Star Force: Lost Destiny (Wayward Trilogy Book 1) Read online

  “Follow.”

  Esna gripped the handle of hers and pushed…then pushed harder. It may have been floating, but it was still heavy. She followed the Calavari’s head, barely seeing over her own cart and making sure not to get moving too fast else she’d bump into something. When they got to a corner she had to dig her heels into the floor grating to drag it to a stop, then do a lot of shoving to get it around the corner. By the time she eventually got to the processing center Rammak had already dumped the first crate into a trough, with Esna sitting down on a nearby box and rested her tired arms.

  “Those carts were built for Calavari, weren’t they?”

  “Too heavy?”

  “A bit.”

  “I keep forgetting you’re a weak Human. Don’t worry, I’ll get the rest. I’ll empty these then show you where you can get some sleep.”

  “And after that?”

  “After that there’s some other things I want to show you, then we’re going to get you properly outfitted before we leave.”

  “Meaning what?”

  “New armor.”

  Esna glanced down at her arms and the armor covering them that she’d been modifying since she was a child. “What’s wrong with what I’ve got…aside from the holes, but you patched them?”

  Rammak laughed. “You’ll see, and I promise you’ll like it.”

  “What about keeping a low profile?”

  “There’s no point now. We’re already being chased.”

  “Is it stronger than this?” she asked, tapping on her chest plate.

  “Much, young one,” he said with a smile. “It is much stronger.”

  11

  Rammak eventually took Esna into another room that looked like it had been repurposed into a makeshift storage closet. There were stacks of boxes everywhere filled with all sorts of things that she couldn’t recognize, but spread out onto tables at the far end were dozens of suits of armor. Some had two arms, most four, and most of them were orange. Broken into pieces and laid out accordingly, each was given its adequate space so that none of the parts would get mismatched.

  “Where did you find all of these?”

  “I have more hidden elsewhere,” he confided. “The orange armor is what Calavari Commandos wear, but the white suits are for Human Commandos. They were rare on this world, but all Star Force factions had Human armor in storage and I found multiple spares.”

  “Wait, is that a red one?” she said, seeing it on the far end.

  “That one is damaged, but it is almost the same dimensions as Human armor.”

  “It’s not Calavari,” she noted, seeing only two arms.

  “It’s Protovic. You don’t see any of them on this world now, and I do not know why this one was here during the fighting, but he died in that armor. I recovered it afterwards.”

  “Why keep it?” she said, a little grossed out at knowing it had held a dead body inside.

  “So much of this planet has been wiped away and forgotten. These are remnants of the true Mace, as am I. I may masquerade as a local but I prefer to keep as much of the old ways around as I can.”

  “You must be lonely.”

  “I’m trained to operate independently, so I don’t get lonely by being alone. I have been severed from my purpose, and that is an unbearable fate that gnaws on you over time.”

  “Do you think they’re all dead? I mean everywhere. In the other star systems?”

  “A part of me fears they are, another says that some will have run and survived. I have had no contact with them and I have no orders, so I’ve preserved myself and looked for our enemies. I know they are watching, so I can’t leave this world. I’ve been tempted to do so, but I haven’t lived this long to throw away my life in desperation. I am lonely, Esna, but not in a way that you can understand. Though I will admit I am much relieved to have found you. Now I have a purpose again, and in order to keep you alive we both need proper armor. I will show you how to put it on.”

  “What if it’s not my size?”

  “These are not custom fitted suits, save for the Protovic. They are spares, thus made to fit a range of sizes. There is one that will scale down to fit you.”

  “Down? I’m not that short for a Human, am I?”

  “For a Commando, not much. But for a Knight you are. Those Humans were as tall as us.”

  “Wait, there were different types of Humans?”

  “No, but there are growth enhancements that the Knights took. It made them scale up to a larger body size, not just in height. The Zen’zat are the same size.”

  “What about the Archons?”

  “They are your size.”

  “Knights outrank Archons?”

  “No. Not even close. Archons are our war leaders and the strongest of us all. Do not let size fool you. Mass matters, but so does speed and agility.”

  “Then why did the Knights want to get bigger?”

  “Why copy the Archons? If you can’t do what they do, then do something they can’t and the team grows stronger.”

  “Multiple fighting options.”

  “Exactly. The smallest suit of Commando armor will fit you. Take yours off and set it aside. It has served you well, but you need greater protection than it can afford.”

  “If you say so,” she said, pulling off her helmet and setting it on the ground, for there was no room on the tables. Piece by piece she stripped down until she was standing in the clothes that Rammak had given her that first day, though technically these were the third of three pairs that she’d been rotating through, all of which were the same bright white with a brown stripe. The others having been cleaned in a machine on the far side of this huge underground complex Rammak had salvaged and rebuilt to his own purpose.

  “There are many varieties of Star Force armor. This dull white coloration marks this set as Human Commando, but it is also the heaviest variety. Heavy in thickness, but not in weight. Custom models carry more armor that is denser, but standard backups are default thickness and light weight, though you may have difficulty moving in it.”

  “How heavy can it be?” she asked as he handed her a boot and it nearly dropped to the ground through her hands. “No, I can’t wear that.”

  “We’re trained to move in the armor despite the weight. You don’t have the luxury of the time needed to acclimate yourself to it, but there is a secondary function that uses power to mimic your movements. You’ll be able to run as if you didn’t have armor on.”

  “So it moves itself?”

  “Takes cues off your own movement, yes.”

  “Why not use that all the time?”

  “We save it for when we need a boost.”

  “Isn’t it heavy though, like just when you’re sitting around?”

  “That’s the point. It’s extra training outside of workouts.”

  “You really like training, don’t you?”

  “It’s the lifeblood of Star Force.”

  “If it keeps you alive forever I can understand why, but isn’t it tiring?”

  “You have a lot to learn, Esna, and there are some things that simply cannot be explained. You have to experience them for yourself. Slide your foot in.”

  Esna propped the boot up on the ground and slid her sock-clad foot inside. Her knee disappeared inside the length of it and her toes barely touched the bottom, but Rammak touched something on the side and the solid armor plates moved. Her leg sank down and her foot hit the bottom of the boot, which then contracted around her toes slightly. Looking down at it the whole thing shrank to mimic the dimensions of her leg, but all of the pieces seemed to be the same size, just repositioned.

  “How did it do that?”

  “We’ve had a very long time to learn how to make armor,” he said, handing her the other boot. As soon as she stepped inside it auto-adjusted, with both pieces coming up to just below her knees.

  “Stand still,” Rammak said, bringing the thigh pieces over and connecting them to the boots, then a pelvic plate and torso. He
finished up with the arms but held off on the helmet as all the various pieces locked into one another and Esna felt the weight of the entire assembly on her when she tried to move her arms.

  “This is way too heavy,” she said, managing to take a few stuttering steps. “How do you stand it?”

  “Time and training, young one. Inside the helmet are a lot of controls that you will have to learn, and I will guide you through them using my own. When I put the helmet on speak the word ‘access’ then say ‘spectator.’”

  “It responds to my voice?”

  “For some things, yes. Your mind too, but you won’t be able to use those functions and I’ll shut them off. Without training…”

  “I get it. Make it as simple as possible.”

  “I will interface with yours in a moment,” he said, setting her helmet aside as he pulled chunks of orange armor from another table and peeled off the robes he was wearing at the same time. Two of his arms removed the clothing, hidden armored plates, and technology beneath while the other two arms strapped on the new armor in a fluid motion that defied belief. It took him only 20 seconds or so to get it all on, with various pops and clicks sounding as the pieces locked together, then he stood with his own giant helmet in one hand and picked up hers in another.

  He put it on her head, then it too scaled down to match and sealed against her neck piece. The faceplate that allowed her to look out through a narrow band of transparent material suddenly glowed to life and the entire helmet before her eyes disappeared.

  “It’s a holographic display,” Rammak’s voice said into her ears from behind his own helmet, one that had no eye visor at all. It was just a solid mask that he couldn’t see out of. “It shows you via cameras what your eyes would normally see if you weren’t wearing a helmet. Speak the words now.”

  “Access,” she said as clearly as she could. “Spectator.”

  Suddenly little floating icons popped up in the corners of her vision, then a slew of numbers and symbols activated that she had no idea about.

  “Are you doing that?”

  “Yes. I’m disabling most options so you don’t accidentally use them. There will be a menu bottom right for you to use. Speak the word ‘menu’ then the words to activate them. When you want to remove your armor you can tell it to disassemble, but right now use the power function.”

  “You want me to say it now?”

  “Yes.”

  “Menu...” she said, reading the short list, “power on.”

  Suddenly there was a twitch and her arms swung free. She took a step forward so easily she thought she was dreaming, then she spun around and punched in the air a few times.

  “This is incredible.”

  “Leave it on permanently. The power supply will recharge from the environment where able, and the reserve power will last a long time as is. Now, I’m creating a comm link directly to me in the upper left. Say the word ‘Hud’ and either ‘show’ or ‘off’ to toggle it on or off. Sometimes it gets in the way and you don’t want to see it.

  “Hud off,” she said, with the new icons vanishing. “Hud show.”

  The icons came back just as they were before.

  “That is so cool. I had to use a tongue switch in my other helmet.”

  “The icon for the comm will connect you to me even if we’re a long ways apart. It won’t reach forever, but we won’t be getting separated far enough to worry about that. Do you see the ‘exterior?’”

  “Yes.”

  “That allows you to talk outside your helmet. Right now it’s on, but turn it off and you can talk on the comm without other people standing beside you hearing what you say.”

  “Handy.”

  “Now, follow me,” the Calavari said, walking with even louder thuds across the floor now that he was wearing what must have been extremely heavy armor. Esna walked behind him, feeling as light as if she was naked but without the draft. There was soft, but firm padding inside the armor that didn’t feel warm or cool, but just right. It almost felt like a gel, but the sensation was something she’d never experienced before so she didn’t know how to categorize it.

  Rammak led her to another of his storage rooms not far away, but this one didn’t have any crates. What it did have were weapons.

  Lots of weapons.

  “All these survived?” Esna asked.

  “I picked up them up all over the place,” Rammak said coldly.

  “From the dead?”

  “Some of them. A lot of them. But I also found untouched caches. These racks,” he said, pointing to frame-like rectangles stacked in a corner, “will fit onto your back and allow you to carry gear and weapons. I’m going to size one up for you, then we’ll load it up later.”

  “I can’t keep my pistol either?”

  “These are better.”

  “What do they shoot?”

  “Most of them are condensed plasma. It’s superior to lachars and projectiles.”

  “What is plasma?”

  “Fire.”

  “Fire? They’re flamethrowers?”

  “No,” he said, picking up an orange pistol that was a few shades darker than his gleaming armor. He pointed it at the wall and pulled the trigger. A glowing blue streak shot out, connecting weapon to wall for a split second, then a shower of sparks flew out from where it hit. Esna flinched, then saw a melted and charred hole in the wall about the size of her thumb.

  “It shoots light?”

  “Ionized gas…that glows, same as fire, only far more condensed. Look upper right,” he said as another icon lit up on her helmet.

  Esna saw two little figures of people emblazoned there, both of which glowed blue.

  “These are your shields. I’ve set them to activate under duress, but they’re in standby mode now. Physical objects won’t proc them, but plasma and other forms of energy will,” he said, suddenly twisting around in a blur and putting a shot into her chest.

  Esna nearly fell backwards, but not from the impact. It only moved her slightly, but her surprise and shock did the rest. She stumbled a few steps, but didn’t feel any pain or see any damage on her chest when she looked down…though the icon on the right figure had a green chest now instead of blue.

  “Don’t…do…that…” she said coldly.

  “I am well aware of the damage level of our weapons. One shot will not penetrate your shields,” he said, tossing the pistol to her. “Catch.”

  Esna moved her hands forward and cupped the huge weapon, finding it light enough when she grabbed it, but that was probably her armor doing the work for her fingers. The barrel and trigger were huge, but she was able to wrap her hands around it when she used both of them.

  “Shoot me…once,” the Calavari said, tapping on his chest and impacting a clear barrier that wouldn’t let his finger come within an inch of his armor.

  “Serious?”

  “Yes. Just once.”

  Esna pointed the weapon carefully and squeezed the trigger. It depressed easily and a blue streak shot out and hit the orange armor. There was a hiss on impact, but afterwards she saw no damage whatsoever.

  “How do these suits have enough power for this? I thought shielding required a generator the size of a building?”

  “Crude units built by people that do not know what they’re doing. They’re weaker than what we can produce in a power cell the size of one of your teeth.”

  “What about my feet?” she asked, thinking quickly.

  “If you put up your shields in physical protection mode, you’ll slip easily. I usually keep them off the bottom of my boots when I do that, but it’s something you have to learn to manage. Unless there’s a reason, never turn that bit on. Your current mode will block a plasma shot to your boot treads as is.”

  “Good to know. What about air?”

  “Short backup lasting a few minutes. After that you suffocate.”

  “Rechargeable?”

  “Yes.”

  Esna smiled. “You’re right. This is better.” />
  “Last one for today,” he said as another icon popped up along the top of her vision. “There is a mode that creates interference with sensors. It won’t make you invisible, but it will keep above ground sensors from tracking us while we stay down here. It won’t work on vehicles or equipment though, but if we move on foot they can’t track us from the air.”

  “What about if they come inside?”

  “If they get close enough they still can. This isn’t scout armor.”

  “My people really built all this?”

  “Yes they did,” Rammak said evenly.

  “Thank you,” Esna said hesitantly, “for everything.”

  “You’re my mission now, Human. However this turns out, I’m glad to have found you.”

  “Even if you end up dead when you could have kept hiding?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m Star Force. And you’re supposed to be. Bringing you back, even if just for a day, is worth it. Until recently I haven’t had anything worth doing beyond survival. Now I do.”

  “How long do you think we’ll stay alive?”

  “Depends who comes after us. We’re going to get lost and make them look. It’s a big planet, and if they don’t have the necessary equipment in place we might already be out of sight.”

  “But you don’t think so?”

  “I’m not counting on it.”

  “So we keep moving, even if they can track our speeder?”

  “We have to play against an opponent without seeing their moves, and that means focusing on what they might be able to do. If they’re on our trail, we have to keep changing our location.”

  “Do we take extra armor with us?”

  “No. These suits are very durable and I’ve got others stashed away in various places. If we lose a speeder we’re in trouble, but we’re going to pack up enough supplies to cover that possibility. If we have to go on foot we’ll be able to hide better, but we really need the speed of vehicles to traverse this planet. Even if you were capable of really running it’s quite far between my camps, and we can’t risk being seen in any towns.”