Star Force: Atonement (Star Force Universe Book 68) Page 10

  They didn’t go willingly, but when the Hadarak eventually got here they’d be thanking the V’kit’no’sat for their ‘generosity’ in removing them out to the Rim. They didn’t understand that right now, or care, because they were being dispossessed of their homes and a great deal of wealth, but when the fate of the galaxy was at stake that didn’t matter. This was going to become a warzone where the Hadarak would be held or the V’kit’no’sat would break, and that was no place for civilians of any kind.

  The Era’tran also needed the corovon, and had refused to let the miners stay to assist them. They’d tried every trick in the negotiating book to get to stay, but there was really nothing to discuss. Everyone on or beyond the Grand Border had to relocate or die to the Hadarak advance, no matter how much it deprived the locals of. Evacuation was better than death, and Star Force was not going to let the stupid remain and die, so the V’kit’no’sat were happily removing them by force, though this planet had already been cleaned of the inferior ones.

  Their cities remained, but they would not be used for anything other than recycled components. Right now the Era’tran had to establish mining colonies for more than just corovon, for they would be getting no more supplies in this system or any of the others that were being gently touched by their race. These outposts would have to grow on their own efforts, accepting only personnel from Rimward when they could be put to use, and when that time came it would be in the form of the new Pla’go’ren flying cities.

  The Era’tran were still not sold on the design, but Alden had hammered it out with the V’kit’no’sat engineers along with modifications for their warships using their own technology and not Star Force’s, though both still had a few secrets from each other that they did share to some upgrades. The more economical hull designs Star Force used were not being implemented, and the Era’tran would still be keeping their signature tuning fork shapes, as would the Pla’go’ren.

  None had been built yet, but when finished they would stand up into the sky all the way to the edge of space with the two prongs partially buried in the planetary crust. That would still make them smaller than a Mach’nel, and about three times the length of a Kafcha, but they would house weapon emplacements to defend their perimeter, shield generators to cover them and the surrounding area, plus thick conventional armor with exterior slots to add Tu’gor panels on top later when and if the situation allowed such expenditures. Right now they needed to build and build fast, and while Tu’gor was cheaper and easier to construct than Yeg’gor, it was still a luxury they would not have for a long time.

  The Era’tran warships would also not be getting the Tu’gor that the Knight races had, because it was too expensive to make and the V’kit’no’sat had no production facilities for it. The formula had been a closely guarded Star Force secret, but Alden had already set out to construct a new facility to get some of the enhanced armor available for special projects. How long it would take until it started to show up in the field nobody knew, but they’d been instructed not to rely upon it in their newer designs, while incorporating hardpoints for its addition at a later point.

  So the Pla’go’ren would not have it when they were built, but what they would have was large empty areas inside, for they were designed to be hollow and mass produced. This world was to be one of the major exporters in the future, so that they could send out Pla’go’ren to other worlds as outposts where no civilian infrastructure existed. That was the only way to colonize every planet in every system within the Era’tran Zone, and by making the Pla’go’ren mobile they would not be forced to leave any intact ones behind if a world did fall to the Hadarak…or even a region, for they could pull up stakes, literally, and fly to another position on the same planet, or another planet in the system.

  Their engines were minimal, and would need towed between star systems, but Star Force Clan Ghostblade was already here doing just that with a planetary defense station that had been plucked off of Holloi itself. Mak’to’ran had chosen to lead by example, and now the wide, flat, and Yeg’gor covered pyramid was being shepherded around planetary orbit as the Clan dug out a hole wide enough to fit it down into the crust of the planet.

  The Era’tran teams had been sent here separately, though there were many already in the pyramid waiting for it to be deposited on the planet before they got to work integrating it with the subsurface mantle and tucking it neatly into the surrounding environment. In approximately 2 months it would be down and fully operational, giving this empty planet an immense amount of protection as the expedition teams slowly got to work building the infrastructure to eventually produce the Pla’go’ren.

  One day in the future there would be fields of them spread across the planet, some with their voids full of planetary shield generators, others with Tar’vem’jic, Ardent, and other surface to space defensive weaponry, while some had comm stations, habitats, factories, small shipyards, barracks, and anything else of value that could be picked up and moved if the planet became compromised or, more importantly, a Warden broke through the defense lines and tried to land on them. With enough of a head start the Pla’go’ren could lift off and avoid that crushing fate, though some of them would be equipped with specialized shield generators that could catch and repel the monsters, assuming they weren’t too large.

  The Era’tran were claiming this world first among the many that would follow, but they were not establishing permanent roots the way other V’kit’no’sat worlds had covered their surfaces with infrastructure that could not be moved. Everything had to be mobile, with only expendable structures built surrounding the Pla’go’ren. That was the only way Alden and Mak’to’ran could agree to send workers into the Grand Border. Otherwise they would be totally helpless against a Warden breakthrough, and as good as the Avenger fleet was, even Alden couldn’t guarantee they could catch all of the larger Hadarak before they got to the Era’tran zone.

  Having an escape route was necessary, and as for the planetary defense stations that were not mobile, multiple Pla’go’ren would be surrounding them with dampening shield modifications to stop ramming Warden in their tracks while all new planetary defense stations built in the future would be split into two categories.

  Primary stations would still be constructed of Yeg’gor, but they would become even larger and incorporate both dampener shields of their own along with a crust cradle that would remain behind in the planet as a landing pad and allow the engine-equipped planetary defense station to lift off without destroying what was below. Normally their taps into the mantle of the planets were never meant to be abandoned, and the V’kit’no’sat extraction teams working across multiple planets to remove the existing ones had to slowly build plugs underneath them to prevent supervolcanoes from forming.

  That would not be an issue in the future with the cradles, and the new primary planetary defense stations would be built as hardened battlestations against not just the minions, but the Wardens as well…along with the addition of an Essence component that would make a Lurker think twice from engaging them. If Star Force couldn’t get the planetary defense stations up to snuff against this enemy then they were not worth building, and the trailblazers like fixed emplacements as much as the V’kit’no’sat did, so they were willing to devote a few Elcee teams to operate the Essence components, whatever they would end up being. However, no new primary planetary defense stations would be constructed in the near future, yet they were already in the planning stages along with everything else.

  The secondary stations would stay in the same size range, but be made of Tu’gor rather than Yeg’gor and made with engine mobility as well, but with no dampening shields. They’d have to rely on Pla’go’ren to provide that bit of security, while they added a nearly impregnable position on a planet against minion-only attack, and that is what the Era’tran were gearing up their development plans for…because they expected wave after unending wave of them to be arriving when all the systems beyond the Grand Border were infested and growing ne
w troops that had nowhere to attack but here.

  A lot of building had to be done to prepare for that, and right now the first seeds had to be planted. The Era’tran ships flew low over the planet pumping out drop pods full of individual teams that would land on the prime resource locations as determined by ship sensors, then they would carry out Zen’zat-sized hexagonal columns that appeared to be made of solid shiny stone, but were actually made of nanites like those in a Kich’a’kat.

  The Era’tran would carry one to the place they chose on the surface and sit it there, activate it, then move on to the next location usually a few hundred meters away where they would place another that would melt down slowly into the ground below, digging into and absorbing useful molecules while moving aside others as it extended ‘roots’ down further and further until it had expended its mass and could reach no more.

  After than it kept absorbing what was around it and building new nanites to extend its reach, patterned off a biological tree, and it technologically grew and grew to the point it needed to begin harvesting.

  When it did, the now subsurface Go’morra would spawn a trunk that looked more like a crystal sticking up out of the ground, and on top of that crystal a pod would form, into which the desired material was deposited. The pod would grow and grow until an automated drone would fly in, pick up the pod, then fly off with it to bring to a warehouse either nearby or far off, depending on where the factories were being set up.

  The Go’morra would grow another pod and begin filling it again and again as its roots continued to expand until they reached the next Go’morra, then they would merge and start pressing their combined network lower into the crust, searching out every cubic meter for valuable materials to absorb, running off of pre-programmed protocols that needed no oversight whatsoever.

  In this way the Era’tran littered the densest corovon deposits with the technological trees that would grow on their own and leave the personnel free to handle other tasks. It was going to take a long time to build up what they needed, but compared to other civilizations the V’kit’no’sat Go’morra operated at lightning speed and gave them a mining capability that few in the galaxy could rival.

  Operations like this would start being seeded in other systems that did not have the luxury of a planetary defense station looking over them, merely a single warship in some cases, knowing that the colonies had to be started now in order to begin acquiring resources of their own rather than trying to ship them across the spacelanes. It would take forever to get a single system hardened against assault, but a single system was no good when the Hadarak could just fly right by it to assault the worlds behind the Grand Border. There must be a widespread net established, no matter how weak…then and only then could they start strengthening the net, and not before.

  It was an insane plan, but it was the path of the Era’tran now. They had their chunk of the border assigned in the Yinven Region that sat Coreward of Imm’en, where Jamtren was located. There was one more Region, Ghen, inside of Yinven that had held the original V’kit’no’sat/Hadarak border, but Ghen was already partially conquered and the rest of it had been declared lost. All of it and part of Yinven were to be evacuated, which amounted to over 1.2 million star systems, though a fair number of them were thought to be uninhabited, but you wouldn’t know for sure until you sent a scout to each to find out.

  The line had now been drawn, and many people were not happy about it…but their opinions didn’t matter. They were dead, as was the rest of the galaxy if Star Force could not stop the exponential expansion of the Hadarak, and it was the protector’s prerogative to draw the line wherever they thought best.

  The Era’tran would make their stand in Yinven, with Alden offering them that slot because it was on a direct route to Jamtren, and if any V’kit’no’sat was to be guarding the portion of the Grand Border that would be protecting their capitol, it naturally should be them.

  The rest of the galaxy was no longer the Era’tran’s concern, though they had planets spread throughout it, many of which did not even know about Star Force and the V’kit’no’sat joining together, but they would eventually, and those systems would not be abandoned. They would become logistics support, building fleets and sending resources and personnel forward to the Grand Border, whether it be to the Era’tran Zone or whatever race was closest.

  Right now only a few Zones had been assigned, for not enough races had agreed to join Star Force to cover them all…but that was just a matter of time. Every race and every planet refused initially, but those who were curious enough to see if Mak’to’ran truly lived would come to Jamtren and get an education in what it meant to be a part of Star Force. Many left conflicted, while many more were still staunchly opposed to the crazy Era’tran’s betrayal, but enough bought in and when the results started to spread…along with word of the Armistice that was going to save their tails from invasion…a cascade effect slowly began to take place.

  Alden and Mak’to’ran would have the bulk of the V’kit’no’sat Empire aligned with them in time, and each race that joined up would get their own trailblazer to personally tinker with and upgrade their race. Morgan-063 had already arrived and taken over the reins of the few Hjar’at systems that had signed on, while Greg-073 was just acquainting himself with the Ranto’non, who had joined up as soon as Hamob had returned and convinced them this endeavor was not folly, and Yori-007 was taking on the I’rar’et and the challenges that posed with fighting minions on the ground with only Avians

  As for the others, not enough had come forth yet, but Connor-018 was babysitting them as he waited for the next large group to sign on. Other trailblazers would come when needed, but not all of them. Paul-024, Roger-009, and Liam-090 were dedicated to hunting Lurkers before they could engage others less able to defend themselves, while Jason-025 was handling all things Founder in the Rim, including meeting and greeting the Encapsulated and recruiting as many of them to the war as he could get. All other trailblazers had ongoing duties that they had promised to abandon when a new race of V’kit’no’sat were ready, but not before then. Building the Grand Border took priority, but there were too many lives on the line to just be sitting, waiting, and wasting their time until the rest of the V’kit’no’sat got a clue.

  But that didn’t matter to the Era’tran, for all that did was their part of the Grand Border. This was the fight they had always been promised, and they now had the weapons and strategy to fight it without trading away lives for small victories. There was no guarantee of success, for any of them, and even if the Era’tran held the Border in their Zone it would not matter unless all the V’kit’no’sat races did so, including the Paladin who already had a region under construction and far ahead of the Era’tran.

  All had to succeed, or all would fail. Mak’to’ran had responsibility for it all, but the Era’tran only had their Zone to hold, and hold it they would. The call to battle was sounded, and even the most depressed and broken amongst them were responding, although slowly in some cases. Mak’to’ran had been right. Victory was their lifeblood, and without at least a taste of it their races would devolve into darkness, for they had never learned how to lose…yet they had taught Star Force how to lose, and how to grow stronger from it. Now that lesson was being taught in reverse, and through it the Era’tran were finally seeing their true destiny, and it wasn’t as a servant of the Zak’de’ron.

  It was here, in their own territory, that they and they alone were responsible for. They were one link in a very long chain, but it was their link now, and soon their worlds would stretch one to another across all of it, with no intermittent territory separating them. It was their territory, and the sound of that still brought a stirring of pride to Mak’to’ran whenever he heard it.

  But to the others it was like the break of day coming out of the darkest night, and every single Era’tran world responded to the call when Mak’to’ran’s emissaries reached them…and because of that, they were the first deemed ready by Alden to beg
in colonization of their piece of the Grand Border.

  It would be a long and hard path ahead, but there was no looking back now. And no going back. Either the V’kit’no’sat held the Border or the Hadarak were going to win the war. It was that simple, and they were going to do it alone this time. No Zak’de’ron ‘help’ required, and no interference from them would come. The Grand Border was theirs now, and the Uriti would make sure of that covering their backs.

  And anyone who doubted that fact had their concerns alleviated when the battle records of the Oso’lon, J’gar, and Zak’de’ron worlds that they’d systematically destroyed were made available to the public. As terrifying as those monsters were, it gave the Era’tran piece of mind knowing they were protecting their worlds as they faced off against the unending hordes of Hadarak growing closer and closer before them.

  This was to be the war of all wars, and the Era’tran were finally free to fight it.

  And not only fight it.

  They intended to win.

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