Star Force: Endless Crusade Read online

  And that was something the other Voku were not going to understand…but they would obey and it was up to Cal-com to see them through this. At least those that would survive. Most would not, no matter what he did, and he began to steel himself to that fact.

  Was this what the Elders felt when they were annihilated? If so, they would know what needed to be done and he had to rely on their judgement and trust in him. They had made him a Dafchor and given him to the Voku to fight this war. He was their weapon in it, and the only hope the Voku had.

  Resigned to his fate, Cal-com dove head first into the task and began prepping the other Voku on the homeworld for what had to be done. He’d shoulder as much of the burden as he could. The rest, he hoped, they’d be able to withstand, for he was asking a lot of them.

  The Voku were about to be tested in a way they never had before, and it was time to see if they were worth the investment the Elders had made in them.

  3

  March 30, 3639

  Itris System (Star Force Expanded Region)

  Stellar Orbit

  Renimar Noru-sar was waiting in a courier ship drifting in null space to avoid the traffic in the system. The war between Star Force and the V’kit’no’sat had not reached the Expanded Region yet, and was unlikely to for some time, for it was sparsely populated and little more than a spiderweb of trade routes sprinkled with Star Force worlds that connected between the ADZ and down to the Voku border. Commerce here was basically unaltered since the war began, with a multitude of non-Star Force vessels coming into the system to trade with their empire.

  Itris was one of the primary routes for Voku ships traveling to and from the Orica Region, and Noru-sar was waiting here to meet the fleet that was returning to fight the Skarrons. He’d been waiting four weeks already and was beginning to wonder if something had happened when the first Voku conglomerates began to decelerate against the larger of two central stars.

  “Finally,” he said to himself as he was summoned to the oracle and observed from there, getting a list of incoming ships soon thereafter and choosing the one he wanted for his flagship. Most were identical in current shape and could be reconfigured as needed or split up into smaller ships, but there was battle damage evident on some coming through that drew his eyes immediately, with a comm to the first senior commander to arrive following shortly thereafter.

  “What has happened? I’m seeing battle damage,” Noru-sar asked.

  “The V’kit’no’sat.”

  “They’re assaulting our worlds?” Noru-sar asked, aghast.

  “Not that I am aware. One of our convoys passed across one of theirs in transit. They fired on us immediately and we had to fight long enough to cover our escape. They did considerable damage and we lost several conglomerates.”

  “They targeted you immediately?”

  “Yes. We did not get close to them, but apparently being in the same star system at the same time was sufficient provocation.”

  “What system?”

  “Dotoper. It’s uninhabited and they emerged on a different jumppoint as our ships were transitioning through. They hit us. We did not engage, though I personally wasn’t there. The fleet didn’t fully form up until Sarvin, and we’re coming through now as one force. It’ll take several days to get us all through even with the tight spacing. We didn’t want to risk a longer line that the V’kit’no’sat might run into again.”

  “Then we’ll get moving immediately. Once I’m onboard my flagship we’ll be departing via Oloson.”

  “Will you be at the head or waiting for the others?”

  “I will follow. You can remain at the lead.”

  “What is our ultimate destination?”

  “Beyond the Firewall. We’re hitting the Skarrons where they don’t expect us.”

  “We’re invading them?”

  “We’re going after their convoys, not their worlds. We have to diminish the numbers attacking our territory.”

  “We’re eager for a fight. Especially against ships that are inferior. Those V’kit’no’sat are damn near impossible to destroy.”

  “Did we do any damage to them?”

  “Scratched two of them. They’re too fast despite their size and chose when to engage and when to flee.”

  “I intend to do the same thing to the Skarrons. Have your damaged ships jettison compromised sections here. Our traders can retrieve it. We won’t be passing through a friendly system before we go into battle.”

  “Very well. Do you wish us to wait in Oloson?”

  “No. We don’t have days to waste. I’m sending you navigation data now. I’ll catch up to the lead before we hit Gvarston. From there we go hunting Skarron convoys wherever we can find them.”

  “What speed?”

  “As fast as we can without losing ships. The Firewall is nearly breached. We don’t have much time left.”

  “Then I’ll depart immediately, with your permission, Renimar.”

  “Granted,” he said, ending the comm as his courier ship came closer to one conglomerate in particular that wasn’t moving in conjunction with the others. It was holding position until he got there, then when he boarded the courier ship left to head back to Voku territory.

  Noru-sar pulled two more conglomerates out of the flow as they passed through the system, melding them with his as the ships transformed and merged into one another, creating a much larger one with particular commanders he wished to travel with. When the last of the ships came through and Noru-sar was satisfied that the V’kit’no’sat were not trailing them, he ordered his flagship to depart several hours after the end of the convoy. He’d make up time during the stellar transitions and coast phases, pushing his conglomerate a little harder than the rest as he skipped up the long line of ships stretching across two or three star systems at a time as they gradually progressed back towards the war his people were fighting for their lives.

  He’d seen a break from the fighting, being out of contact for months as he traveled and waited, and it’d given him a badly needed fresh perspective. The war was wearing on everyone, even those not actively involved in the combat, and bringing in fresh troops was going to be an advantage if they could give the others a break…unfortunately that wasn’t going to happen. The only relief Noru-sar could provide was to diminish the number of enemies they were fighting.

  Whether or not he could make a dent in the Crusade numbers was the question of the moment. This had been his suggestion and the Elders had approved it. With Cal-com’s blessing he was being sent to do what needed to be done with no restricting orders, meaning this was all on him.

  But Noru-sar wouldn’t have had it any other way. Now it was just him and the Skarrons, and he was going to make them pay a very heavy price to destroy his home.

  3 months later…

  With the Renimar’s flagship back in the lead, the Orica Fleet dove into a random system beyond the Firewall, having skirted around the edge of Voku territory as they headed for one of the major Skarron convoy routes, stumbling onto another one with a thick line of Skarron warships and transports creeping around the single star in a huge arc as they transitioned from their entry jumppoint to their exit on the far side of the star.

  They were stretched out, as was Noru-sar’s fleet. The enemy was not blockading this system or in any semblance of fighting formation. They were simply traveling as efficiently as possible, for pooling in a system and waiting for the end of the line to arrive before the first ships left only wasted time. He had no way of knowing how large this Skarron fleet was or how much of it had already passed through the system, but that didn’t matter now. They were both here, and while he only had a few conglomerates emerging at the moment, he wasn’t going to wait for the Skarrons to see them and start grouping up.

  “Battle protocol,” he ordered calmly, with his crew reacting without any hysterics despite their eagerness to get into the fight and the number of ships visible on passive sensors. It would be a few minutes at least before the Skarrons sa
w them, so the Voku had to act quickly. “Engo formations and immediate dispatch. First assembled on us. Set course once in sync. We’re going in first.”

  That pleased the crew, for while Voku Renimars were renowned for their strategic brilliance they usually operated out of positions of safety. For Noru-sar to order his own conglomerate first into battle signaled that he had no doubts as to the outcome…but it also signaled the need for speed, with 8 other conglomerates splitting apart into smaller pieces and forming interceptors. Those interceptors were passed additional gravity drives, leaving the other transforming pieces a bit slower, but carrying more firepower.

  The modular nature of Voku ship technology was something that Noru-sar was well acquainted with, but it was still an impressive sight to see as his fleet literally reformed into what was needed for this operation. Even his flagship dispensed several pieces, reducing its size, as it formed the core of an Engo formation, which was essentially one powerful vessel that could pound anything into rubble operating in concert with faster ships that would move out and wound their opposition.

  The ‘pounder’ would follow shortly and finish them off, meaning Noru-sar did not expect a full fleet battle in the coming hour or so. The Skarrons were the prey here and they would probably run. If not the Voku could change their conglomerates to better suit a slugging match, but the Renimar didn’t want ships escaping. He was here to prevent as many as possible from reaching the Firewall, and the interceptors could chase down and kill many of them before they got out even if they headed for multiple jumppoints around the system.

  He dispatched other Engo formations towards the entry jumppoint and the exit jumppoint while he headed straight towards the closest of the enemy ships, accelerating so fast the sensor signals bouncing off them from the Skarrons wouldn’t reach the enemy until a few seconds before the Voku actually arrived. That required heavy use of already depleted gravity drive capacitors, but every second he could scrape off their response time would diminish the clustering of the enemy ships…which he saw began to happen just before the Voku arrived within weapons range, decelerating heavily as they arced to the left to match the pace of the Skarrons as they were transitioning laterally across the glowing blue orb of the star.

  The long range Skarron weaponry couldn’t respond as soon as the Voku’s could, for they outranged the enemy and loosed everything they had as soon as possible, getting in the first few weapon strikes before the ranges closed down quickly as the Skarron ships had a choice to make…fight or try to run. They chose the former, turning into the attacking Voku and slugging it out with disastrous consequences. The Voku ships were so superior they trashed the Skarrons easily, but the strategy was clear, as it had been throughout this war.

  It didn’t matter how many Skarrons died so long as they did a little bit of damage. The other Skarrons would add a bit more, then more and more as they died until the Voku eventually fell. It was how a Crusade worked even against superior opponents and was a trap that Noru-sar could not fall into. He issued orders for all his ships to individually retreat when their shields fell below 18% strength.

  There would be fights in the future, he knew, where they’d have to slug it out taking armor damage, but today was not that day. He needed clean kills with no losses over the coming hours, and he was not going to risk any attrition beyond energy loss when he had the advantage.

  However, that wasn’t true at this moment. The Skarrons had far more ships already in the system than he did, and rather than run all those near the exiting jumpline turned and headed for the nearest Voku conglomerates they could find.

  Good, he thought silently. We’re already cutting the reinforcement flow to the Firewall. They want battle so bad they’re going to engage us on sight everywhere. If they’re that zealous I can manipulate them to great effect…I just can’t get caught out.

  The Renimar adjusted his orders, pulling back his other Engo formations and using them as bait to get the Skarrons to chase them away from the exiting jumppoint and to distract those coming into the system from grouping up with the others into a massive fleet ball that the Skarrons effectively used. He needed to keep them stretched out as his own ships arrived, but to do that he needed more navigational options that his drained capacitors currently allowed him.

  So he began ordering the ships fresh out of their incoming jumps to swing wide and lazily glide into various positions, then use what recharged energy they had to execute maneuvers the Skarrons couldn’t match and hit them on the run all along their convoy string while Noru-sar headed up the concentration of conglomerates that were facing the swell of Skarron ships as they gradually grouped together.

  He had his ships reform into Hatar, which were essentially flat circles that had all their weaponry and shields on one side facing the enemy. It was risky if the Skarrons could circle around behind them, but it was the best way to knock down a group of enemies that intended to slug it out, and as more globular conglomerates arrived they appeared to flatten out as if hitting an invisible window alongside the others Hatars.

  The Renimar kept a few interceptors and others patrolling the backside of the formation as the wall of what looked like flat flowers extended in all directions, creating a mass of Skarron wreckage ahead of them that the Voku kept pushing back towards the star via tractor beams, clearing the firing lines as new Skarron ships were maneuvering around the dead hulks to pour their plasma and heavy lachars into the Voku ships along with several rail gun rounds.

  Their weaponry was inferior, but grouped together in large amounts it was still dangerous and with the rail guns rounds thrown in the Voku couldn’t adjust their shields to energy repulsion only. For what limited technology the Skarrons had, they made good use of it…but so did he, having his ships at the incoming jumpline push Skarron debris into the arrival lane and get some free kills from the collisions.

  He had no way of knowing how many ships were still on the way, but already the killcount was rising fast and not one of his ships had seen so much as a hull scratch. As the Skarrons grouped up that was going to be harder to avoid, but he was a Renimar and his naval skill was tailored to just this sort of situation. The fate of his fleet was in his hands, and he had to choose how hard to push, when, and where.

  The Skarrons wouldn’t get to decide where the battles took place anymore. Not with this fleet. He would keep them moving from system to system and hitting them in an unpredictable fashion while the Skarrons got to choose the planets they wanted to hit and the Voku had to defend where the enemy chose.

  Hopefully wherever these Skarron ships were meant to go would be able to hold out longer now. Noru-sar didn’t know where that was, nor ever would. He was fully in ship hunting mode with the Firewall being a distant memory.

  This was where the war was going to exist for him…at least as long as he had supplies to last. He’d have to cycle back to rendezvous with cargo transports eventually, but for now he was fully loaded and outfitted for battle, meaning the space lanes were for him to poach and the Skarrons to defend.

  And he intended to keep his massive fleet together as one unit capable of running over any opposition they faced. If the Skarrons retasked fleets to hunt him down, that would serve his purpose even more so by buying time for the rest of the Voku. In order to do that he had to become the biggest nuisance possible, and he was glad he was off to an early start here. Voku scouts hadn’t identified this convoy route before, and he wondered how many more were out there unknown to them.

  Hopefully a lot, because he didn’t want to waste time traveling through empty systems. His fleet was here to fight, and they would hopefully be busy as close to nonstop as possible going forward.

  4

  May 4, 3646

  Poxtrov System (Voku territory)

  Poxtreen

  Bi-tor woke inside a null tube, returning to consciousness after the bare minimum rest required as the battle for the planet continued to rage on. There were so many Skarron troops in play that they could litera
lly attack around the clock for month after month…partly because they were losing troops so fast, but the Voku weren’t. Warriors like Bi-tor had to sleep eventually, so he’d been cycled back into ‘safe’ territory again and forced himself into the rest ward along with many others, only now to be awoken and headed back to the fighting.

  He pulled on his clothing and eyepiece, eating and attending to other personal needs quickly before he boarded an aerial transport that took him out to a firebase near the fighting. There he mounted himself in a level 1 Stranom, interfacing his mind with the bipedal mech and marching it out and through the streets of the Voku world. A lot of the population had already been evacuated, but this was not a Firewall world. That barrier had been breached in multiple locations, with Poxtrov having been the first, and the fight here was now already 4 months long.

  A third of the planet remained, and the Voku were fighting a slow retreat as the Skarrons threw so many walkers at them that they literally littered the landscape over the ‘conquered’ territory. From the sheer number of the hulks large enough to be seen from orbit, you’d think the Voku were winning…which they were. Every battle they would win, but the attrition and unending enemy reinforcements were allowing them to march their way across the planet and would eventually drive the Voku survivors off at great cost to themselves.

  Bi-tor’s interfaced mind had him feeling the Stranom’s movements as his own, but before they got to the nearest fighting he could see one of the Skarron’s largest walkers on the horizon. It was far taller than the Stranom and was comprised of multiple orb-like sections chained together in a long train suspended on many spindly legs that allowed it to walk over top many of the shorter Voku buildings as it rained plasma down on everything beneath and around it.

  To combat that, another Stranom nearby rendezvoused with Bi-tor and the two Voku mechs paused slightly as others ran by. They touched one another and the machines began to melt, combining their masses and forming a single larger Stranom with the other pilot coming into view in the cockpit beside Bi-tor with their minds partly meeting one another. They couldn’t sense what each person was thinking, but they could talk to one another without doing so vocally. They split duties, with Bi-tor retaining the Stranom’s motion while the other Voku warrior handled some of the weapons and navigation.