Star Force: Recalibration (SF30) Read online

  On that note, he needed to find her and ask her a bazillion questions…now that she’d had enough time to fix David’s head, along with who knew how many others.

  2

  Kara pointed to the tiny cookie on David’s tray with her finger, then sent it smoothly flying down the length of the table as if on an invisible tractor beam emanating from her fingernail. Two meters down and it landed in Riona’s mouth. The Archon bit into it smiling, then Kara slowly launched another from the tray down towards Aeryn-412’s waiting tongue.

  A few inches from her mouth and the cookie made a sharp detour, bouncing off her forehead and away from the table…straight into Jason’s hand. He held it between two fingers and nipped off a bit of it.

  “Looks like this is the ex-headache Clan,” he said, sitting down at the cafeteria table opposite from Kara, but two seats down where there was an opening. “Thanks again, by the way.”

  “Questions?” she guessed.

  “Plenty,” Jason confirmed.

  “You should have gotten here earlier,” David suggested. “We’ve been getting schooled on several matters.”

  “You mind?” Jason asked her.

  She telekinetically stole a cookie from another Archon’s tray and delivered it straight into her own mouth as she set her elbows on the table. “Shooott,” she said, chewing.

  “I just found a Pefbar training chamber that we didn’t know we had and spent several hours measuring my skill. I hit level 17…out of some 1200. How far behind the Zen’zat are we really?”

  Kara swallowed and stared down at the tabletop for a moment, seeming to search her thoughts. “My information is dated. Some comes from near to when the Rit’ko’sor rebellion began, but the rest comes from the period previous to the Zak’de’ron purge, which was approximately 850 millennia ago.”

  “Ouch,” Lanny-257 commented.

  “That’s the first number I’ve heard on that,” Jason added.

  “I had to do the math,” Kara admitted. “I’ve got the dates up here,” she said, tapping a finger against the side of her brunette head. “Some of them, anyway. More information keeps popping up as I come across it, so I’m not sure how much memory I actually have. I do know that the V’kit’no’sat advance slowly when they’re not being challenged, technologically I mean.”

  Kara held up her wrist so all 9 Archons at the table could see the jewel, with a few techs from the other tables starting to come over and listen as well.

  “This should still be superior to what the Zen’zat have. At least that’s what my memories tell me. Zak’de’ron technology was superior, and they only shared part of it with the V’kit’no’sat. We’re…their Zen’zat didn’t mix with the others, and were drawn from their own Ter’nat populations. All the races draw from the communal Ter’nat race, then usually keep some of the Zen’zat they produce for themselves once they reach higher levels, but technically they’re supposed to serve all the races and can be rotated between duties.”

  “The Zak’de’ron didn’t submit to that and kept their own Zen’zat, not to mention giving them greater abilities than the others. We all have one of these,” she said, tapping on the clear jewel imbedded into her left wrist, “it’s our armor, regenerator, comm system, and just about everything else you can think of. It uses compression based technology on a scale far beyond what the V’kit’no’sat possessed, and the knowledge in my head says that there’s no way they’ve caught up yet.”

  “The knowledge is separate?” David asked.

  Kara frowned. “I’m pretty sure it comes from this, but it’s not standard. I think the dragon added it specifically for me so I’d know what the hell I was doing. Then again, some of it could have been standard.”

  “Maybe I should ask how strong are you, then?” Jason pressed.

  “I’m a weakling, unfortunately,” she admitted. “You need to understand, the Zen’zat attain self-sufficiency, as do most of the races, so you’ve got individuals living hundreds of thousands of years, with a small few reaching over the million mark. Most of those, oddly, are Zen’zat. And you can imagine how powerful one could get with a million years’ worth of training.”

  “Damn,” Riona whispered. “I can’t even imagine what that skillset would look like.”

  “I don’t have to imagine, I can remember,” Kara said uneasily. “The greatest Zen’zat in history was Ironnsey. He wasn’t Zak’de’ron, but a regular Zen’zat who primarily served the Oso’lon. He was pretty much a Jedi compared to everyone else, Zen’zat and dinosaur combined. I have several memories of him, including an incident where he was ordered to hunt down and destroy a group of six rebel Hjar’at warriors.”

  “I should probably say, and don’t hesitate to ask questions because I don’t always remember what you know and don’t know, but the Hjar’at are the more dangerous of the races when it comes to close quarters combat. Their Saroto’kanse’vam were specifically engineered to make them lethal above all others, and while they’re not the dominate race in the V’kit’no’sat socially, they are the most militarily dominate on the ground.”

  “What was that word?” Chad-913 asked.

  “Sorry, Saroto’kanse’vam are the spikes that run down their back and tail. The Les’i’kron have a smaller version on their tail tip, from what I can tell, and a few other races have minor combat adaptations, but the Hjar’at’s are by far the most impressive. They produce different energy fields that give them ranged attack, proximity defense, even biological shielding in addition to the armor they wear…and don’t think they’re slow. The Saroto’kanse’vam are bladed for a reason, and they can cut a decent sized target into shreds with a spin strike and flip.”

  “Ironnsey?” Jason reminded her.

  “Right…he was sent to kill the six, and they were highly ranked, meaning their combat skills were above the rest. Had the Hjar’at sent their own troops after them it would have been a blood bath, and nothing short of elite units would have had a reasonable chance of defeating them. So instead they sent Ironnsey, by himself, to take them down inside one of the Hjar’at facilities, which is how I have a mental recording of that battle.”

  “Impressive?” David asked.

  “Goku-esk,” Kara said with awe, “aside from the fact that he couldn’t fly. None of the regular Zen’zat could…which is stupid. Even we have jump packs, but the Zen’zat only had gravity buffers to stop falls from killing them, and it was the same with the other races. They have the technology, but they never used it…and though I don’t know about now, I doubt their methodology has changed much. The V’kit’no’sat like to stick with tradition for tradition’s sake.”

  “Wait a sec,” Jason said, pointing a finger at her. “Can you?”

  Kara smiled and nodded.

  David’s eyes went wide. “You can fly?”

  “My armor has to be deployed, otherwise I just hang from my wrist. The Zak’de’ron are flyers…why would they want servants that couldn’t keep up with them in the air?”

  “What kind of power source does that thing have anyway?” Riona asked, with several of the techs around them nodding in thanks for asking that question.

  “It absorbs power from the environment and stores it. It’s at about half charge now, which is a lot, and it’s slowly recharging. That’s why it’s a bit cold to the touch. It absorbs light, heat, electricity and just about anything else. I usually just find a power conduit, stick my gloved hand in, and let it drink up. My body is protected somehow, and don’t bother trying to stun me. It’ll last like a tenth of a second before this baby sucks it right out and adds the energy to its reserves.”

  Jason levitated a cookie up off of one of the half-empty trays and sent it up high towards the ceiling and held it there with a bit of effort, then motioned for Kara to go get it.

  “Oh…fine,” she said, pushing back her chair and standing up. She reached her left hand up like superman and slowly floated up a few meters, then snagged the cookie with her right hand and began eating i
t on the way down.

  “Don’t suppose that thing has twinning capability?” David asked as she sat back down.

  “It’s called a Vorch’nas, and no, unfortunately. It’s bonded to me permanently, so even if I get my hand cut off no one else will be able to use it.”

  “So much for needing a parachute,” Jason joked.

  “We need to press our jump pack technology in this direction,” Kara urged. “It’s one advantage over the other Zen’zat that we’ll need. They can always counter by building their own, but we need to be able to fight in the air and move across rough terrain unaugmented.”

  “You said Ironnsey didn’t have that?” Jason pressed.

  “No, but he could jump and glide in his armor, and his vertical was insane, as was his speed. The Hjar’at couldn’t touch him up close, and he was cagey enough not to get caught in the open. He killed them all together, one at a time, at pointblank range, and didn’t look like he broke much of a sweat doing it. Him and others of similar skill are the reason there is very little rebellion within the V’kit’no’sat. Cause a big enough ruckus and you’ll get elite troops sent your way. Defeat them and you’ll work your way up through the ranks until you face an opponent beyond you.”

  “Sounds rather hopeless,” David commented, half-sarcastically.

  “It is,” Kara said, glancing back at Jason. “To answer your original question, we’re not a match for even their low level troops. Well, I am, but I’ve got this,” she said, tapping her Vorch’nas.

  “Ranger level 1 ranks where in comparison?”

  Kara grimaced, then bit her lip as she thought. “Without augmentation. No armor, no toys whatsoever…would still get owned by all but the greenest of Zen’zat, but only because of their psionic abilities. If and when we can catch up in that department, it’ll be another story.”

  “Take those out of the equation,” Jason said. “Where does a level 1 ranger rank?”

  “That’s hard to do, because those skills are part and parcel of what the Zen’zat are and how they fight…but I’d say easily still in the bottom 10%.”

  “So we’re ahead of some of them?” David asked.

  “Did you make ranger when I wasn’t looking?” Kara asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Some of us, then,” David corrected himself.

  “With me, we’re about even with a Zen’zat expeditionary force,” she explained, “which is made up of one moderately leveled leader with experienced rookies. That’s the standard deployment for low level incidents that need dealt with. If the team fails a higher level one is dispatched, and so forth. The V’kit’no’sat don’t waste resources if they’re outmatched, they just bring in higher classes units.”

  “That’s something then,” Jason said, relieved that they were at least in the game.

  “No, Jason, it’s not,” Kara said, almost apologetically. “I know more than I can explain, and we’re hopelessly, hilariously, and pathetically outmatched. I know we’ve got our own war to deal with now, but unless we crank things up significantly we’ll be rolled over by their crap units…and that’s just talking Zen’zat. Our odds are even less impressive when the other races are thrown in.”

  “How often are they used?”

  “Most of the time. We’re sent in for utility work or special assignments. Almost all of the combat is handled by the race in question. They may be augmented by Zen’zat units, but it’s their show. We’re extra.”

  “What do you mean, ‘crank things up?’” Riona asked.

  “It’s complicated,” Kara said, shaking her head. “Very, very complicated. Archons are better than Zen’zat, as in how much we train and how smart we are about it…but we’re still ignorant and making up stuff as we go along. They’ve got a refined training system and upper tier individuals who have had thousands of years’ experience to instruct where necessary. They get more done with less, and we’re behind the curve in that department, save for our adepts. They’re squared away, but the acolytes and especially the ranger training is what I’d call ‘loose.’”

  All eyes moved to Jason, as the Archons sensed Kara’s rebuke in her analysis, but oddly Jason didn’t seem to take offense.

  “Let me see if I heard you correctly,” Jason said slowly. “We’re better than they are because of the way we train, but not because of the way we train?”

  “Yes.”

  “Fast forward a thousand years…”

  “If the trend holds, we’ll have an advantage over most of them, taking technology out of the equation. Their elite units will still own us and, I’ll point out, that most of the Zen’zat slow their training over time. This is either from boredom or lack of motivation, but while they are still advancing their rate of advancement drops considerably aside from a select few, like Ironnsey, who keep pressing on. He and the others are Archon-like in that respect.”

  “I almost want to meet the guy,” Jason joked.

  Kara shook her head. “Don’t have to worry about that…he’s dead.”

  Jason frowned. “How?”

  “We killed him during the first year of the war.”

  “We being the Zak’de’ron?” David asked.

  “Yes. I still think like one of them. That’s how this knowledge is programmed.”

  “How’d you take him down?” Jason asked, keenly interested.

  “Orbital bombardment,” Kara said dismissively. “We targeted all the high level Zen’zat the enemy possessed at the outset, as well as the more powerful of the other races as well. Doesn’t matter how good you are if you’ve got a naval fleet sitting over your head firing down on you. That was one think the V’kit’no’sat didn’t take into account. They expected us to fight them on an even playing field, army against army, navy against navy, and so forth. But we’re built to fly, and we’re very good at raining down destruction from above.”

  Jason glanced at David. “I don’t know if that’s Zak’de’ron or Saber talking?” he quipped.

  David nodded. “Does sound rather like Paul.”

  “That’s the kicker,” Kara emphasized. “We have no hope if we can’t face them directly in space. We have to develop a navy capable of doing that. If we do then we’re still toast, because they’ll hit us from other angles, but without a competent navy it’s game over before it even starts…and that isn’t dependent on skill as much as it is technology.”

  “How much of that do you have in your head?” Jason asked.

  “I don’t,” Kara said, almost relieved. “Some Zen’zat are techs, but not this one. The Vorch’nas he gave me is a combat model.”

  “Does it have weapons?” Ursala-529 asked.

  “They’re a power hog, but yes. Usually Zen’zat will carry independent weapons, like we do, but there are built-in units even in standard Zen’zat armor, which you already know.”

  “Feel free to show and tell,” Chad urged.

  Kara set her left elbow on the table with her hand up in the air, then on mental command the jewel fractured and sent out a spray of red slivers that formed into a scaly, metallic glove that extended back to her elbow and stopped.

  “Oh that’s cool,” David commented.

  “Yes it is,” Kara agreed, then with another though a bump appeared on the back of her hand and formed into an elevated weapons battery, tiny in size. She looked over at Jason. “Give me a target.”

  The trailblazer telekinetically grabbed another cookie and sent it floating up into the air above their heads. “Try not to blow up the ceiling please,” he asked.

  “I can modulate the power output,” Kara said smiling as she aimed her gloved fist up, then hesitated a moment before an emerald green pinprick of light flashed out and intercepted the cookie, burning it into a cloud of smoke and charred debris that drew the attention of everyone else in the cafeteria that hadn’t already been brought into the conversation when she floated her way up to the ceiling.

  As it was, the cookie debris rained down on the assembled Archons and more than 100 other Star
Force staff who’d gathered around to watch and listen.

  “Which weapon was that?” Jason asked.

  “Basic Dre’mo’don,” she said, with the other Archons recognizing the term. The energy the weapon produced wasn’t something that Star Force could create yet, but many of the handheld weapons recovered from the pyramid were constructed in this fashion. The energy itself wasn’t a beam, but rather a condensed packet fired at a range of speeds, most of which were within viewing capability and looked like speedy, glowing paintballs when fired. This one had been so tiny that only the glow was visible for a split second.

  “Any others?” Chad asked.

  “I’ve got a stun and an orb-launcher…and you don’t want me to demonstrate that here.”

  “Mobile artillery?” David asked, referencing V’kit’no’sat tech lessons he’d had a long time ago.

  “From our point of view, yes, but compared to what they work with…hardly. It’s mainly used to get through dino armor. They can wear so much more tech than us due to their size that their shields and plate thickness are insane. Besides, these are basic weapons. The more potent ones we carry as rifles and such. You’ve seen the basic setup before.”

  The crowd of techs parted to let another individual through and Jason turned his head to look at the motion as Morgan squeezed into the group.

  “What’s with the party and who’s shooting what?” she asked, looking down on the assembled Archons with her eerie gray eyes.

  Kara’s face, which had been smiling, suddenly blanked…then her jaw dropped. “Son of a bitch, Morgan,” she said as she stood up, almost angrily. “How the hell do you do it? You are always one step ahead of everyone else.”

  “What?” Jason asked, glancing back and forth between the two women.

  “What are you talking about?” Morgan asked, glancing at her armored hand, “and what are you wearing…wait…is that your armor?”