Star Force: Leonidas (SF96) (Star Force Origin Series) Read online

  15 years and over 800 cities to capture and hold…and right now they couldn’t even get inside one of them.

  3

  August 13, 3573

  Zordon System (Ninja Monkey territory)

  Alpha

  “Five here,” Peter-493 said, pointing to the holographic map around which Morgan and her Clan leaders were assembled for yet another troubleshooting session, “and two more on the edge of this nebula.”

  “No,” Jenna-732 said with a wave of her hand as if erasing his invisible markings. “We need a scattering along the base. Stop thinking 2 dimensionally.”

  “I’m not. I’m thinking of what’s on the most direct line of attack.”

  “We don’t know where they will come through,” Gary-933 pointed out, for the Skarrons’ Crusade had barely begun hammering back the lizards, though the records coming back from the scouts made for interesting entertainment as their overpowering spamming ability was getting schooled in what ‘spamming’ truly meant.

  “Which is why we need to focus on a spherical defense perimeter,” Jenna reiterated.

  “We’re the shield and we need to make it as strong as possible,” Peter said firmly. “They won’t take any roundabouts when they think they can just bowl us over. They’ll hit along here,” he said, drawing a line around a small region in the floating map.

  “We can’t gamble on where we think they’ll hit us,” Morgan said, her arms across her chest as she stood beside her four most trusted Ninja Monkeys…the four that ran the Clan for the most part. Peter oversaw their infrastructure development and logistics, essentially doing part of the duties their current Marquis Devon handled and giving the Ninja Monkeys some stability in that department as various Marquises came and went. Davis still used the Clans as practice for his Monarchs, but Morgan had grown to hate the turnover and had put Peter in charge of keeping the Marquis on track and in line so not to make any rookie mistakes that could hurt the Clan when it was needed the most.

  Jenna was their ‘Admiral,’ not as good as Paul, Roger, or Liam, but she had higher naval marks than Morgan did while the rest of her skills didn’t match up with the trailblazer. Morgan liked/hated having someone better than her in the Clan, but Jenna’s skills were too valuable to ignore and she’d become a leading pillar of stability that didn’t clash with their trailblazer founder at all. The two were solid on the naval front and where Morgan couldn’t figure something out Jenna usually would…and vice versa.

  Andre-155 was the head of their mech division, to which the Ninja Monkeys had put a heavy priority…not just for use against Skarron walkers, but because she knew that the only way to effectively fight V’kit’no’sat on the ground was with mechs. Sending infantry against Era’tran or Brat’mar was effectively suicide, for the V’kit’no’sat in their armor literally were walking, agile, and very smart tanks…and the best way to counter tanks was with mechs, with some special prototypes that the Ninja Monkeys had been field testing for the past century designed specifically for that task, though they still needed a lot of refinement against actual targets.

  Last of the four was Gary, who headed up their aerial division. He did not have a higher rating than Morgan in that division, but he was semi-specialized in it and that was something she could not afford to do. She was head of the Clan and had to oversee everything, and having Gary and others working to develop new strategies and equipment to battle the Skarrons from the air absent naval firepower was a burden that she’d gladly taken off her shoulders.

  Like it or not, Clan Ninja Monkey had grown into a small empire of its own at this point and there was literally too much going on for her to micromanage…thus she’d learned to delegate responsibility to those she could trust, and these four were it.

  “Our skirmisher outposts have to be located where it’s convenient for us,” she continued. “Then we’ll adapt to them.”

  “We don’t know what numbers we need to prepare for,” Peter complained, “and that makes it difficult to plan.”

  “I know, but you’re thinking more along the lines of playing these dumb bastards for fools and baiting them in. We can’t take the chance that they’ll get smart to it or accidentally pick another invasion corridor. We have to be solid on all fronts.”

  “Then I suggest locations that will cause frustration and higher levels of attrition. If they choose to bypass them because of that it’ll give us bases behind their lines.”

  “If they pass by…” Gary added with incredulity. “Based off what we’ve seen so far, they’re obliterating everything in sight like a starving Archon in a donut shop.”

  “And we don’t know how much attrition they’ll suffer going through the lizards,” Andre added, “so guessing is pointless. We need to be prepared to get hit hard, no matter what we’re expecting.”

  “We still need a front line,” Peter argued. “If not here, then where?”

  Before anyone could answer, the door to their private planning center opened and another Archon entered.

  “Ever learn to knock?” Jenna asked, mildly perturbed.

  “New data,” Ira-151882 said, holding up a datachip.

  “Why didn’t you just send it?”

  “Because this will take some narrating,” she said, looking at Morgan. “With your permission?”

  “If it’s not good, Jenna gets to beat you up,” she said deadpan.

  “It comes from the Voku,” Ira said, sliding the chip into a slot on the holoprojector and overriding their map. “The Skarrons aren’t just fighting the lizards.”

  “Who else are they hitting this early?” Peter asked.

  “Someone that neither us nor the Voku knew about,” she said, bringing up a much larger map and highlighting a small area near the growing Crusade front. “They’ve got at least 3 systems to their name, but speculation goes much higher. Two are currently under attack and they’re doing a better job of holding off the Skarrons than the lizards are.”

  “Higher tech?” Jenna asked.

  “Much. Similar to some of the new races in the Rim Region. They’re getting hit hard, but they’re also preemptively hitting the Skarrons in addition to defending their own turf. The Voku estimate they’re not going to be able to hold those two systems, but a curious thing about it is this…”

  Ira brought up visuals from the system not currently under attack, which showed both this new race’s ships mingling around a star with the lizards’ and not exchanging weaponsfire.

  “They’ve found another dupe of an ally,” Morgan commented.

  “Possibly, and even if they’re just non-interfering neighbors they’re going to help slow down the Skarron advance. How much, there’s no way of telling with more reinforcements continuing to pour in. Without a final number to guess at there’s no way of speculating, but it’s safe to say that unless these guys have a lot more worlds in reserve they’re going to get run over soon.”

  “What were they hitting back at?” Jenna asked.

  “Fleets enroute.”

  “With any success?”

  “A lot, according to the Voku. More so than when they get massed over a target.”

  “Allies or not,” Peter added, “they’re already fighting someone other than the lizards. The only real question at this point is do they go for the heart of lizard territory before or after they come at us.”

  “How are the Skarrons countering their tech advantage?” Morgan asked.

  “Grinding, for the most part. We haven’t had a lot of time to chew on this.”

  “Not exactly time sensitive information,” Jenna commented.

  “What else?” Morgan asked, suspecting there was more.

  Ira smirked. “Something that might be time sensitive. The Voku were able to pull some recon of the worlds this race owns. The images were taken from range, but I think they speak for themselves.”

  Ira adjusted the information packet and brought vids of people moving about on the surface in an unfamiliar city. They were little more than spe
cs at the range the recordings were made, but the features were glowing for all to see.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jenna said, not wanting to trust her eyes.

  “That’s not much to work off of,” Gary admitted, “but I think it’s obvious enough. These guys are Orange Protovic.”

  “Damn,” Morgan swore with a glint of anger crossing her eyes. “That complicates things.”

  “They haven’t transformed,” Andre pointed out, “and they’re about to get obliterated anyway.”

  “Are there more than just Oranges?”

  “Not in the few images we’ve received. Do you want a scouting mission sent?” Ira asked, throwing an ‘it’s urgent’ look Jenna’s way.

  “We have to.”

  “And what else?” Peter asked.

  “It’s too far for us to organize an evacuation, but if they end up getting overwhelmed you know the lizards aren’t going to give them safe harbor.”

  “Unless they wanted their technology.”

  “Point,” Morgan conceded, “but we need to figure out what’s going on there, preferably before they’re destroyed. If you’re right about them having a larger empire, we need to know how large and how many.”

  “To what end? We can’t account for all the Protovic in the galaxy anyway,” Jenna asked.

  “This is by far the most advanced group we’ve discovered, and from combat we can’t tell what level their genetics research is at.”

  “Oh shit,” Andre said, catching on. “They might activate it themselves without knowing.”

  “We have to get there, find out what’s going on, and quietly inoculate any that are going to survive.”

  “And bring some back?” Jenna asked.

  “No point in leaving them all to die,” the trailblazer quipped.

  “I agree,” Gary said regretfully, “but we don’t have the resources to pursue this. Someone else will have to do it.”

  “You’re right,” Morgan admitted. “We need the intel, but someone else has to track this down. Let’s review everything the Voku gave us, then I’ll find a volunteer…”

  Aaron-010 returned to his quarters after another long day that was a mix of his personal training and him running his ‘X-men school’ finding himself mildly fatigued as was normal, for that was the only real way to push one’s psionic abilities to adapt into greater power reserves. Ikrid especially, for which his own personal training group was built to focus on and hosted by his Clan Nova Wolf on their capitol of Kell. He had the highest Ikrid ranking of all Archons, and as such he was needed to personally duel with others in order to challenge them where mechanized drills would prove insufficient.

  That also gave him a lot of extra low level practice, but it left him drained each day…which he was using to train his psionic tissues to accommodate more endurance. He was one of only three trailblazers having assigned themselves to permanent training duty, but he still kept up to date on what the others were doing and how events were going in the Rim Region. When he got finished with his quotas for the day and was ready for bed, he sat down at his terminal intending to spend an hour or so surfing data entries as his brain detoxed from the mild overload.

  But when he saw Morgan’s post to the trailblazer private board his fatigue was forgotten. There were more Protovic found, and these weren’t primitives like most of the others had been. They were technologically advanced with at least a small empire of their own that might be allied with the lizards?

  The more Aaron read the more he realized that he needed to get to the bottom of this. Most of the others were busy with combat assignments or tasks that pulling them off of wouldn’t be preferred, and while his work here was important it wasn’t urgent and this was. Wait too long and these Protovic might not be around to question if the Skarrons kept hammering them like they were now.

  The whole Skarron Crusade that was still in its infancy was a major concern of his and he’d been following developments there closely, but this was the first time he’d heard of someone other than the lizards getting hit. Was this juggernaut really that clumsy, or were they hitting the Protovic for a specific reason?

  Morgan laid out the basics, pointing out the futility of an evacuation and the possibility that these guys might end up tampering with their own genetics and unleash the beast within. What she didn’t say was that these Protovic might know of others out there, and through them they might be able to identify and inoculate a great deal more. It was a long way there, and perhaps further still if there were any leads found, but if the Chixzon returned they’d be far more trouble than this temporary inconvenience.

  Aaron could find a second gen to go, but they wouldn’t be able to report back in time to make decisions regarding this new Protovic empire. If part of it was to be saved it was going to have to be a judgement call on the spot, and while some second gen were capable of that he just got the creepy feeling that this situation required a trailblazer, hence he replied back to Morgan and posted on the board that he was going to deal with it personally.

  He spent the next four hours thinking before finally forcing himself to get some sleep, then in the morning he informed his ‘school’ that they were going on a field trip. Anyone that couldn’t afford a long journey needed to stay behind, but there was no reason why he and the others couldn’t spend their time enroute training with one another. Aaron could train well enough on his own, but as far as Ikrid went you needed other minds to work against/with and these fellow Archons needed his overbearing skill to push their limits against, so most of them agreed to come with him without hesitation.

  It took a few weeks to get the necessary fleet assembled…two Warship-class jumpships from Mainline and a Nova Wolf cargo ship that was going to house the training group and the supplies needed for a long mission like this. They weren’t going to stop off at any scouting resupply bases due to the time involved. Instead they were going to run straight through lizard territory in order to get to the Crusade front and these Protovic while they were still alive, hopefully, and Aaron knew the lizards couldn’t interfere unless he decided to stop and engage them.

  Run fast, run hard, and unless you hit a mine field the lizards couldn’t catch you…and that’s exactly what his trio of ships did once leaving the ADZ and passing through Ninja Monkey territory, picking up a handful of personnel there for Morgan’s purposes, then diving into the vast gulf of lizard systems that stretched all the way across to the now distant Skarron border that extended coreward farther than Star Force or Voku intelligence had mapped.

  Letting his ship Captains handle the navigation, Aaron and the other Archons adjusted their training to their new facilities and got back into the daily grind that they’d hold until they arrived and saw what the Skarron Crusade was about firsthand. Until then there wasn’t anything else to do with no reports coming in now that they were beyond the comm relays. It was just boring travel anticipating a destination.

  And rather than keep pestering the Captains with an infinite number of ‘are we there yet’s Aaron had learned long ago to put the solitude of starship travel to good use, for here there were no distractions and more often than not that was when you got your best training sessions in.

  4

  December 1, 3573

  Twan System (Expanded Region)

  Heffen

  It had been a long extended decade. Battle after battle at an unrelenting pace to kill Mendz Tabers faster than they could build new ones. One city after another taken and plucked of defenders and factories to reinforce them alike, but otherwise left intact. Counterassaults to retake them that never worked while occupied, but that happened often when the Clan Scorpion troops moved on, unable to leave garrison units or overseers behind.

  The idea of ‘holding’ cities until the window passed and they became safe was a misnomer. The only way to hold a city on Heffen was to destroy any and all enemy units in the region with any defensive assignments being a waste of resources. There were so many enemy mechs on this wo
rld it was insane, but fortunately they weren’t well built and their pilots were crap for the most part.

  But they were still deadly in groups and attrition was a factor with the mechwarriors having to press past their shield levels and into armor-grinding territory in order to accomplish the assaults fast and deep enough to keep up with their quotas to destroy the mech-producing factories, their armament stores, and fuel depots. In the beginning the entire invasion seemed pointless, with the Mendz rebuilding almost as fast as they were being destroyed, but over time the deleterious progression of each city’s facilities taken and destroyed tipped the scales in the Scorpions’ favor.

  Now it was all but over. Only two cities remained with the last Mendz defenders clustered in both with every weapon left on the planet hoping to hold out two more years. The northern of the two cities was makeshift defenses cobbled together from other retreating units as had been the norm the past year, but the southern city was much more intricate with permanent defensive emplacements that looked to have been built long ago.

  It was going to be a tough nut to crack, and for that reason Nero hadn’t hit it previously. Getting to and destroying the multitude of factories had been the priority, but now that they were coming to the end and the Mendz were making their final defiant stand, it was going to be a hunt and destroy mission only here as the northern city was already succumbing to the forces Nero had sent after it.

  “How long?” Nathan Hampton asked, walking up beside Nero on a hillside several miles away from the fortress city as the Archon was scoping it out with the zoom on his helmet.

  “We’re going to start poking in three hours.”