Star Force- Atonement Page 4

  “What to do about the Zak’de’ron, Oso’lon, and J’gar…there are many options. I am not asking you to fight them with us, but I do not think they will accept an armistice now, though I could be wrong. They are untrustworthy, but they may be desperate enough to negotiate…or they may realize no one can stop them, assuming you are as committed to the Hadarak as I assume you are.”

  “Do not let anyone know I still exist. Not yet. Please come to Jamtren with one of your trailblazers or other emissary from Director Davis that has full negotiation power. We must put an end to the rift between us and join together as one empire, under your lead, for you have earned that mantle…but we must do it soon before more is needlessly lost. Please make all haste. I will endeavor to hold Jamtren long enough for you to arrive…”

  The hologram turned its head away in despair, almost as if he wasn’t confident anyone would come, then it faded away leaving only the real Era’tran standing in front of Alden.

  “Son of a bitch,” he said, looking at Bran’cen.

  “What is your response?” the now very pale Era’tran asked meekly. He had no idea things were this bad…and humiliating.

  “It will be forthcoming,” Alden said stoically, mentally recalling the Hjar’at who were out of earshot. “I need to discuss this with the others. You can stay here instead of on your ship if you wish. A Kaeper doesn’t allow much room to move around.”

  “I will accept your hospitality while I await your response.”

  “It’ll be a while. My brothers and sisters are scattered across the galaxy.”

  “Your Urrtren is still functional?”

  “It is. We won’t take any longer than necessary.”

  “Can you not travel to Jamtren yourself?”

  Alden bit his lip. “I could, but this needs a huddle first. We’ll have more options to offer if we hammer this out first on our end.”

  “Please hurry,” Bran’cen implored, with Alden flying off rapidly after a gentle nod of his head.

  The Era’tran huffed, feeling far worse than he had upon arriving here. Mak’to’ran had explained some things to him, but not everything.

  The V’kit’no’sat empire was truly dead, and he’d been sent here to deliver a message regarding what to do about its corpse.

  4

  Alden immediately went to compose a message with a wide range of thoughts on the matter, then transmitted it out from the Castle in the direction of the closest relay ship, which was 12 lightyears away in another star system. That ship, sitting high above the stellar plane almost directly over the north pole of the star far above the Hadarak in the system and having to move around occasionally when some of the minions tried to come out and catch it, received the faint but clear signal and recorded it in its entirety before sending a copy of it out in another direction.

  That signal traveled 9 light years to another mobile comm station and got bounced to another, and another, and another until it got all the way across Hadarak held territory into the ghost zone where there were mostly star systems that had already been evacuated by Star Force, though not all. More comm ships continued bouncing it further away from the Core until it finally reached a permanent relay.

  That relay was much more powerful, and sent the signal out further than the others in 4 different directions as Alden’s message worked its way not to a single point, but throughout the limited comm grid Star Force had set up in V’kit’no’sat territory. It branched around and traveled along the border with the Hadarak and came to Jack-020 first as his assault fleet was undergoing repairs and restocking on drones in Outreach 118, one of about half of the original field bases that had not been swallowed up by the Hadarak encroachment of V’kit’no’sat territory yet.

  The signal was received by the comm relay in that system, then transmitted into the local grid, going to every facility and ship there, but only one person had the access codes necessary to receive it.

  “Son of a bitch,” Jack said, running his fingers through his short yellow/black hair that was mixed in splotches of color that matched his Clan Wolverine colors. “How is that bastard still alive?”

  The trailblazer sat down at the desk in his quarters, shaking the sleepiness out of his head. He’d been awakened by the arrival of the message, which he’d preset to alert him the moment anything from his brothers and sisters arrived, and his short sleep sessions were no exception. He’d need to catch a nap later to make up for it, or otherwise his Saiyan metabolism would still burn him out. Jack didn’t need much sleep nowadays, but he did require a little, though right now it could wait. He had to think.

  They’d discussed the possibility of absorbing the V’kit’no’sat empire, fighting it, ignoring it, splitting it up, and every other scenario they could come up with…but no one had expected Mak’to’ran to still be alive in a coma somewhere. That changed things greatly, and hopefully for the better. Jack put down his thoughts about how much they could scrounge from the Rim, as well as how little they could provide locally to support any operation in V’kit’no’sat territory. His own fleet was going in and out of Hadarak territory and hitting every stronghold he could find while simultaneously sending out patrols a few systems apart to intercept passing Hadarak minion convoys.

  He was doing damage to try to stem the flow elsewhere, but like everyone else he was overwhelmed with targets. The spacelanes in Hadarak territory were always busy, with the conquered systems spewing out minions by the trillions. It was now like a Skarron crusade in that the reinforcements kept coming in continual streams, and no matter how badass his fleet was, Jack couldn’t stop them all within even a small region. One or two systems yes, but they were coming from everywhere and gobbling up new territory that was unoccupied without having to fire a shot…and when they did fight, they were conquering systems without even so much as a Warden in support, because Star Force was focused on the attacks that did have Wardens and larger Hadarak involved.

  Now that Star Force could actually kill them, and kill them effectively, it was the minion hordes that were winning the war. Jack noted this was probably why the Founders couldn’t win, for Essence was worthless against these type of numbers. If you fought conventionally and won against the minions, the heavy hitters would clobber you. If you had the Essence to destroy the heavies, the minions would get you. A civilization had to have both to survive, let alone win, and while Star Force now fit that description it was too late. The Hadarak had spread too far, reproduced too much, and Star Force could not keep them bottled up. Not even close. It was like trying to catch a waterfall with a net.

  The evacuation efforts were the most successful thing they had going, but for every system they evacuated, 7 more were destroyed before they could get to them. One out of eight on a galactic scale was a huge amount of refugees having to be ferried out to the Rim and absorbed into the empire, but now that 1/8 number was quickly turning into 1/300 as the original V’kit’no’sat border with the Hadarak was broken and the invasion fingers began stabbing their way inside the heavily populated regions where others had taken shelter from the Hadarak thanks to the V’kit’no’sat. Further Coreward the populations had been lower and scattered, with the civilizations there getting busted up enough to be kept suppressed, but thanks to the V’kit’no’sat’s protective umbrella, beyond the line the population had skyrocketed…and now the Hadarak were assaulting it in too many places to stop them all.

  Even with the additional races coming in from the Rim to assist with the war, the galactic defenders were heavily outnumbered. They needed the V’kit’no’sat in this war badly, what was left of them at least, for while their fleets were decimated their worlds were mostly intact and capable of producing more warships. They just had to stop wasting them against Itaru and vice versa, but good luck getting that to happen.

  Jack laid out a list of suggestions then transmitted his updated copy of Alden’s message and sent it back out into the grid, where it branched out through every possible path, jumping from relay to relay u
ntil it got to Martin-078 via a courier that brought the message back into Hadarak territory where he was screening for the evacuation of a race of what looked like telepathic cows. The quadrupeds couldn’t fight well with their bloated bodies, but they could construct decent technology and had a fairly sizeable empire of 93 systems that had been within the V’kit’no’sat’s protective umbrella before that umbrella had collapsed due to internal warfare.

  The drones the Uvilum used were decent against the Hadarak on the ground, but their warships were no match for them and were easily destroyed by waves of minions without even a single Mainline unit amongst them. Martin had gotten here late, after the invasion had started, finding the Uvilum holding out in shield protected cities as the Hadarak were fighting a ground war and already consuming half the planet…which is when Martin’s mech forces stepped in.

  His fleet was mostly transports, with just enough warships to bully the minions as much as needed. Orbital bombardment accomplished much, but it couldn’t get in underneath the shield generators and other tight places…though more than that they couldn’t bombard everywhere fast enough, so they had to pick and choose while also fighting naval minions that continually distracted them from aiding the surface.

  Martin had 8 galaxies of mechs, 1 from his Clan Vortex and another 7 from the Bsidd. That gave him a total of 4000 mechwarriors, and he had all of them down on the planet fighting on defense lines along with him as his small fleet bombarded the surface, fought off naval minions, and covered for the evacuation ships that were only beginning to arrive and send scores of dropships down into the cities to pull out the helpless tele-cows as fast as they could.

  He spent over 8 hours in battle in a Madcat before his fuel reserves ran so low he had to back out or risk running out of ammunition, all of which were energy weapons, including the mini-bloon launcher boxes that were carried above each shoulder on the reversed leg mech. His kill count was so high he’d turned it off days ago from the display screen. What mattered was not how many minions were killed, but how many Uvilum were saved, and that number was painfully low right now, though creeping upwards steadily as they delayed the Hadarak ground minions from getting further into most of the cities.

  He only had a partial Cluster with him, which was normally made up of 20 Stars, which had 5 mechs in each. That was the operational unit for combined mech warfare, and right now he had 8 other mechs with him. Jared had taken a leg hit and had to limp his way out of combat, leaving only 9 mechs in total to handle the western side of the 28 mile wide city.

  But fortunately the minions were dumb as hell, and with the backing of the Uvilum combat drones they were able to hold the line while drawing most of the attention to the mechs which came forward in two locations, one star each, and became the bait to keep the minions from swarming the drones.

  His mech’s feet were covered in gore by the time he had to bail out and retreat back into the city to an LZ that held replacement parts, fuel, and ammunition for those that required it, but in a battle this long using anything other than energy weapons would leave you with serious endurance problems.

  Martin hopped out of the mech as soon as he got it into the repair birth, with a team of Bsidd scurrying over it doing some quick repair and maintenance work as the trailblazer ran into one of the prefab buildings to get some food, use the restroom, and try to catch a cat nap over the next 20 minutes or so. If he didn’t he was going to burn out, and his team likewise, for the minion reinforcements coming into the city were nowhere near ending, and there were too many enemy landing zones created by kamikaze landers for the warships to pick off.

  He and the others in his Clan had done this before, many times, but the Bsidd were a bit more fragile. He had to order them back more often to switch out for sleep cycles, for they’d been on this defensive line for 18 days of nonstop fighting. Without the Cows’ drones they never would have held this city this long, but without the mechs the drones could not have survived either. They needed each other for at least another 3 weeks to get everyone evacuated, and Martin had to plan for that in his rotations here and across the planet, which he monitored while fighting mostly, but more so on these short breaks as he napped.

  After shoving enough food in his face, he slipped a little fingernail-sized disc onto his forehead and laid down on the floor next to a wall, letting his body and most of his mind rest as he used the interlink to save his telepathy while he monitored the battlemap and issued a few orders here and there. After dealing with the most priority alerts on the planet he noted the arrival of a message from Alden, as well as another from Jack commenting on Alden’s message.

  Mak’to’ran was alive and they were discussing options before sending someone to negotiate with him. Martin didn’t have time to weigh in now, but he knew decisions were being made as these messages worked their way across the comm network, so he needed to add something before the others got to it first.

  He mentally wrote down a few quick suggestions and observations, then added one last line before sending the message back up to the evacuation fleet that had carried it here along with other news updates, and they’d carry it back when they left with full bays of Uvilum.

  I call dibs on the Ari’tat.

  5

  April 27, 128822

  Solar System (Home One Kingdom)

  Earth

  Davis ran, his breath visible in spurts as the warm air in his lungs condensed immediately as it hit the frigid arctic air over the snowpack. The Director ran in nothing more than shorts, sleeveless T-shirt, and shoes, using his Rensiek to keep his body heated in the -20 F sunny environment as he stayed connected to the full battlemap planetary grid through a headband that allowed him direct mental connection.

  There were no trails out here, just an ice sheet over top the arctic ocean that allowed him to run in whatever direction he wanted seemingly forever as he tended to the business of the ever growing empire currently engaged in 18 small wars, the ongoing Temple conflicts, and the one big war that was fueling the rushed relocation of refugees out to the Rim. Axius and Beacon had their hands full trying to absorb them all, with Beacon taking the civilizations and Axius offering a sanctuary to those individuals that survived without a people left to call their own.

  Beacon was so large now Davis knew he had to subdivide it, but he hadn’t yet determined the best method to do so. That was one of the many things he was thinking about as he perused the information grid looking for updates and digging up various bits of information as he ran and ran. He no longer wanted to stay in his office, sitting in a chair most of the day, so he’d gradually adjusted his body to regular running for hours straight, but at an easy enough pace to allow his mind to wander.

  When he got tired enough he’d welcome the chair in his office, but not right now. He was only two hours into his ice pack run, but when a priority update came through from Alden he opened it immediately…then slid to a halt about 3 seconds later when he got the information that Mak’to’ran was still alive.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” he said, puffing out white smoke as the cold tried to suck the heat out of his body, but his Rensiek was defying it so well he didn’t even feel it. He saw that the message wasn’t specifically for him, but sent to all the trailblazers as well. That meant he wasn’t going to be making any decisions immediately. Davis had learned long ago to let it bounce among them as they were spread across the galaxy, and as each one got it and added their thoughts all the messages would make their way to him and he’d have the best load of suggestions at the end of it, though with them going back and forth across weeks or months of comm lag, there technically would never be any end to it, but he needed to wait for a least a bunch of their replies to come in before he added his own.

  He immediately wanted to go himself, but Jamtren was on the other side of the galaxy and it would take him the better part of 2 years to get there even with the Hula Hoop saving a lot of time. Plus, there was so much going on in the empire for him to monitor and
modify that being out of contact in the war zone was something he didn’t want to risk. Not for his safety, but with the empire being forced to stretch to fight the Hadarak, the ongoing takeover combat inside the Temples, and the massive logistics effort to supply the fleet with replacement drones and homes for the refugees, he needed to use his skills to maximize everything they had where he could find upgrades…and despite the skill of his Monarchs, he always found something they had overlooked.

  Not that that was always their fault, for the Kingdoms, and even single planets, had so much going on in them one couldn’t monitor everything, but Davis had learned where to look over his many millennia of life, and he had gotten very good at sniffing out both trouble and opportunities as he stayed at the center of the information web inside the empire, and going beyond it would cost him that…but he still wanted to go and meet Mak’to’ran personally.

  Fortunately he didn’t have to. The trailblazers were fully equipped to negotiate in his stead, and Alden was fairly nearby Jamtren. Either he or one of the other closer ones needed to go sooner rather than later, for the situation in the V’kit’no’sat empire was dire and getting worse with each year.

  Davis had so many scouts out in the galaxy right now they numbered more ships than he’d had during the first V’kit’no’sat invasion. They were monitoring the Hadarak, trying to get as much data on the war between the Zak’de’ron and V’kit’no’sat and who had what where as well as could be managed with the Urrtren down, plus he had ships out all across the Rim keeping an eye on the known while exploring the chunks of galaxy that were still unknown.