Star Force: Rift Page 10

  That meant the hatchlings could still communicate telepathically, but they couldn’t read each other. How that would affect their development no one knew, and Sara assumed it was going to be troublesome, but both the trailblazers and the Rit’ko’sor agreed it was necessary. Mental warfare amongst the V’kit’no’sat was extreme, and for that reason their servants had been given an immunity to it, in order to keep them neutral, though physical touch could still bypass it. Give the Rit’ko’sor this immunity and they’d be even more dangerous in combat, not to mention their armor could be engineered lighter without having to have their own version of countermeasures installed…though they’d never been permitted that technology previously.

  They’d had to steal/create it before their rebellion, but having an Ikrid block would be much simpler. Unfortunately they’d never had the necessary genetic knowledge to create it themselves, and right now Star Force stood as having a higher biotech level than the Rit’ko’sor did even without the added advantage of Chixzon knowledge. The compartmentalization of V’kit’no’sat knowledge, even somewhat compromised by data thefts during the Rit’ko’sor rebellion, was now plainly evident and made what they’d accomplished even more impressive. For as much as the Rit’ko’sor had been upgraded, they’d been deliberately kept in the dark about many things, and it was no wonder the V’kit’no’sat were surprised when they were able to mount a rebellion of the size and scope that they had.

  You’d have thought they’d learn their lesson and have taken Star Force more seriously, but thankfully they hadn’t. Now, however, Sara didn’t think they’d make that mistake a third time, but who knew. If they were really as egotistical as their reputation suggested, they just might.

  As soon as the Mach’nel came into the system it was sent to a separate planet and began offloading the civilians that were packed inside, using both their own drop pods and Star Force dropships to transfer them as quickly as possible. Once that was completed several Star Force cargo ships brought the Mach’nel an abundance of supplies and a new crew, with only a handful of Rit’ko’sor remaining onboard. Riona-111 was among them, and was going to take personal command of the Mach’nel while some of the best Rit’ko’sor naval officers went with her to help fly and fight the massive ship while learning firsthand what it meant to fight the Star Force way.

  Sara knew she was heading out to assist Paul, who was already engaged in heavy combat against the Ziviri, one of The Nexus’s primary enemies that had not only been attacking their strongholds but running rampant through the territories they’d left abandoned. Tech-wise they were below Star Force’s level, but not so far below that it made for an easy fight. Paul was currently engaged in more than a dozen systems far beyond the Avta Region, with the Ziviri being tagged for complete conquest.

  Sara knew they were too dangerous to be allowed to linger, but taking them out was a luxury Star Force didn’t have while fighting the V’kit’no’sat. Now that that war was on pause, Paul was hitting them hard and fast, and if he could fully conquer their 1,389 system empire it would relieve an enormous amount of pressure on The Nexus and thousands of other non-aligned races. Bottom line was the Zirviri had to go, and just having the Rit’ko’sor Mach’nel sitting in Axalon protecting a safe planet was a waste the trailblazers were not going to tolerate.

  That, and the Rit’ko’sor wanted to get into battle immediately anyway, and this was a small opportunity for them to do so…without their lack of scruples being a danger to anyone else with Riona in direct command.

  Knowing how bad Paul wanted that Mach’nel with him, Sara had arranged for the quickest possible transfer of supplies and personnel and was pleased to see it moving out of orbit just before the last of the Rit’ko’sor convoy finally arrived in the system. According to manifests the Rit’ko’sor had given them upon arrival, all ships were accounted for and every single member of their splinter race was now here in Star Force’s custody and under the protection of the entire Rit’ko’sor warfleet…minus the Mach’nel that was leaving.

  With all that new firepower the bulk of the Kvash fleet was dispatched to other assignments, but there were still several battlegroups that remained to handle uninvited guests. Sara didn’t want Rit’ko’sor ships trying to do that, so she ordered all of them into parking orbit around the three planets while she and the other 1s that were here began heading down to the surface of Turok, which was going to be the capitol and experimental training center for figuring out how to best incorporate the Rit’ko’sor into Star Force. Already a lot of pre-work had been done with the 3 Rit’ko’sor that had volunteered to stay behind, but that was just the beginning. Now Sara and the other 1s had their work really cut out for them, and they weren’t going to waste any time getting started.

  Already they had several basic challenge courses laid out and benchmarks established by the three ‘forerunners’, as Sara had started to call them. Now they needed to start sending the masses through and seeing how well they adapted while the Kiritak continued to build more training facilities. Sara was feeding them upgrades as they went, and the more information she got from running the Rit’ko’sor through the basics the more she could stay ahead of their needs, for it took time for even the Kiritak to build facilities of the scope that the Rit’ko’sor needed…especially with their Lachka, which made challenge courses much more intricate to give them problems that they couldn’t easily solve with their invisible hands.

  Putting up psionic dampeners worked in some cases, but that was really a cheat and Sara needed challenges that would kick the crap out of the Rit’ko’sor while they had their full array of skills at their disposal.

  To that end she had also sent out a request for some old friends to come and help, with Head Trainer Wilson indicating that he would arrive in a few years after he got enough baseline data to be of use. A few other elite trainers were already on their way, some of whom were Calavari, but the most important individual on her request list was already here and had been sparring with Sara and the other 1s for two weeks while they waited. She was glad Vermaire had agreed to come off the battle lines in the Rim, for he understood as much as she did how important the Rit’ko’sor were going to be to Star Force…and how they had an ego that needed to be whacked down.

  So the original Black Knight that had terrorized the Archon trainees was returning to reprise his role, only this time on the Rit’ko’sor…and Rit’ko’sor that had been alive for thousands of years. They would be harder to own than rookies, but that would make their defeats even more stinging while keeping Sara and the 1s as allies rather than enemies. That was important, and a reason why the Black Knight had been created in the first place. He was a place for those learning to put their hate…and later their respect, but for now the Rit’ko’sor still had to learn the hard way to hate first, and Vermaire wasn’t due to start randomly kicking the crap out of them during challenges for a few weeks, but Sara couldn’t wait to see how they reacted to him.

  Hopefully they’d learn, but there was just as much of a possibility of it going bad. She needed to know that and a great many other things before those in eggs ever got to this point, and talking only got you so far, including mental scans. Some things you only learned about a person when they were pushed to their limits, and Vermaire definitely had a knack for getting you there.

  Actually, what he had was a mean streak, but one designed to give you no hesitation or mercy. It’s what the Black Knight was meant to be, but Archons never could quite go that far in training. Maybe that’s because they’d always seen the Black Knight from the receiving end and they couldn’t put themselves in the mindset of the one they’d always reviled. But thankfully there were plenty of Knights and Arc Knights that could and would willingly take on that role, but none were as good at it as Vermaire.

  And since he was supposed to be an enigma, none of the Rit’ko’sor had met him yet…though they would soon, the hard way.

  When Sara got to the surface, she and Aaron-010 met up with the Rit’k
o’sor leader, Jovca, and a few others in the main embassy building that would allow more than just their elite to interact with Star Force during this transition period. With 53 billion of them, there were a lot of people to get to know and mental scans to go through before giving them access to Star Force positions. For the time being, though, these three planets were more of a refugee camp than anything else, though that would be changing rapidly in the days ahead.

  “Trailblazer Sara,” Jovca said respectfully as his hip robes dragged slightly across the floor as he walked with a characteristically Rit’ko’sor bounce towards her.

  “Jovca,” she replied, gesturing to her right. “This is Aaron.”

  “I recognized him from the files, and I offer our greetings along with a request.”

  “What?” she asked casually, for she’d gotten so used to dealing with the forerunners that they seemed like brothers by now.

  “We once held great pride in the name Rit’ko’sor, and we do not wish to relinquish it or our history. We have made mistakes, but we have done great things as well, and our rebellion, no matter how bloody and costly to us, is something we intend never to forget. However, the traitors who returned to the V’kit’no’sat have assumed our mantle and our name. As painful as it is for us, we wish for there to be no misunderstandings as to our allegiance. We are the real Rit’ko’sor, but since the traitors have laid claim to our name and our previous position within the V’kit’no’sat, we require a new identity. Given that we are becoming part of Star Force, we ask that you create a new name for us.”

  Aaron said something telepathic to her about ‘Chocobo,’ but she suppressed most of her humorous smile and turned it into a warm acceptance, glad that she did have an Ikrid block and the Rit’ko’sor couldn’t read her mind. She nixed that name and offered another one to Aaron, who quickly agreed, citing it was the obvious one and that he wanted to hold ‘Chocobo’ in reserve in case they needed a nickname or slur to use.

  Sara agreed with that, but didn’t miss a beat in her vocal conversation with Jovca.

  “We have a name from long ago, after finding your skeletal remains on Earth, that would suit you well and carries with it an ancient respect before we even knew what the V’kit’no’sat were. If you wish it, you can now lay claim to that name.”

  “We wish it,” Jovca said with a slight head tilt. “What is our ancient, and now present name to be?”

  “Raptor,” Sara said with emphasis. “You will be known as the Raptors. Star Force Raptors. And when we’re done converting you, no one will ever mistake you for V’kit’no’sat again.”

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