Star Force: Rammus (SF83) (Star Force Origin Series) Read online

  Davis leaned back in his chair, eyeing the trailblazer. “You two sneaky little bastards.”

  Paul smiled widely. “We learned from you.”

  “And you covered your tracks well. Why not have a completely separate population?”

  “Maturias? We’re not allowed to have them anymore.”

  “If this is a rogue operation…”

  “Not going to pin anyone down to a mobile fleet unless they want to be there. I thought I’d covered our tracks well enough to make that work.”

  “Other than your fingerprint, there is nothing that I’ve seen to give it away, so I think you’re on solid ground. Has Kara really been gone that much?”

  “She keeps popping around on odd assignments, but most of her time is spent with her Clan.”

  “I guess she spent a lot of time beyond borders anyway. I didn’t spot that change either.”

  “So I really run with low personnel?”

  “Due to your pushing your resources harder than others, but you always stay just an edge on the safe line. The others may push the Archons and military, but you run your industrial base closer than anyone else does. You know how to get a lot out of your personnel, so when you slack off a bit it shows, to me anyway.”

  “So that’s a compliment then?”

  “Like you didn’t already know. Your starship production facilities pump out more ships than any other Clan, and I have no doubt that your twindome with Jason is why Sangheili is a close second.”

  “Well, I guess I feel better then. Jason not being found out was due to his sluggishness. Yeah, I can live with that, so long as the V’kit’no’sat don’t notice the same thing.”

  “I’m certain they wouldn’t,” Davis assured him. “Speaking of which, I just got an update on our new neighbors. Apparently they came from Sagittarius before the Rit’ko’sor rebellion.”

  “Any reason why they moved?”

  “Civil war of some sort. I was just reading through it when you came in. Sara wants to set up a colony on their planet to facilitate trade, and I’m sending the Aronsic.”

  “The Hobbits? Are we upgrading them?”

  “More like allowing them to upgrade themselves. I’m not planning on any push.”

  “Anyone else getting a promotion?”

  “The Rammus have caught my eye. They’ve come a long ways in such a short time. I wish they could reproduce faster, because they’re just too few of them right now to do what I want to do with them.”

  “Which is?”

  “An empire-wide support faction.”

  “Support as in…”

  “League of legends support.”

  Paul was taken aback. “Where did you learn about League?”

  “Greg turned me onto it. Not quite as good as the games we’ve got nowadays, but it does have an obvious motif structure that makes role play obvious.”

  “Have you played it then?”

  “A bit on the retro games platform.”

  “Who do you main?”

  “Main?”

  “Guess you haven’t played that much then.”

  “A term I should know?”

  “What champ do you use the most.”

  “Oh, well that’s Nedrador then. How about you back in the day? I doubt you get much of a chance to play it now.”

  “Caitlyn…and no, I haven’t played in a long time.”

  “Do you play any in the field?”

  “I’ll hit up a little Mario Kart or Hedrasool if I need to force my brain to detox, but no, I’m either fighting, training, or sleeping. ViLords can’t afford to play video games much.”

  Davis smiled. “I suppose they can’t. How soon do you leave?”

  “Two days, maybe three. Depends when Aaron’s fleet is ready. Wanna go along on this one?”

  “I can’t afford several years away, but part of me wants to be there. These bastards have been plaguing us and this region for so long I’m surprised we’re finally at this point, yet it seems like it’s taken far too long. Do you think there will be any special surprises waiting for you?”

  “I don’t think they’ve got any tricks left in the bag, but we’ll keep an eye out just the same. We’re taking enough ships that we’ll have a significant advantage this time, and every Clan is sending at least one warship.”

  “Make sure you send pics. I intend to gloat to every race out there when we take the lizard capitol.”

  “Don’t worry, I promise to get you plenty of gloating material.”

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