Vargemma Read online

  “Can you not fly at all? Not even decelerate?”

  “A cushioning effect, yes. But from several miles high, my Jenshar skills may not be sufficient, and theirs are less than mine.”

  “You have no psionic for it?”

  “We do not.”

  “Are they going to stick around to conquer the planet?” Davis asked, referencing the attackers above.

  “I doubt it. Your technology is too fierce, and they will not waste their Jenshar to destroy all of your ships. I expect them to leave soon. Hopefully before we reemerge.”

  “And if they sense us here?”

  “They can only sense my aura. They will not know you are inside unless they measure it and find the size of two, but those two could be a pair of us. They will not try to kill us. We are irrelevant.”

  “But you can’t be sure?”

  “At this point I am sure of nothing other than our rising through the atmosphere. If we survive this, I do not care what the other Knights say, I will teach you what little I know and help you fight both the Hadarak and the Vargemma. I do not fear death, but I will require asylum with Star Force if the other Knights are not as incensed as I am.”

  “Request granted…” Davis said as they continued to float in darkness aside from the Essence ripples that were quickly disappearing, but as the last of his people made their transition into whatever death truly was, a new ripple appeared, passing through them without incident and appearing to be a wide spread occurrence. “Is that another attack?”

  “It is Lian’no,” Vochem said with clenched teeth. “It is the heart attack weapon, and it will spread across the entire planet. I am sorry.”

  “No…” Davis whispered as they continued to float in darkness, soon to be accompanied by massive waves of sparks turning into shooting stars.

  2

  “It’s time,” Vochem said as they floated in darkness. Nothing was glowing above or below them, though every now and then Davis thought he could see some more sparks in the far distance as that ring of death expanded beyond his Essence vision range. “I am not sure what to expect.”

  “I’ll expand my shields around you, unless that’s a problem?”

  “It is not.”

  Davis mentally reset his shield perimeter to include both his armored body and that of the hitchhiker on his back, then a moment later the darkness vanished and the harsh sunlight above returned with a ferocity he was not prepared for. Gravity also yanked back, and Davis had to use his armor’s systems to enhance his own Yen’mer as his body refused to work.

  Suddenly he felt sick all over, and his regenerator instantly began to activate along with Vochem’s Essence glow as their shared shields were hit with massive amounts of water trying to drag them down with them. It felt like they were inside a waterfall, but there was no rhyme or reason to it. No up or down, just water going every which way and, sometimes, crossing each other.

  “I am hit,” Vochem said, though still hanging on tightly to the Director’s armor. “Are you injured?”

  “I’ll live,” Davis said, feeling the clumps of water that had rematerialized in 18 different places in his body began to be removed and the tissue they’d destroyed replaced. Fortunately only one had hit his head, but it was in the skull and not the brain tissue beneath…and less than a millimeter wide. “Are you healing?”

  “Yes,” he said, barely audible over the rush of water all around them. Davis had to fight to just hold position, not sure where to go as a rock flew up from below and just clipped the edge of his shields. They were fixed to his armor rather than remotely cast, so the impact bounced them to the side violently and Vochem lost his grip…only to have his feet hit in the inside of the shield and stop him there as if there were a floor directly beneath him.

  “The planet’s crust has been damaged,” the Knight of Quenar said. “The ocean is flowing into the wound. Can you move us away?”

  “Give me a moment. My body is still repairing.”

  “How? I sense no Jenshar in you.”

  “This armor may be small, but it does have a regenerator in it. Once it’s finished with me I can use it to heal you as well.”

  “Do not attempt to do so. My technology would resist…it,” he said, getting bounced to the side by another large wave of water. No sky was visible with all the mist, plumes, and rain, but it was very bright overhead, so they couldn’t have been too far from the top.

  “Fine. The air is thin, but we can go higher. Hang on, I’ll get us started as best I can with my armor, but its antigrav isn’t strong enough to fight these surges. I have to do that…”he said, cut off as another dump of water came down on top of them and dropped them some 30 meters lower, flowing over his invisible shields like a car window in a downpour.

  Davis was having to use his Pefbar to see, and the pounding in his head didn’t help, but as it relented and his skull damage repaired, his range increased and he pushed it out spherically to try and figure out where exactly they were…which was when he saw the rocky material coming up from below.

  He couldn’t wait any longer, so he used his Yen’mer to add power, despite the pain it caused and the number of little psionic nubs that were still damaged and off line. Simultaneously he stretched out his bioshields beyond the armor’s version, adding a needle-head on top of him and Vochem as he drove up through the water as a wave of steam rushed up from below.

  They got bounced around quite a bit, sometimes being pulled down a few meters, but the small amount of progress upward meant less and less resistance, and eventually the rocky material catching them topped out and began to fall back down, leaving only water and steam to contend with as they rose through the mess.

  It took a few minutes of limping upward, but eventually they got above it, seeing bits of sky breaking through as massive geysers crested and curved over, coming down like clear fireworks in the blue sky. Davis kept climbing, maintaining an oxygen bubble inside the shields for Vochem to breath and augmenting it from his own armor’s air supply as his battlemap interlink indicated they were some 18 miles above the Earth’s surface and over the location Atlantis used to be…

  “Can you find any of your other people?” Davis finally asked, looking down on the surrounding ocean as several tsunamis were visible heading outwards, with those nearest the water geyser crisscrossing and pulling back on themselves as the newly formed supervolcano consumed the water and lowered the ocean level around the magma plume.

  The city was gone, completely, with pieces of it being above them and heading into orbit, for there was a giant mushroom-like cloud of vaporized material far above them and spreading out in a thin haze. Davis couldn’t even see it from his position, but the battlemap clearly indicated its presence and outward spread.

  “I have contact with two of them below. The rest are gone.”

  “I need their positions so I can dispatch rescue teams.”

  “Have the Vargemma left?”

  “Yes,” Davis said, reviewing battlemap data quickly as they hung in the air above the ongoing torrent below, with the steam and suspended ash now moving laterally beneath them as it could no longer climb to their thin atmospheric level, but sporadic rock torpedoes were shooting up higher and still posed a threat to them from a random hit.

  Vochem telepathically relayed the locations of the two Knights of Quenar below, and Davis ordered rescue teams to their location immediately, but they were going to have to come from the nearest underwater city or from orbit, because there were no Atlantis personnel remaining to assist.

  “How many of those weapons do they have?” Davis demanded after seeing the impact replay of how it tore Atlantis apart as if it was nothing more than confetti.

  “Many. I do not know the exact number. All the races in the Vargemma contribute to their construction. They can kill Hadarak if they are discovered, but the Jenshar required to charge them is not easily replaceable. That is why the Hadarak cannot be defeated. They mass too much. The more mass, the more Jenshar chan
ge is required to disintegrate them. They used a great deal to destroy Atlantis. This was meant to kill you, but also to bring fear to your empire. The Vargemma cannot repeat such attacks quickly. I do not know the status of their wells, but this cannot be repeated across every Star Force world. Fear will intimidate you into their preferred action, they believe, but I know it will backfire on them. You will not yield, you will…”

  “What do you mean by ‘wells?’” Davis demanded.

  “We have never been there. Their strongholds. The Vargemma are a combination of all races that break the Jenshar boundary. They seek out those who are new, such as us, before the Hadarak can identify and destroy the threat we pose. But we are not allowed into their ranks until we prove ourselves. The Knights of Quenar are in a trial period. If we prove ourselves worthy we will one day join the Vargemma ranks. If not, we will be left to die to the Hadarak when they eventually discover us.”

  “We are told,” he continued, “that in their strongholds they have massive storage of Jenshar that every individual in their races contributes to regularly. That Jenshar is then used to defend the Vargemma and to accomplish its…goals,” he said apologetically as they looked down on the billowing mass of water, rock, and steam below that continually churned and didn’t look like it was dissipating whatsoever.

  “And they draw from these wells until they’re deplenished…then they’re helpless?” Davis surmised.

  “Not helpless, but what we have seen of their technology is inferior to ours. It is surmised that one reason they sought us out was to incorporate our knowledge of non-Jenshar applications into their collective.”

  “Have you yet?”

  “I believe so, in some ways, but we would never give all of what we possessed. Others cannot be trusted with the power.”

  “Do you have more than us?” Davis asked bluntly.

  “We are peers on parallel, but not identical paths. You have technology that we lack, and the reverse is also true. But your greatest strength is your population. We cannot grow to such a size.”

  “Who else has technology on par with us?”

  “We know of several, but they are all reclusive and low in population. The only ones that can stand against the Hadarak and make a good show of resistance is your triad.”

  “Resistance my ass. We’re winning,” Davis said as a contact popped up with a proximity alert. “And this attack isn’t going to stop us.”

  “I don’t believe this was their only attack,” Vochem warned. “If it was, they would have destroyed the entire star system as an object lesson.”

  “The Uriti?”

  “Possibly, but there are too many of them to eliminate quickly. And they are not what has drawn the Lurker here.”

  “You think they’re hitting Epsilon Eridani now and came here as a side quest?”

  “I would be surprised if they did not, unless an ultimatum came with this strike. If there is silence, then it is punitive and the object of contention will also be hit. This is their methodology and has been employed many times in the past.”

  “Recently?”

  “No. Far before the Knights of Quenar existed. We have been given Vargemma history to learn from, and they have existed for several billion years.”

  “Billion?” Davis said in dismay. “And they still haven’t figured out how to build real weapons?”

  “Jenshar is their weapon, but I agree their reliance on that limited resource is a weakness. One we will find a way to exploit. If the Hadarak are going to destroy the known galaxy, we need to make sure the Vargemma are taken with it.”

  “Do you think the other Knights will feel the same?”

  “I cannot be sure, but you have provided a potential pathway to victory. The Vargemma offer power never to be used in perpetual avoidance. We seek permanent solutions. That is our purpose.”

  “And what is your purpose now that we have the Uriti pacified?”

  “Either destroy them or obtain the power that will make them irrelevant. Either way it will be a permanent solution.”

  “I like the new frankness in you, Vochem,” Davis said as the shiny object to the west descended from a higher elevation on a path towards them. “Don’t let it relapse in the future.”

  “I am now committed to the Vargemma’s destruction. If the other Knights will not follow suit, you are my only avenue to accomplish this. I will remain as frank as I can be without betraying the trust of our brotherhood.”

  “Do you know how many strongholds they have?”

  “Hundreds, but we do not know where they are, only approximate areas based on guesswork.”

  “We know where to start. How did they get into the system without making a stellar jump?”

  “The same way we survived. If you can accurately estimate your speed, you can count down and revert blind into a star system.”

  “And if you have a scout on location? Can they guide the fleet in?”

  “Yes, but they must still travel in a straight line. The scout will only tell them when to emerge.”

  “So you don’t need a beacon to move through walls?”

  “You need a beacon to secure the exit point, otherwise you risk collision, and solid objects do far more damage than water.”

  “Noted,” Davis said as the Star Force dropship decelerated in front of them, then rotated around with a lowered boarding ramp that came to within a few meters of the pair hanging in the air over the supervolcano. The Director flew that last little bit and let Vochem down a full step inside before releasing his aching muscles that the regenerator was continually working on since he was damaging the Yen’mer tissues constantly by using them in their state of disrepair.

  “Davis,” a Mage-level Archon said as he came forward and grabbed the Director by his left shoulder. “We thought we lost you with the city.”

  “I owe the Ambassador for my survival. Get us out of here before the enemy comes back to finish what they started.”

  “On the way,” he said as the pilot took off and the ramp began to retract before the trio was fully inside. “Where do you want to go to ground?”

  Davis looked at the Knight of Quenar. “What’s their top speed look like?”

  “I would assume considerably less than yours, but Jenshar can enhance that considerably.”

  The eldest Human in the empire nodded, then turned to the other Archon. “We hide in transit. Keep us moving, ship to ship, system to system. We never stop. Never give them a stationary target.”

  The Mage nodded. “They won’t get a second shot at you, I promise…” he said, hesitating for a moment as he worked the comm. “The Trilen Asora is coming in atmosphere to pick us up. We’ll jump out from here and an escort fleet will meet us on the way to the star. Do you want him to come along or stay here?”

  “He goes where I go,” Davis said firmly. “But get his two surviving brethren back to the Knights of Quenar so they can explain firsthand what happened.”

  Vochem nodded his agreement. “A ghost you must become, and I will be gladly be your echo. If the Vargemma know I am alive and helping you, they may strike at the other Knights. It is best if I am presumed dead.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  “I am. I have deactivated my locator. They will assume I was killed in the aftermath. Do not inform your people how you survived, only that you did.”

  “Agreed,” Davis said, turning to the Mage. “I’ll take it from here.”

  The dark blue helmet in front of him nodded. “Do you know who did this?”

  “We have a lead,” Davis said, glancing at Vochem. “But as of now, we’re at war.”

  A moment later the Mage and every other person linked into the battlemap on Earth got a warning alarm in a very old tone that still sent shivers down everyone's spines, even those that didn’t know what it originally was from. It was different from the invasion alert, and this one had never been heard before in Star Force. It was a signal that Star Force was going to war against a threat that requ
ired the entire empire’s might to fight.

  And that tone would spread from system to system around the rim of the galaxy. With it would be recall orders for everyone of merit, including the trailblazers and the war fleets currently fighting the Hadarak. This took priority over all else, for Davis didn’t know how they were going to fight this new type of weaponry, and he needed all hands on deck to figure it out.

  3

  May 8, 128535

  System 991284 (Hadarak Zone)

  8th planet

  Morgan-063 was in the final stages of minion removal in the third ring of the Hadarak expansion along with a small fleet of Star Force Oso’lon when the courier arrived. The moment the message packet reached her Borg vessel the alarm sounded, jolting her out of a brief nap in the Archon sanctum that she’d decided to take there rather than waste time walking back to her quarters.

  It was an old school alarm, never before used, taken from the Death Star in the Star Wars movies. The sound ran through her and for a moment her hair turned blonde on reflex, then she calmed herself down and bolted to her feet, running to the nearest comms terminal so she could see what the hell was going on.

  There were none inside the Sanctum, nor telepathic repeaters for the sake of keeping training private and uninterrupted, so she literally couldn’t use her mind to link into the computer until she got to an outer chamber and slid onto the stool there, shoving her hand over the tactile interface and seeing in a flash of data sent into her brain what had happened at Earth.

  She already knew about the Ysalamir destruction, but others were handling that while she kept chewing up minion systems and taking them back from the enemy. Morgan had been waiting for a recall once this new enemy had been identified, but until then there wasn’t any ass kicking that could be done. She did not expect, however, to get an empire-wide alert and recall order.

  Sol had been attacked, along with Epsilon Eridani, which had taken the worst of it, but Atlantis had been totally destroyed in a single Essence attack. Davis had survived, somehow, and it wasn’t until she activated a special high access file that she find out. That was a stroke of luck, and if a Knight of Quenar had been here now she would have kissed them in thanks for keeping Davis alive. But the long list of friends and highly skilled Star Force personnel that had been in the city and were now dead was a gut punch…not to mention most of the other people on the planet.