, then donned a uniform and his ViLord armor before heading back out. He’d already got a bit of a sunburn, but that just gave him a chance to work on his Sesspik skills, though he didn’t want to add to the light damage right now or anytime in the future and those twin suns in the sky pumped a lot of energy down to the planet through the pristine clear skies.

  His armor solved that problem, along with keeping him moderately cool despite the heat as he headed back out and roamed the construction sites and improvised landing zones. He found his Kiritas work crew chief and explained the environmental concerns, outlining the testing he wanted to have happen before any of the H’kar were put to work. With their usual efficiency, the Kiritas got to work on it immediately as Flynn continued his rounds and helped some Bsidd with the unloading of a H’kar transport that was bringing in the first shipment of raw materials, all of which was loaded up into varying sizes of hexagonal crates.

  Flynn used some of his muscle power on them as he got a feel for the area and the mood of everyone involved, though most of his attention was on the H’kar. They were staying on their ships for the most part, but the first batch of worker recruits were offloading into some of the temporary structures that Flynn’s people had already set up and he wanted to get a feel for them, so he passed a few more crates along then headed over and observed the Star Force handlers giving them instructions and teaching them how to use Star Force tools.

  Or rather reteaching them. Everyone here had already been instructed prior to arrival, but this was the first time they’d actually be getting their hands on most of the equipment. It was all basic stuff, but still different from what they were used to using. Flynn sensed some confusion but all the H’kar seemed eager to get to work reclaiming their homeworld, so no trouble there.

  “Archon,” he heard someone say, turning around to see a Bsidd almost twice his height looking down at him.

  “Yes?”

  “Please come with me.”

  Riley frowned as he sensed a problem, but followed the Bsidd out and across several fields of stacked crates until they got to one area abandoned of lifters who had moved on. One of the crates had been opened to start feeding the H’kar their native food and the Bsidd pulled out a package and tossed it to Flynn.

  “You’re right, this is meat,” he said with a scowl at the dried up and shriveled sticks. “Probably that vat-grown crap the Royals came up with.”

  “They are already eating it.”

  Flynn sighed. “How much of their food supply is this?”

  “Most from what my people can tell.”

  “Those sneaky bastards. They’re trying to get us
to use it now out of necessity in order to argue later that it’s acceptable.”

  “What is their purpose?” the Bsidd asked. “Eating flesh is…disgusting.”

  “Agreed, but some people like the idea of subordinating primitive races by eating them. Even if this is artificially grown the purpose is still the same…to prop up their egos.”

  “What do you wish done with it?”

  “Confiscate it all and get me an inventory on what they brought that isn’t meat. Right now it looks like we’re going to find out how much of our food they can stomach. If the notes are correct we should be able to use some foodstuffs, but there could be transitional problems.”

  “Meaning it could make them sick even if they can digest it.”

  “Possibly. We haven’t had much of a chance to study H’kar. Only a few diplomats that bothered to eat our food. I’ve got the list of things they ate, but most of the time they kept to their own rations.”

  “Are there none in Axius?”

  “No, there aren’t. Most of our interactions have been on the warfront and their membership in The Nexus discouraged tech sharing, so…” Flynn said, facepalming in his armor as he looked up at the equally armored Bsidd. “My fault. I should have taken care of this sooner rather than trusting them to supply their own rations. They’re trying to break down our scruples by putting us in this situation, so our mission is not to cave. I want all the meat rounded up and stacked on…pad 18. I’ll divert the traffic elsewhere. I’ll get a bigger incinerator prioritized for setup, then we’ll have the H’kar carry the meat over to it personally for disposal. Make sure no one does it for them.”

  “Understood. But what of the incoming shipments?”

  “I’ll have to send a courier back, I can’t go myself. In the meantime we’ll have to rush additional bioharvest facilities here.”

  “What of the meat presumably onboard their ships?”

  “We’ll get to that, but right now it’s what’s on the surface that’s the problem. It’s in our custody, and I think the Royals want to see us using it…so we’re not. As long as the H’kar don’t have living beings on their ships that they’re slaughtering to eat, they can munch on the stuff up their as long as they like. But when it comes on our turf, it’s a no go.”