Star Force: Paladin (SF94) (Star Force Origin Series) Read online

  He underwent many tests and trials, confirming that he’d been grown correctly and that he was worthy to be put into immediate duty. 119 didn’t know the details of his current situation until he was released from the process known as ‘verification,’ but shortly thereafter he was given an automated briefing via hologram where he was informed of the planet Plataro and the threat to the local population of Vittis by the reavers. Clan Star Fox was annexing this world in an attempt to save the Vittis but had very few resources to devote to the effort.

  119 had been grown as part of a Paladin mission and his skills were needed immediately, as was appropriate given that he’d been genetically designed for such tasks. He knew he wasn’t on par with most in Star Force, but whereas they took years to develop in a maturia he could be operational within a few days. This was what he existed for, and the Archons that had summoned his existence were truly in need of Paladin support on this world. There were only three of them and a single Warship-class jumpship in addition to the Paladin cruiser that had grounded on the planet and begun the seeding process, turning it into a fort to protect the structures being built that would spur the upcoming population snowball for the Paladin.

  But 119 was the 119th grown for this mission and done so before a proper hatchery could be built, hence he’d originated from the cruiser itself and the few growth pods it contained. His equipment likewise came from the stores on the ship and he was informed that he would be needed for guard duty while the workers continued setting up shop.

  When cleared through verification his handlers disappeared and he was given full run of the ship and surrounding areas without oversight. He reported to the armory and claimed a suit of skirmisher armor from the racks of those premade before landing. All were exactly the same size so it didn’t matter which he chose, for all of the skirmishers were identical as well. When he slid the boots onto his clawed feet they fit perfectly, as did the other pieces he assembled into the formidable protection that would make him almost invulnerable to the reavers’ claws and teeth.

  The foe they were facing was primitive, but strong and feral. Against Star Force technology they had zero chance, but there was a planet full of Vittis that were not well equipped to fight them. They were small biped/quadruped hybrids that had some combat technology, but no armor or shields for their personnel. When fighting against the reavers they had a range advantage with their weapons, but that was it. If the reavers closed to melee range they were as good as dead.

  Reports indicated that there were none in this region of the planet yet and that the Paladin had been designated this landing zone for specifically that reason. The Archon in charge, a titan no less, wanted maximum snowball effect and that meant not landing in a war zone and fighting their way to dominance. 119 regretted that, but he was loyal to the mission and looking forward to doing even the smallest of duties for his Clan…given the fact that he had technically never done anything before, despite the fact he had the memories of how to carry out many tasks.

  With his armor on he kept the helmet retracted behind his scaly head and grabbed his weaponry…all of it lethal. There would be no capture of the reavers, only slaughter. That was atypical of Star Force protocol, but after getting the full briefing on what the reavers actually were he understood the reasoning. This race was not a thinking race and the hive mind element would actively interfere with efforts to turn an individual away from the others. Star Force had done such things before, even with his own ancestors in the Li’vorkrachnika, but there was only so much you could do with the unintelligent, and since the reavers were actively killing and eating every Vitti in sight they didn’t have the luxury of taking a few captive and trying to teach them to play nice.

  Even now more Vittis were dying on the front lines, but 119 had been assigned patrol duty and that was where he would go, eventually leaving the ship with two plasma weapons and a collapsible sammy sniper rifle tucked into the back of his armor. When he left the ship for the first time he got a taste of the warm atmosphere and the scent of the Vittis that surrounded the area.

  There were many buildings in view, but they were small and a good ways back from the cruiser and the surrounding construction sites. 119 made his way around those and out beyond them to the area where the Vittis were, many of whom were watching the Paladin. He tried to disappear into what trees there were, but numerous eyes followed him as he began walking a path on his battlemap that ringed the ship and expansions. It was a thick line that he was to stay within and monitor, with him being given a slice of it to prowl within and stay on guard. If the reavers did slip through somehow, he had to warn the others and be the first to fire upon them.

  Taking that into consideration, he didn’t actually think he’d see any reavers on his first day. This was a Vitti stronghold, or at least as much of that word that could apply to the pathetic creatures, and many had sought refuge here. They were overcrowded and had limited foodstuffs, which the Paladin were also going to address. The patrol zone would be gradually expanded and the Vittis pushed back when needed, with 119 being one of the buffers between the two.

  As he patrolled his area he spotted others like him nearby, some overlapping his zone while a few more were actively roaming through the construction sites. Nothing was being taken for granted here and he knew how important getting the first structures up and running was. Right now some of those were going underground and a huge mound of rock and dirt was being formed on the surface as tunnels were being established that would link directly to the cruiser, and he could see another skirmisher on top of that pile from time to time using it as a lookout post.

  The workers they were guarding were almost identical to 119, save for they were built less for speed than they were for strength. Both variants had been developed from the Li’vorkrachnika ‘standard’ variants, but 119 had been specialized for light combat and scouting tasks. He was small, quick, agile, and smart while the workers were small, strong, and diligent, able to repeat mundane tasks over and over again while also being savvy enough to handle delicate machinery and troubleshoot technical problems.

  They looked the same, but their claws were shaped differently and their tattoos emblazoned on their heads indicated their class within the Paladin. 119 had a dot with a circle around it, symbolizing both a target and a zone in which to patrol, while the workers had a series of squares clustered together representing cargo that varied a bit based on their specialties. Those that had attended to him when he woke were of similar form but had a circle with two bars crossing over each other inside, representing the overlap of their class with the others, for they were medics, and that trio made up their third of the Paladin Triad.

  Combat, general work, and medical duties are what they were designed for and had the genetic memories to match, but 119 knew that if he survived this mission he’d be able to choose another path for himself if he wished, though he couldn’t imagine why he would want that. He had a role here and tasks that needed to be done, and he couldn’t ever imagine leaving the Paladin. He was Paladin, and to abandon them at any point would be the equivalent of treason.

  Such things were permissible though and the Archons made sure to give them the option, but no real Paladin would ever make that choice. 119 and the others thought it was just a way to weed out any defective ones, and so much the better, but it was a path that he would never consider taking.

  Day after day he would patrol the corridor around the construction zone and keep the Vittis back. He never shot at them, but usually his mere presence served as a deterrent. The few times he actually had to confront one, with his armor handling the translation, the Vittis didn’t give him any trouble. They were curious and that was fine, so long as they kept their distance. The Paladin were here to save them, after all, but they could only do that if they were allowed to build at maximum efficiency, and that meant uninterrupted work.

  So even though the reavers weren’t here yet, 119 still had important work to do to make sure the workers were not int
erfered with in the slightest. And as the days passed and more and more Paladin were grown and added to the ranks, exterior missions began to occur with an Arbiter claiming him for one.

  119 was eager to take on higher tasks, so when he reported to a small hangar that had been built outside the ship he and 9 other skirmishers joined a veteran of their class who had come to this planet via the cruiser and not been grown here. That established him as an ‘Arbiter’ and senior in command, for he had experience that they did not, but if they survived here and were reassigned elsewhere then they would become Arbiters one day, with that brand being one of great respect. If a Paladin failed they would most likely end up dead, so anyone living to become an Arbiter meant they had been victorious in some fashion, even if it was surviving a defeat and living to fight another day.

  119 would die if necessary to achieve his assigned mission, but his genetic memories hammered into him the priority not to die uselessly. His value came from his life, not his death, and all things being equal it was better to run from a hopeless fight in order to regroup and defeat the enemy later than it was to stubbornly hold your ground and die accomplishing little. Survival was imperative, especially in a mission like this where the Paladin would be heavily outnumbered. He had to stay alive in order to kill more reavers, and both he and every other newly grown skirmisher understood that.

  In the hangar there were three Droplet-class transports, the Paladin version of Star Force dropships but constructed in their own unique way. Two looked to be operational while the third was finishing construction with a group of workers busily clawing their way across it as they clung to walls and walked across the hull with bare feet and hands that had been modified to grip even flat surfaces. It was a variation that 119 did not possess and was unique to the workers, though inside his armor it would have been of no use anyway.

  He and the other 10 skirmishers boarded the droplet where a pilot was waiting. He was of the 2nd branch in the Triad and represented a class that was not grown initially. Skirmishers, workers, and medics were the standard allotment when any new colony was constructed and all could operate basic machinery, including flying cargo craft that the workers had some extra memories to help them with, but the pilot variants were specialists in flying all types of craft and were the ones that would be entrusted with combat missions whether it be taking droplets in convoy through hazardous areas, flying the Paladin’s Shuriken-class aerial fighters, or piloting naval warships.

  The pilots were much smaller in body than the 1st Triad form, being physically weak but with superior dexterity and information processing capability, bearing a simple tri-pronged genetic tattoo representing a fast ship. They were modified from the Li’vorkrachnika’s librarian variant along with the rest of the 2nd Triad, and this one’s presence here meant this Paladin mission was progressing far faster than normal for them to have grown one already.

  With the single pilot in the cockpit and 119 and the other skirmishers seated on wall benches in the back, the droplet’s hatch sealed and the took off, flying across miles of Vitti territory with hundreds of thousands of the little furballs packed into the landscape beneath them.

  “Our mission,” the Arbiter said once they’d gotten underway, “is to support a Vitti withdrawal. We search and destroy reavers attempting to isolate and kill them. We do not fully engage the reavers. Be warned, their strength comes in their mass. They can jump onto you and use their momentum to drain your shields. If you have your shields locked to form to preserve power they will knock you over and pile on top, and eventually their claws will get through your armor. These reavers are designed to be weapons. I don’t know they developed like that naturally, but think of them in that way. The claws are not natural. They are armor piercing and will grind yours down if you give them time and opportunity.”

  “Have you already engaged them?” another skirmisher asked.

  “I have twice now. We can dominate them if we are smart. If we get sloppy or overconfident they will kill us, which is why we cannot go deep into their lines on this mission. We have no support. We are the Vittis’ support. We only engage to give them cover. The number of reavers killed is a bonus, not the mission objective.”

  After that brief explanation there were no further talking, as was typical for Paladin. 119 knew that even though he’d only been around a handful of them. They were loyal to the mission and anything other than that didn’t draw their interest. Some would swap stories, he knew, but all those here aside from the Arbiter didn’t have enough experience to share, thus they waited silently as the droplet carried them a long distance across the planet to their target.

  119’s anticipation grew as they decelerated and came into a hover near the ground. When the hatch opened and the sounds of weaponsfire and explosions made it to his ears he clenched in fingers.

  This was it. This was real combat, what he was designed and grown for. And whether he lived through the day or died here two minutes from now, this is where he belonged…on the front lines fighting to protect those who could not protect themselves and destroying those that deserved it.

  He leapt off the droplet and fell half a meter to the ground, catching himself in a partial crouch and staying on his feet as he and the others followed the Arbiter forward at a run headed through the screaming Vittis that were being loaded onto evacuation transports and towards their military branch that was buying them the time to do it with their lives.

  119 and the other Paladin would buy them a little bit more, but he had no intention of dying here this day. Armed with Star Force armor, weapons, and genetic memory, he was more than a match for the reavers that he was about to come face to face with for the very first time.

  4

  May 1, 3494

  Tekin System (Rim Region)

  Plataro

  ARV-1388 rushed out of the barracks in which he’d been sleeping for the past 6 hours. It was night and he was on his off shift, but an emergency alarm had ended that. Neither he nor the other Paladin wore clothing unless needed, much like the Vittis on this planet, but when he got to the prep room he pulled on a thin, flexible suit of armor and grabbed his helmet, carrying it with him as he ran through the recently constructed pilot’s complex to the open air hanger in the center of it.

  There he found several shurikens that were not in use and claimed one for himself, crawling up the imbedded ladder in the side of the stubby body of the aerial craft and into the topside cockpit. He dropped down inside and pressed a few buttons, powering it up and sealing the hatch over his head, leaving him with no visibility whatsoever.

  That changed a moment later when the navigational holograms sprung to life and the cockpit walls disappeared. He knew this was a Type-2 Paladin shuriken, second class to the standard Type-1s built on worlds where resources were abundant. They had a full neural integration system that let you fly the craft with your mind, but the Type-2s were like the rest of the equipment being made here in recent months. All of it was designed to function adequately, but to be made out of only a handful of easy to obtain materials. No solari, no intricate alloys, not even any corovon. The anti-grav engines were inferior, but they functioned well enough compared to lesser empires’ tech and could be built on planets where there was no corovon to harvest.

  Everything Type-2 was a secondary design patterned off the regular Type-1s, but done so in a way as to be produced quickly and rapidly in the field. They were inferior in comparison but not in function, and 1388 had already flown four missions in one after his recent growth, so he knew from experience as well as his genetic memory that the fighters were sound.

  He gripped the standard control in front of him and flipped a switch on the bottom of the right joystick that made them and his hands disappear, allowing him to see through them and the floor, making it look like he was in an invisible ship save for the wireframe borders that told him where the four stubby wings were. Two in front, two in back, and angled away from the hull so they gave it a crooked star shape when seen
from above or below…but from the sides it was very narrow, almost blade-like, making it hard for an opponent to target you if you were focused on him. Even the shields were stronger along the edge, making the safest place to be in a fight was on the attack with your edge towards your enemies.

  1388 lifted off with his battlemap telemetry coming through his helmet’s HUD. There was a setting that allowed him to pull it from the shuriken itself, but he preferred the ‘invisible’ flight mode because it let him see everything beside and in front of him…and even over his shoulder if he bothered to turn around, but from the outside the craft was just solid armor plating with the cockpit hatch blending in seamlessly with the hull.

  He saw a few other shurikens launching as well, but his orders coming through told him to get moving immediately and not wait on anyone. To that end he spun his forward blades around onto the guide line on his HUD and accelerated as hard as the gravity drives could, slicing through the wind and dodging a passing Vitti transport as he headed for the site of an unexpected reaver incursion. He read through the reports as he flew, seeing that they’d come up through an unknown subterranean tunnel and were pouring out behind defense lines...well behind defensive lines, in the range of some 241 miles.

  Updated telemetry was incoming as a naval drone was diving into the atmosphere like a glowing rock and adding its powerful sensors to the task of identifying where that tunnel had come from. It was going to be on site before 1388 was, but it looked like even it wasn’t going to be enough to stem the tide of what was coming up and out of that tunnel that amazingly seemed to disappear beneath the depth range of the sensors.

  How could the primitive reavers dig that deep? He might have just been born recently, but how did they get so far behind the defense lines without the Archons knowing it was coming? And how could the ship not see far enough underground to trace the tunnel back to its source?