Star Force: Reignor Read online

  The Hadarak he was able to sort out from the wildlife easily enough, mentally linking a straight line to each of them as he telepathically told his Ren’mak to fly below him.

  The smaller Hadarak tucked its wings and fell below his height, almost hitting the water before it flapped furiously to stay with him as the canyon darted left and right in an annoying zigzag. Plausious gained a little altitude so he could focus on the attack more than the evasion, then sent tiny orbs of Essence energy out to each, delivering focused attacks that went straight to their hearts…and caused them to malfunction.

  Flyers and ground units alike tumbled and died, eliminating all eyes on Plausious as he continued flying, using his Gorvaj for lift while the rest of his body hung beneath them. He continued flying, tracing the path of the river as he drew heavily on his body’s Essence well, but not from his technological one. He would only use it in emergencies, and while he was feeling a little faint from his body’s Essence level dipping below half, he could not take the chance of them being observed from afar.

  Plausious sent out a pulse, not just to the local area, but over a third of the planet. A pulse that most Neofan could not have mustered even with augmentation, but the Reignor had changed so much in his time here that they seemed like children in his memory. All that existed now was him and the Hadarak, and he measured himself against them and what he could or could not do. And in most cases it was what he could not do, or do enough of, but he needed to see who was watching him now before he tried to hide.

  The pulse went quickly, and was of a nature to not cause damage…but to reflect off of Cores so he could see where they were, what size lifeform they were in, and in the case of a Trugo, Yar’tri, or Ben’zo, it would reflect very brightly due to their Essence abilities, but thankfully none had been seen in this system since he arrived.

  His pulse traveled across the entirety of the forest, with there being many lifeforms there that were not Hadarak, yet the number of the invaders was alarming. He hadn’t left this forest in a long time, due to the fact there was nowhere else to go that was preferable, but if their numbers continued to increase he was going to have little choice but to leave. He hadn’t been able to go on the offense since the Ren’mak had joined him, for while it could fly faster than he could run, it was so vulnerable that keeping it alive was the most problematic annoyance he had to deal with currently.

  But he’d rather die than abandon it, and even if he told it to, it would not leave him now. All the Hadarak would kill it on sight, and it seemed a little protection was enough to bond it to him permanently.

  And while keeping it alive was annoying, that annoyance was a new thing. And after having spent such a long time doing the same survival drill over and over again, anything new was good.

  Plus, having someone who was truly loyal to him was refreshing after the circumstances that had led him to be marooned on this planet. The simple being did not understand the concept of betrayal…which is one reason why it was so totally blindsided when the others tried to kill it…and Plausious knew he would never need fear it turning against him.

  And in addition to that, he’d come to like its company.

  Plausious watched the reflections and mentally tallied them up, seeing once again some coming from far below ground, but this time his pulse went deeper and wider, and he found a great many more.

  They weren’t Hadarak, but something native to the planet. He’d come close to one before…

  Suddenly there was a reflection from far overhead, all the way up in orbit. Two, actually, for one was a naval warship. One massive lifeform that showed up easily due to its size.

  The other was an intensely brighter spot within it.

  Plausious rotate on his wings so his body was above them and he could look upwards with his eyes, magnifying his vision as he tried to spot the orbiting ship. It wasn’t low enough to see easily, meaning it wasn’t a risk of firing on him, but if he could see it, then it could see him and track him wherever he flew.

  That was the immediate concern. The bright spot within was the greater revelation. He knew someone had been tracking his Essence use, but now he had his first inkling of who. There was something on that ship, or within, that was Essence capable, and he didn’t know of any Hadarak form so small, making this a welcome mystery…and a potentially very dangerous one.

  Right now though, he had to hide, and could not with that ship watching him from above, he so dipped into his technological well and pulled forth a huge surge of Essence, then used his own to mold it into a weapons grade discharge…which took a considerable amount of time…then he release it up out of the canyon in beam form, striking the ship with an invisible attack.

  It hit the hardened hull, soaking in and turning it to ash as the corruption worked its way around the exterior, eating it alive but not going very deep. The outer layers burned and flaked off black chunks, then when it had wrapped around the entire ship and began to chew further inward it suddenly stopped.

  That was supposed to happen, for Plausious didn’t want to use enough Essence to destroy it. His reserve was too precious to try something like that, but with its exterior wrecked its senses would be useless to track a surface target so far away. It was doubtful it could see another ship orbiting nearby, meaning it was going to be blind for some time until it healed the damage.

  But it should have gone on longer than it did, and the flash of Essence from the living ship indicated why it had not. The bright spot had used a cancellation technique to cleanse what was left off of it, though not soon enough. Plausious would have done so instantaneously, so either this attachment wasn’t linked into the warship’s senses, or it did not expect such an attack and was blindsided by it.

  It was too small to be a Yar’tri, which Star Force referred to as Lurkers. When they were spawned they were far larger. This little spot was probably no larger than a Neofan, though he couldn’t tell if it was outside the ship or within. But he knew in his bones this was what had been following his Essence use and directing the Hadarak on the planet to his location every time he used it.

  Fortunately his wings were now strong enough to fly him without an Essence boost, and as the flash from the warship diminished all Essence use in the system ended. He would not give his position away again, and immediately reversed course, flying up river with the Ren’mak making a quick u-turn to follow just behind his feet.

  “Only a little further,” he told it, using words in addition to telepathy as he continuously worked to teach it to talk. A few more genetic upgrades and it would be there, but each took time to normalize despite its eagerness to learn and grow. “I know you’re hungry, and so am I. I have food stored there, and we can hide for a while, but we have to go underground.”

  The Ren’mak squawked, which indicated it did not like that idea, but it would follow Plausious anywhere.

  “It’s necessary. We both need rest. You did well, and lasted longer than before, but you can’t keep flying much longer, and neither can I. We can’t let them wear us down to a level where we can’t run. If we have to stand and fight, I can’t protect you enough. And if I let them trap me in one place, it will not be easy for me to survive. We have to keep moving, and the only place that we can recharge without the hunters finding us is below ground. There are more coming. I felt them. But they cannot see us yet, so we must hide before they get here.”

  A warble responded, accepting the plan, and both continued to fly up river until he came to one of the smaller waterfalls. Plausious created a grapple field bubble around the Ren’mak and took it through the water with him. Had he not done so the weight of the falls would have dragged it below water, but it only lightly affected the larger Neofan as he finally rested his anti-grav tissue and got a tenuous foothold on a tiny rock ledge in front of a jagged crack in the wall behind the water.

  He had to squeeze sideways to get through, but behind it was widened somewhat, and after taking out a few key pieces of rock on a previous visit, he could
walk over the uneven ground with careful steps as the little bit of light getting through the waterfall quickly dimmed into darkness.

  Plausious was about to use a technique to produce light, but the Ren’mak beat him to it as four spots on his beak began to glow green, and bright green, illuminating its path ahead as it flapped in hover mode right behind him.

  He tapped on his shoulder and it landed there, grasping it lightly so the flyer could start to conserve energy. “How long can you keep that light?”

  Three cackles and a warble responded, and along with the mental translation Plausious took that to mean days if necessary, and it made sense. If Ren’mak didn’t have a way to see using energy fields as he did, they would be useless at night, though he’d never used it near the Neofan before. Going below ground in the absolute darkness must have scared it into use.

  “This crevice leads to several others. I put the food far from the entrance, and some of it has probably gone bad by now. But something should still be there. Ride and rest, my friend. They cannot see us here. And the hunters cannot track us through the air. They will search the area, and if they find this place there are two other exits for us to escape through. We will not be trapped. Rest. We are safe for now.”

  He felt its fleshy talons squeeze his shoulder as it moved around into a slightly better position, then using the light it produced he continued to walk carefully through narrow passage and under overhangs, dancing on jagged ground as he continued to move deeper and deeper into the cliffside without descending much in elevation.

  Eventually they came to a small enlarged area that he had carved out previously, and his tired feet found the first flat ground inside the cave. Calloused as they were, his bare feet still had limits, and he’d used up a lot of it during the pursuit when he didn’t have the luxury of watching his steps very closely.

  “Here we are. Let’s see what’s still edible,” he said, tossing aside some now rotten fruit on the top of a pile, but the ones below were not as bad. He broke one in half without even touching it, then grasped the outer shell and flipped it up so the Ren’mak could eat out of his hand, dipping it’s beak down inside and carving out the nutrient dense interior in long furrows as the Neofan chewed on the other half.

  “Sour,” he proclaimed, but both of them kept eating as he sat down and leaned against the nearby wall, letting his fatigue finally begin to show. He would need to sleep soon, which wouldn’t be a problem unless that Essence user sent out a pulse like he did. If it had his range, it could find him here the same way…but if that occurred he would see it, and never in his time here had he sensed Essence use from anything or anyone on the planet other than himself.

  So whoever that was up there was not making their presence known. But Plausious knew now there was someone else in play…but what was it?

  Regardless, he was finally peeling back another layer of the mystery, and that was ample success in addition to keeping the pair of them alive for some time more. Both he and the Ren’mak had biology that would not degrade over time unless put under heavy attrition, and Plausious was making sure he got well fed to avoid that.

  At this point he would rather die with the Ren’mak than be parted from it, for he did not want to go back to the way things were before he found it. They were both followers of the code, amidst a planet full of anti-coders. And it being here, with him able to see and feel it’s thoughts, was a luxury beyond explanation.

  He wanted to keep the Ren’mak alive because it did not deserve to die…but he also wanted to keep it alive for his sake.

  For he truly liked having a companion to run with.

  4

  They stayed below ground for a long time, with the Hadarak never coming in after them, but food would not last forever, and Plausious had to gather more from some source. He knew the Ren’mak wouldn’t let him go alone, but this time he didn’t think the odds were in their combined favor, so he used his telepathy to coax it into a very deep sleep, then sealed it into a section of the cave so if it awakened early it wouldn’t be able to panic and get itself lost inside…or come out to the surface where it was vulnerable.

  Plausious did not like doing this, but if he was right about there being more Hadarak in the area then he couldn’t risk his little friend. Both options were bad ones, for letting it out of his sight was problematic, and as soon as he sealed it in he raced through the caverns to get back to the closest surface exit, knowing he was on the clock.

  The Reignor had not used his Essence since entering the caves, not even to charge his personal well, for that small transfer could potentially be used to locate him. But as he neared the surface he did use his various abilities without augmentation to scout through the rock and see what was around him before he emerged.

  He was fortunate that he did, for there were several Dupla in the area and potentially within vision range. The Neofan hung inside for a while, monitoring their movements, then when he was convinced he could move unseen he pulled himself up through a crack towards the visible light above, with his eyes having to adjust to the brightness again as his head popped up underneath some grasses tall enough to loop over and give him some cover.

  This wasn’t the waterfall entrance, but another route in, and once he pulled himself up and scurried across the smaller clearing to the nearest trees, he was off running hard as he monitored the position of the Hadarak minds within his sensing range, avoiding them for the most part as he got some distance from his hidden friend before he tried to tap into one of them to get information.

  As he’d guessed, additional food distribution centers had been relocated to the forest…a lot of them. He’d been raiding far across the desert initially when there were no Hadarak here, but since arriving he’d not had to go as far, and when he did he had to collect enough to make it worth his while.

  There was other stuff in the forest he could eat, but not in ample amount…and not what the Ren’mak needed. Now he had no choice but to steal from the Hadarak to sustain it, and with him being on the clock leaving it behind, even if he came across some of the various fruits or roots the forest graciously furnished, he couldn’t stop to harvest them.

  The Reignor had one target and one target only, and it was one of the distribution centers the Hadarak operated for their units. According to the closer mind he raided, its last meal had been a ways from here, but the location was locked firmly in its mind and Plausious adjusted his course to head towards it.

  As time passed the concentration of Hadarak increased, meaning he had to be much more cautious to avoid being spotted. His own telepathy shields would prevent the Hadarak from picking him up until he got close enough to kill them.

  Not all of the Hadarak could, but some of the perimeter defenses were designed to scan for telepathic signals, or even minds as he could do. He had been spotted many times before he’d learned just how to calibrate his mental shield to protect him against their telepathic range…which they never changed.

  He used it now as the forest began to thin, with gnawing marks on several stumps where trees had been. Enough remained to hide him underneath a more or less intact canopy, but further ahead he could see sunlight coming down from above, meaning his cover was going to diminish rapidly.

  That was ok, for he wasn’t going to be able to steal food quietly. He’d tried that too, along with many other tactics, and he’d found the best approach was the direct one.

  Plausious waited until the first roaming hunter spotted him, then he killed it from afar as he began sprinting directly to the buildings now entering his vision ahead, but the minds inside them were clustered together and rather obvious to any telepath.

  With his body full of Essence, he began drawing on it heavily and taking out enemies that had not even seen him yet, but were already alerted, dropping them from the sky and all across the forest floor, then he went silent again as he felt the telepathic sweepers in the buildings searching for the source of the attack as several tentacle-like weapons pylons rose up from th
eir caves around the perimeter of the 18 living buildings clustered in a clearing that had no trees or plants whatsoever. An ugly blot within the jungle that offered no cover to an invader.

  Plausious didn’t even bother with the tentacles, deflecting the energy blasts they sent his way using Essence shields to cover him as he sprinted past the outer defenses and got in amongst the buildings where only one pylon in the center could reach him from above as he moved around at various angles to cover the center ‘streets’ between buildings that were clamming their doors shut as the Neofan was finally identified by sight and telepathy, with the signals here being so strong it felt like a mental soup.

  He could have killed the buildings, but he might want to come back and steal from this site later. Two of the buildings were small production facilities in the making, not grown long ago and probably only generating minimal production. The others were essentially warehouses and feeding stations, with many bodies lying on the ground in some of them where Plausious’s distance attacks had killed them.

  He watched the bodies just in case they weren’t fully dead as he moved to one of the feeding stations that had its nipple-like soup stations retracting away from him as he passed by, but he wasn’t going there first. That was a mistake he’d made before. Liquid was harder to carry than solid objects, so he went for the bins of fruit stored in a nearby building and brandished an Essence blade over his right arm and cut through one of the walls with it bleeding out gore as he pushed his way through, then turned back to enlarge the opening as basket-like pouches larger than him were hanging from the ceiling, mostly full of the Hadarak ‘fruit’ that would be grown in other structures.