Star Force: Crusade (SF93) (Star Force Origin Series) Read online

  This ship had come all the way out here hoping to find a place in Star Force territory because they’d heard that it was safe and that the Human-led empire took in refugees.

  Torpe sniffed away some misty eyes as she sent a reply message detailing the coordinates in the nearby Tarric 3 System that they needed to proceed to, at which point they’d be provided with emergency supplies until their situation could be sorted out. She added a welcome to the message, knowing that even that small gesture could make a big difference to people who’d been on the run and brushed aside time and time again, though it was the supplies that were going to make the real difference.

  She knew the Kleek were but the first of many refugees coming their way, and that the promise of safety was going to draw them here from all over The Nexus as various wars continued to break out and spread. Fortunately Davis had seen this coming and had a plan in place, so the Duke didn’t have to tell them there was no help here. She could tell them the exact opposite, and the coordinates in the nearby system led to a facility built specifically to handle and sort incoming refugees prior to sending them off into the ADZ or wherever else there was room to take them.

  Star Force had a plan in place to weather this catastrophe and pick up the rest of the baggage that The Nexus’s failure would be landing on their doorstep. For good guys just didn’t react to bad things happening on the spur of the moment…they planned and prepped ahead of time so that they’d be able to help the Kleek or anyone else like them when the time came.

  It didn’t matter how many warships and troops you had in a situation like this. It was all about logistical power and whether or not you had the foodstuffs to feed the number of people required, the fuel to power their ships and life support, and the medical supplies to save those just hanging on to life that managed to reach you.

  Star Force territory was sanctuary, due in large part to its military, but more so due to its logistics. Those behind the scenes mundane, repetitive tasks that most people didn’t pay any attention to. The sort of thing administrators handled without anyone else ever knowing about…until there was a lack of supplies or a power outage, then everyone took notice.

  The Archons were the visible leaders of Star Force’s war machine, but the empire knew well that war came in many different fashions, and in truth it was the Monarchs that were the most powerful, waging a war of supplies and infrastructure to combat the starvation, deprivation, and chaos that would now start flowing into Star Force territory en mass from The Nexus…and it was that war that would define Star Force in the coming years more than anything the Archons did.

  For those in The Nexus were saying that saving these people was impossible. There were too many, not enough supplies, not enough room to take them in…and they weren’t lying, most of the time. They simply didn’t have the necessary resources to help, whether they wanted to or not.

  But like the Archons, the Monarchs had an inclination to tackle challenges that were deemed ‘impossible’ and had already set up multiple planets mostly in the occupation zone to rescue, indoctrinate, and train refugees, then add the individuals into a wing of Axius and the larger groups into a new faction known as ‘Beacon.’

  All those in need of help could flee to and be assimilated into Star Force, with the aptly named new faction serving as a redo of the old Alliance Worlds program that was created back during the lizard war…only many lessons had been learned since then, and all refugees being taken in would become part of Star Force rather than tenants who could potentially work against their caretakers as had been seen to happen in the ADZ before.

  And at this point, incorporating both individuals and groups into Star Force was a well polished process, so when people badly in need of help came here…if they could make it here…there would be no shoving them off into some corner to wait in line or bide their time.

  No. There was a plan in place and an infrastructure conduit through which to send them to the indoctrination facilities that would eventually land them either in Axius or Beacon, meaning that if they could get to Duke Torpe like this ship of Kleek had, then they were at the end of their harrowing journey and coming into the hands of people who were tasked specifically to help and guide them through the assimilation process…and whom would make damn sure no one fell through the cracks once they arrived, no matter how chaotic things became.

  All of which made Torpe the Queen of the Watchtower, whose ‘beacon’ would be drawing many people here. If they could arrive they’d be bathed under Star Force’s healing and cleansing light, metaphorically speaking, and they’d be insulated from the chaos behind them.

  That wasn’t what she’d written, but that was what the rumor mill eventually churned out and spread back through the grid point network and throughout The Nexus, and it was her name that was attached to the mythos.

  Get to Duke Torpe and all would be well.

  And that reputation and lore would drive more and more people to Stargate, both those in need and those trying to get out ahead of the looming disaster before they became refugees themselves.

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