Star Force: Augmentation (SF22) Read online

  “We will handle it. Thank you for your help. You fight stronger than you look.”

  “So what, they just jumped you?”

  “That’s exactly what happened,” Gonstan said as he charged in, looked around, then began to leave to search other compartments. Mark followed him.

  “Are you injured?” the alien asked back over his shoulder.

  “No, but several of your men are. They’re going to bleed out if they don’t get help.”

  “Combat first, medicine second,” Gonstan said, ducking into and checking another section. Mark waited in the hallway for him to come back out, not wanting to get in the way.

  “Why blades?” he asked as Gonstan came back out and moved on.

  “We didn’t permit them to bring firearms onto base, given their history,” he said, ducking through more hallways. “They are a treacherous lot.”

  “What’s their aim?”

  “Depends how widespread this is,” he said, meeting up with another Calavari.

  “All clear,” he reported.

  Gonstan turned around and pointed behind Mark. “Back.”

  More nimble than the giants, the Archon backtracked and headed out to the closed door where they waited for the remaining Calavari to gather, some of which were quite bloody.

  “Go with him,” Gonstan ordered one of his kin, referring to Mark. “See to it that he gets back to his enclave safely.”

  Mark held up a hand. “No, I can move faster alone. Once I…” he said, suddenly cut off by a base-wide alarm that sounded like something off a techno dance track.

  Gonstan swore something in his native language. “This is happening everywhere. Prepare yourself, Human. And good luck.”

  Mark nodded and let the Calavari move up in front of him before they unlocked and opened the door. It parted in 3 pieces, revealing an open hallway for a moment, then a Nestafar flew down and landed in front of it, uttering something not in the trade language to the others outside.

  Gonstan charged out and punched it into the far wall, ignoring the nasty cut he got on his lower right arm, then another pair swooped in to attack, but the other Calavari got to them first, yanking them down to the ground by their hanging legs and pounding them mercilessly. As ferocious as they were a few minutes ago, the base-wide alarmed seemed to have upped their adrenaline to a lethal level…and Mark’s as well.

  The other two Calavari blew through the door after them, immediately engaging other Nestafar and giving Mark an opening. He cut left behind one of them, taking the opportunity to punch a flyer in the gut and drag it to the ground as he sprinted off, leaving the Calavari to deal with the 8 or so nearby. Further down the hallway, though, he could see individuals or pairs flying about, all of which immediately redirected towards the fighting.

  One of them came down at Mark, but it missed in its swoop attack as he evaded with a fake to the left then a run/bump against the right wall to scoot by, after which he sprinted off downhill, reaching into his body’s upper gears and hitting 33 mph as he raced towards the last elevator cupola that he remembered seeing on his run. He could hear wing flaps behind him, but he kept pushing his sprint until the sound became ominously close, then he leaned forward, curled up into a ball, and hit the ground hard rolling across his right shoulder and upper back in a sideways somersault as the Nestafar and its buddy shot by.

  Ignoring the numb pain in his right elbow’s funny bone, he jumped back up onto his feet and sprinted forward, now running behind the Nestafar as they arced up into a braking maneuver and turned around just as he was passing underneath them, causing a moment of confusion before they flapped furiously to match his acceleration.

  Mark beat them to the elevator terminal and slid to a stop, punching the open button twice and staring back at the winged vermin as they closed on him, ready to make a jump attack when they got within range.

  Unexpectedly there was already an elevator car waiting, so the doors opened with only a momentary delay. Mark jumped inside and hit the close button, pressing himself up against the left wall, ready for them to jump in after him. He held the button down so that it would override the motion sensor and caught the first Nestafar as it tried to squeeze through, pinching its wings against its sides along with one arm.

  Mark grabbed the other and pulled it wide, then kicked as hard as he could into its torso, popping it back out into the hallway. He reached over and jabbed at the close button, this time with the doors coming together with a few inch gap by the time the second one reached in with one arm coming through up to the elbow.

  He brought his leg up high at the knee then extended hit foot even further up with a slight pause, then brought his leg down on the thing’s wrist, knocking the bladed weapon loose and causing the Nestafar to recoil and pull its arm out. The doors slid shut with a click and mark hit the button for the location nearest the Human complex.

  When he felt it start to move he released the button and kicked aside the blade…a disgusting weapon meant for a butcher, not a warrior.

  During the ride through the more solid sections of the base ceiling Mark tried to think of what the Nestafar were up to…but he couldn’t come up with any reasonable scenarios. They were the Calavari’s nemesis, not Star Force’s, and the Humans knew very little about them, let alone their motivations or their history with the Calavari. He knew it wasn’t pleasant, but the fact that they’d agreed to tolerate each other within the Alliance had, he thought, meant they weren’t outright enemies.

  They were now, though, regardless of what had brought them to this point. Even if the Nestafar hadn’t already displayed their dislike for the Humans Mark still would have sided with the Calavari, even if this hadn’t been their base. Next to the Hycre, and maybe the Kiritas, the Calavari had become Star Force’s closest ally…here on Daka, anyway. Not to mention that several of them had become personal friends.

  When the elevator door finally opened Mark wasn’t anywhere to be seen, hiding aside from the door in case the exit was trouble. After not hearing anything for a handful of seconds Mark cautiously walked out, finding the surrounding area to be clear. He sprinted off towards the door to the dedicated elevator shaft that led down into their complex, not sighting a Nestafar until the last few steps, and only then at the very far end of the hall, or rather as far as he could see down to another incline.

  Mark jumped into the elevator and rode it down to the command level, then burst out to find it all but empty. Only Sandra was there, coordinating via earpiece and console.

  “Report!” he demanded loud enough to get her attention.

  She looked up at him, suddenly relieved. “Where the hell have you been?”

  “Helping the Calavari fight off an ambush. What’s going on?”

  “They hit the hangar bay, but not our ships. The Calavari’s fighters are gone, as are several other races’. Explosives followed up by troops with handheld rockets. Most of us are out there keeping them away from our ships, because now they’re torching everything in sight. We’ve lost two skeets and a dropship so far, but we’re pushing them back.”

  “In armor?”

  “Yes. We’ve also got some of the regulars in the air, strafing them in the bay, but the Nestafar fighters are waiting outside the bay doors in ambush. We know because we saw a Kvash squadron go through and get hit.”

  “Did they get reinforcements or are they doing this…”

  “In house only, as far as I can tell. Their ships in orbit haven’t moved.”

  “This doesn’t make any sense,” Mark said, rushing off towards the armory when Sandra yelled.

  “Wait!”

  He skidded to a halt and came back, seeing her bring up an orbital sensor display just as several new contacts were showing up…all Nestafar.

  “Damn it,” Mark swore as he took off in a dash to get to his armor.

  Table of Contents

  1 May 8, 2395 Jartul System Daka

  2 May 9, 2395 Jartul System Daka

  3

 
4 May 25, 2395 Jartul System Daka

  5 January 3, 2396 Jartul System Daka

  6January 14, 2396Jartul SystemDaka

  7 August 4, 2397 Jartul System Daka

  8 February 18, 2398 Jartul System Daka

  9 December 18, 2399 Jartul System Daka

  10 December 20, 2399 Jartul System Daka