Star Force: Starchaser (SF69) Read online

  Shaleth sat in the middle of it, cutting across the narrowest region in what was now shaped like an hourglass, for the core lizard worlds sat on one side in an ever-expanding sphere of systems and the conquered Skarron systems sat on the other, with that region expanding even faster and further as the lizards seemed to be devoting most of their resources there against the biggest threat they faced.

  It might have been the biggest threat, but it was not the most dangerous. The Voku were that, with Star Force coming in a close second and eating away at the middle of lizard territory and bringing them closer and closer to Shaleth as he and Paul had planned. That day would not be in the near future for a lot of lizard territory remained, but the advent of some new technologies for the Humans had increased their pace of conquest, along with a population surge from their servant Bsidd giving them the raw numbers of soldiers and workers they had previously lacked.

  The lizards could not expand in their direction and were losing territory all along their borders. On the far side where the Voku had reached the 8 races that Cal-com had been ordered to protect, he was taking possession of every lizard system he could in an effort to link the various locations in a spindly grid. The various servants of the Elders were not geographically close to one another, but none the less Cal-com knew that he had to pacify the entire region in order to truly protect them. Allow them to become isolated and swallowed up in the expanding creep of lizard conquests and they’d be perpetually at risk.

  So the Voku were hacking out another chunk opposite that of Star Force and diminishing the lizards’ ability to spread in that direction, poaching their startup colonies before they could get established and pinching their massive empire at the middle, with Shaleth sitting right in the center of it in a gesture of defiance, for no matter how hard the lizards tried they could not retake the system from the Voku and they’d lost hundreds of thousands of ships trying. It was the link between the two regions and one that Cal-com had to hold, so he’d poured resources into strengthening it years ago, now giving him a fortress that the lizards could not touch even with their steady flow of technological improvements that were making it harder for the rest of the galaxy to cope with them.

  Inside his oracle there were maps upon maps displayed as if they were artwork above holographic pedestals along with numerous worktables that had his personal plans laid out in the open. He had no fear of a security breach here, so he never bothered to lock away his work when he left the chamber. It had sentries at the entrance permanently, allowing him to let go any concerns of the immediate area and fully sink himself into planning and analysis sessions.

  Right now he was combing over new intel reports that had made their way back to him. The 8 races that he had been tasked with guarding were now taking orders directly from him and given the mandate the Elders had placed upon him he was actively restructuring their societies so that they could play a part in their own defense despite their limited technology. What he was working on was creating an Alliance of sorts, similar to what Paul had done with Star Force, to secure the vast region that encompassed all 8 races and hold back lizard expansion into those areas beyond. He could not do this with the Voku alone, so he had been weaving an intricate industrial and economic base within the 8 races he commanded that was going to accommodate the incorporation of other locals who were more than eager to ward off the coming storm.

  His intelligence reports were coming in from an army of scouts that were probing far beyond the lizard borders, even some going coreward of their furthest expansion. Cal-com knew Star Force would not go there because of the distant threat that lurked in the shadows, but the Voku didn’t fear it for the simple fact that the Elders hadn’t warned them off. Cal-com needed to know what the lizards were doing and where, with one of his maps detailing the chunk of territory that had been carved out of this portion of the Skarron empire.

  It was the same Skarron empire that his people had come into conflict with before, only near their home territory. The Skarrons’ empire dwarfed that of the lizards, with it exceeding all current and previous scouting missions, though from captured intel he knew that it extended over into the next galactic arm, with its mass of holdings in this one merely being colonial expansions. The lizards were effectively fighting and conquering them here, but Cal-com figured it was just a matter of time before the real hammer blow fell on them. When that would occur was the question, though if the Skarrons had other, larger threats to deal with then the lizards might actually seem like a small matter that they could deal with at their leisure.

  Cal-com knew that was a mistake, for the lizards’ greatest strength was their ability to spread and spread rapidly. Everything they were consuming within Skarron territory was just feeding their industrial engine and from it they were reaching out into neighboring systems that even the Skarrons hadn’t gotten around to conquering yet. It was those near his wards that he had been scouting out heavily, with a long list of races ready to join with the Voku and form the defense pact that he was painstakingly crafting.

  Like his wards, the other races mostly were inefficient and primitive, with a handful that had or could defend themselves against the lizards for a fair amount of time. The issue was always the numbers and the ability of the lizards to keep sending replacements in without end. Cal-com was going to counter this by using his own troops for most of the fighting and defensive emplacements, creating little Voku colonies everywhere, even sitting in the capitols of other races, to establish the backbone of this pact while the other races supported them militarily where they could, but largely through the collection and processing of raw materials that they would then feed to the Voku.

  Cal-com could build new ships quicker than the lizards could given available resources and there was only so much he could suck in from the home territories via cargo shipments, though those were having a significant effect already. If he could get this pact firmly established and funneling resources to him in the amounts he needed, then he could begin placing more strongholds on the map to counter the lizard advance.

  That was the game he was playing every day. A huge effort across thousands of star systems that saw his own hunting fleets bouncing from location to location to eliminate the soft lizard worlds that his scouts tagged and to hit and eliminate some not so small ones to keep the flow of lizards ships away from certain areas. To the untrained eye it would have seemed an easy assignment given their technological edge, but the galaxy was a vast place and even this little corner of it was huge. There were only so many places the Voku could go, with the lizards taking advantage of the fact that they could go everywhere once their numbers reached a certain point.

  What plans the Elders had for his ward races he did not know, so Cal-com didn’t meddle with them much other than to eliminate inefficiencies and get their civilizations geared up towards the resource race that they’d be thrown at. Beyond that he left their internal development to the Elders and their timetable, aside from several Voku cities built amongst their own planets to safeguard them and provide an example of what potential they had should the Elders find them worthy in the coming millennia.

  Conscripting them into the Voku military was not an option, nor was it one that the Voku had ever used before. Their forces were comprised of one race and one race alone, unlike Star Force that had shown Cal-com the benefits of a combined force. The Voku had and would fight alongside Paul’s people in a similar manner when necessary, but the Voku would not taint their own civilization by incorporating others. They’d come a long way together, with the newest elevation of his race being seen as a well-deserved reward for their loyalty during the long absence of the Elders. Giving another race access to that would be a cheat that would diminish all the gains they had made.

  No, the Voku were on a path of their own from here to infinity. They would help their friends and allies, fight and die alongside them if necessary, but the Voku would always remain Voku and would never meld with another race short of an order from the Elde
rs to do so…and from everything they had taught the Voku, Cal-com knew that was not the path they wished them to take.

  A keen interest to Cal-com also lay in the races beyond the lizards, with a significant portion of his scouting fleets probing what lay far beyond the new protected region and into areas where the lizards had not even been mentioned. His forces had to go pretty far to find advanced races that were not aware of the storm devouring everything in its path, but they had found several new threats out there of their own accord, as well as bastions of strength that he intended to make diplomatic contact with.

  As he read through the recent reports he found that one of them had come to him first, with a diplomatic envoy from an previously unknown race wanting to have a direct discussion with the Voku’s leader…and a tech tree that was on par with his own, based off the limited analysis his scouts had made of their small fleet that had sought them out.

  Along with the message came their credentials in the form of a territory map, linguistic database, and a sufficiently detailed historical record. They were known as the Preema and their territory sat well down the length of this galactic arm…with their numbers rivaling that of the Skarrons. That combined with their level of technology immediately put Cal-com on guard, and with that spike of trepidation his implants unlocked a new bit of information the Elders had stored within them.

  What followed a burst of knowledge that confused Cal-com. The Preema were, per his new memories, an isolationistic race that maintained a very tight hold on a limited region of space, dominating virtually every system within their geographical boundaries as opposed to the Skarrons that skipped over most to cheery pick the ones they wanted. Most races did the same, but the Preema were able to pour so much population into a ‘small’ region that what happened within it was virtually unknown to outsiders, for no transit was allowed within or through, making it a gigantic black hole of information.

  The Preema were benign as far as the Elders were concerned, keeping to their own systems with little concern for others. ‘Private’ was the word that best described the avian race, which made this unsolicited diplomatic contact far beyond their borders confusing…but also one that Cal-com knew he had to follow up on. Currently the ships that had brought the message were holding position at one of the Voku colonies that he’d recently set up in the gaps between the ward races’ territories. That was where they had made contact, and that was where they were awaiting a response.

  Cal-com read through the whole of their data packet before issuing any orders, finding buried within it all the records of a brief conflict with The Nexus. For reasons not mentioned The Nexus had invaded their territory and, after a war that lasted only a handful of years, given up the task after being met with too firm of a response. The Preema had not pursued them beyond their own borders, deciding to only defend their own rather than try to conquer their attackers, but Cal-com found it interesting none the less.

  The Elder had said The Nexus was reckless, and this was the first evidence of that that Cal-com had seen. He’d been keeping an eye on the distant empire that existed primarily in the next galactic arm out on the rim, but had not tasked any scout fleets in that direction, save for their nearest border with the lizards. He’d sent a few ships there to confirm the reports Paul had been getting from the H’kar and to measure enemy strength levels around the lizards’ core systems, but aside from a few delicate information hacks into the ships passing through H’kar space his forces knew little of The Nexus besides what was detailed in their public records.

  The territory they watched over was larger than what the Skarrons possessed, but as the Elder had said they were reckless in that they did not own but a handful of systems within it. It was more a patrol zone than owned territory, with them dictating to others rather than taking physical possession or responsibility. They were almost always involved in some war within their borders, so for them to travel outside them to invade a race that seemed to keep to themselves on principle was a datapoint that he was not going to overlook. Something important had happened there, and more importantly The Nexus had not scouted out the true strength of their target, otherwise they would not have been so easily thwarted.

  The Elder had told him that The Nexus would not last, and if they were actively pushing beyond their already oversized borders and picking fights with others then he could see one of them pushing back and wiping them out. He wasn’t sure if the Preema were capable of that or not, but The Nexus had been given a break when they did not counterattack…or had they anticipated that and the invasion been a probing mechanism?

  There was conflict there regardless, and given that Cal-com was an ally of an ally with a member race of The Nexus could potentially be an issue, but again, the Preema were seeking the Voku out. They had to have a pretty big reason to do so and since it hadn’t come on the back of an invasion force he didn’t think it was with hostile intention. Nor were his forces anywhere near Preema borders, so a warning was probably not at issue either. Cal-com had put out an open call for allies against the lizards, but the Preema were so far away from them it didn’t seem likely that they would take issue with the distant enemy…especially since the lizards’ tech level was so low as to not pose a significant threat to them.

  Whatever was going on was important, for this was not a low level race. That meant Cal-com needed to meet with their emissary personally rather than rely on an intermediary. With language issues being ever-present with first contact situations the less ambiguity involved in the process the better. He didn’t want to bring the Preema here, so he decided to go to them after he finished the review of their data packet.

  Cal-com transferred up to orbit and boarded one of his conglomerates, taking it and it alone out of the system and across lizard territory. Between the weaponry and the speed of his ships he had nothing to fear from the lizards so long as he didn’t enter planetary orbit. Stopping a conglomerate as it transitioned around a star was something the lizards just couldn’t do, so even though he was in the middle of enemy territory it did not matter. Most of the galaxy was empty space, and if you knew how to navigate you could stay clear of the real ‘territory’ that races possessed, for dots on a map were one thing, but the actual geography of a star system was mostly unclaimable space.

  And if the lizards happened to have an ambush fleet waiting along Cal-com’s course he wouldn’t mind a short delay to destroy some more of their ships. The less they had the less danger they posed to his wards and allies, despite their building capability. It might look like they had an infinite supply of ships, but he knew that wasn’t true of anyone. Illusions factored heavily into life, and the ignorant often took them at face value. Every lizard ship he killed mattered in the grand scheme of the war even if he never personally knew the implications of it.

  3

  June 19, 2825

  Djaret System (Voku territory)

  Djar

  Cal-com stood on a neutral platform having been constructed by the Preema on the surface of the Voku planet to serve as a meeting place, for neither race could exist in the atmosphere of the other and facilities on either’s ship were not accommodating to the needs for this occasion. The Preema had anticipated this and brought the construct with them, then having landed it within the oxygen-rich atmosphere once Cal-com had given them permission.

  It had been inspected by his troops to ensure there were no snares or hazards prior to his landing, with him walking up onto the spherical platform that was bisected with a clear energy shield. His side held the planet’s native atmosphere while the other held a pocket of the dark brown tinted air that the Preema breathed. When the allotted time came within 30 seconds a speck appeared in the sky above Cal-com that resolved itself into a trio of small craft descending towards the platform, save for the fact that they weren’t craft, but rather the Preema themselves.

  Cal-com didn’t realize that until the first of them came within the atmospheric shell and its metallic wings folded up along its tors
o, then the material molded into the body of the Preema and the front of it split apart, revealing glowing white flesh that stepped out of the armor and into the open. The other two landed alongside it but remained within their armor, much as Cal-com had guards of his own with him, though they were stationed outside on the planet’s surface and these two were on the platform itself.

  Cal-com wore the protective shields that his race favored over armor, so he had a measure of defense if something in this meeting were to go the wrong way that the Preema couldn’t see, though they might have guessed from the small pieces of equipment he wore over his bodysuit.

  “I offer our greetings, Voku,” the Preema said through some form of translation software, for the words he heard in his own language were slightly delayed from the sounds the Preema was uttering. “We are pleased you agreed to meet with us personally.”

  “Why are you here?” Cal-com asked, getting straight to the point.

  “It is customary for us to make introductions when a race of sufficient caliber crosses through the local region, though our purpose here is twofold. We have heard your warnings of a primitive but dangerous race slowly approaching us and have investigated the matter from afar. We know little, but enough to see that the threat is not in sheer force, but through uncontrollable numbers spreading and consuming more worlds than anyone can safeguard. If this threat is to eventually make it to our borders, we would prefer to counter it sooner rather than later, if possible. We are here to discuss possible avenues to do so,” the Preema said, sitting down on the ground so that its head sat just a touch lower than Cal-com’s

  The Voku stared into its six green eyes and could feel the physical power of the flying quadruped. Unlike others he’d come across, this avian was not fragile. Light perhaps for its size, but far outmassing him with enough musculature that he could tell it could handle itself in ground combat…and with the way its real wings tucked in along its sides he wouldn’t have known it could fly had he not seen it for himself.