Star Force: Rammus (SF83) (Star Force Origin Series) Page 4

  “If it’s bad news I can’t promise I won’t hit you.”

  “Did you hit any of them?” he asked, referring to the Menbati.

  “No, but I did kick one when he wouldn’t board the dropship fast enough.”

  “Hurt your foot?”

  “My armor is stronger than his. What’s up, Stan?”

  “We didn’t ask, they did. I’m not sure they fully understand either, so we’re going to have to deal with that, but I’ve already sent a courier back to Sara to ask for instructions. The Menbati want to join Star Force.”

  Jaina’s frown deepened. “You’re kidding. Please tell me you’re kidding.”

  “Oh, it gets better. They don’t just want to join, they want to fight. In the great crusade across the stars.”

  Jaina rolled her eyes. “How do they even know what’s going on out there?”

  “They don’t, beyond what little we’ve told them. But they’re adamant. I’m not sure why, especially after I told them that we’re only here to kill the lizards and want no compensation for it. That didn’t dissuade them in the least.”

  “What do they think being part of Star Force means?”

  “They want to be part of the empire.”

  “And…”

  “I’ve talked to their leaders for several hours. I can’t get much out of them, but they have a deeply ingrained loyalty that is now transferred onto us. I would have dismissed the request out of misplaced gratitude, but there’s also a great deal of intellect in them. They’re not making a rash choice. A quick one, for sure, but there’s more to it than there appears on the surface.”

  “Do they know we’ll tear their culture apart and rebuild it?”

  “Yes, and they seem to think it’ll be an improvement. And to be frank, they don’t have much left compared to what they did pre-lizard.”

  “That usually doesn’t stop anyone from clinging onto tradition, especially when there are millions of them remaining.”

  “Billions, actually,” Stan said with a cringe.

  Jaina stared at him blankly for a moment, then hung her shoulders in a visible sigh. “Underground?”

  “When they asked to join us they revealed their full holdings. I don’t think the lizards ever knew how many of them there were. They’ve burrowed down through the crust nearly to molten rock all over the planet. Only a small portion of their population was on the surface.”

  “Son of a bitch.”

  “They’ve been collapsing tunnels and digging new ones to keep the lizards from reaching their strongholds. Very savvy when it comes to underground warfare.”

  “And dumb on the surface.”

  “The fact that they showed me everything also underscores how serious they are about their request. They just exposed everything, and they wouldn’t have done that if they thought there was even a possibility that we were a threat.”

  “Gullible too it seems.”

  “Why, are you planning on killing them after we get rid of the lizards?”

  “Do they know that?”

  Stan shook his head. “I don’t know. Either they’re far too trusting or they’re good judges of character.”

  “They didn’t trust me a little while ago,” Jaina pointed out. “What do you think Sara will do?”

  “I’m guessing that she’ll come here in person. Beyond that your guess is as good as mine.”

  “What is your guess, beyond that?”

  “Have we ever said no?”

  “Twice.”

  “And what were the reasons there?”

  “Rumor says deceit.”

  “And I can’t find any in these guys.”

  “So you’re saying if they’re on the level then Sara is going to take them in in some form?”

  “That’s my guess, but you never know with a trailblazer. They have a knack for finding other options.”

  “And you came to tell me this in person because?”

  “Because if Sara decides to bring them into the fold, even if just as a ward…”

  “It better not be more than that.”

  “…whatever she decides, I’m going to request permanent assignment here.”

  Jaina’s uncomfortable look changed into disgust. “And you want me to stay too?”

  “You’re already familiar with the planet,” he said with a wince. “Though maybe today is a bad day to be discussing this.”

  “Very bad.”

  “It’ll take Sara a few weeks to get here regardless, and we can discuss this in a few days once you cool off,” he said, holding up his hands in a warning gesture as she looked about ready to explode, “not that you shouldn’t be upset. Just remember we’ve taken formerly bad races and turned them around. No matter what these guys have or haven’t done recently should reflect on their race’s potential.”

  “Tell that to the armless Protovic.”

  “What were they actually doing? Running or fighting?”

  “Whatever they damn well pleased! I don’t know what they were doing half the time, but some of them wanted to kill lizards when we were trying to herd them towards the dropships. And I don’t care what you think my mindset will be in a few days, I’m staying here until the lizards are eradicated then I’m moving on. If you want to rehab these morons you’re welcome to it.”

  “Fair enough,” Stan relented. “Are you fit to go back out?”

  “I need an hour to shower and eat, then I’ll be good to go.”

  “Without shooting the next Menbati you see?”

  “Not unless he deserves it.”

  “Good enough,” Stan said, pointing an armored thumb over his shoulder before stepping to the side.

  Jaina took off immediately, not feeling like continuing the conversation and both Archons knowing she needed to keep moving. With the lizards constantly pressing against the remaining Menbati until they were all killed, everyone was under the clock. All the army units had a mage as field commander, leaving him free to go where he needed and maintain a global view of the combat. He was going to offer to give Jaina a break and take the next mission in her place, but he knew that the best thing for her to do was get back into the action and work off some of her frustration. Sitting and stewing wouldn’t help.

  And he didn’t like the news of the Menbati making trouble for the rescue teams either, though he also noted that it was a sign of how they needed proper Star Force training. And a race that had managed to outwit and survive the lizards for this long could probably be turned into an asset for the empire once the trailblazers worked their magic on them.

  When Sara-012 got to Shemtala she immediately assumed control of ground operations, making a few tweaks to what the mages had been running, then dismissed the H’kar fleet to another system where they were needed, leaving her command ship and the other Star Force vessels already here to protect this world in the unlikely event that the lizards tried to counterattack. That wasn’t occurring in any of the other systems that Sara was sweeping up beyond Alpha Region, so she felt secure sending the order for the H’kar to move ahead to another invasion.

  She hadn’t expected to need to come here, but a race requesting to join Star Force in this manner wasn’t something for the mages to handle. Most races requested something from Star Force, usually more than they were ever going to get, but to have one ask to be fully included without caveat had happened before, and when it did it usually meant a willing populace rather than one she’d have to wrangle into line over generations via control of upcoming younglings.

  But with every new race they encountered there were always unexpected variables that needed a trailblazer’s touch, or in this case evaluation, so she didn’t waste any time and headed down to one of Star Force’s bases on the planet and over into a Menbati city, walking around in her golden titan armor with almost no hindrance at all. The short ‘Rammuses,’ as she thought of them, were tough looking but also skittish. There was no animosity present, no sense of danger, but they had also never seen the golden armor b
efore and that was drawing some curiosity.

  Getting into their heads as often as she could she sampled their mindset, culture, worries, and aspirations. They were immensely grateful for being rescued after so many years, and that obviously factored into their request to join Star Force, but there was something else underneath the surface that she didn’t catch on to until the following week.

  Once she identified it, Sara began to understand the Menbati. They had never left this star system and few had ever come to it before the lizards arrived. They knew of other races but had no means to reach out to them, with doing so and taking their place amongst the community of the stars was one of their driving societal imperatives. They had no illusions about peaceful relations, expecting there to be more enemies than friends out there, but they knew they had to get into the game and had been building up their technology in the hopes of attaining space travel when the lizards came and put an end to that.

  Since then all tech upgrades had been geared towards ground combat with some impressive results. In the beginning the lizards had outright slaughtered the Menbati, but there were so few lizards that the planet had time and population to spare. That wasn’t the strategy, just a simple truth that had led to further and further resistance. By the time the lizards had four cruisers and were bombarding their cities from above with impunity but without enough troops to invade them, the Menbati had upgraded their existing defensive missiles into their Hip’cha, building up numbers of them before releasing them all on a single cruiser and taking it down before it knew what was happening to it.

  That first cruiser destruction had been a signal to their entire race that they could effectively fight back and had been memorialized enough that almost every mind Sara touched knew the story. Since then they’d been growing and learning all the while the lizards were doing the same and chopping off chunks of their planet for their own uses. The Menbati didn’t wait to get hit, having counterattacked numerous times, but gradually they had been losing territory, but not hope, for the heart of their society lay below ground where the lizards apparently had never gone.

  That in itself was impressive, given how good the lizards were at tunneling, but it seemed they never got intelligence about the true size of the Menbati civilization, otherwise she was sure they would have found a way to get at them by now.

  There was potential here, and the more she visited city after city and a few battlefronts to see and help them in combat, the more she recognized that their desire to join their rescuers and take their place amongst the stars fit in with Star Force’s own aims enough to make these guys a worthy annexation if they held to their word. There could, and probably would be problems arise, but after such a long history incorporating races into the empire at multiple levels she was confident that the Menbati would not be an issue…and if they were, Star Force also had plenty of experience dealing with such things.

  What did surprise her was that the mage in command of this invasion wanted to stay after the lizards were removed and play a hand in bringing the Menbati into the empire.

  So she started to investigate him as well. Stan she already knew, along with all the other 574 mages assigned to her invasion corridor, but if he wanted to take part in this annexation she needed to know more. Before publically accepting the Menbati into Star Force she took the opportunity to tour the planet along with Stan, sizing him up at the same time as learning more about the planet and pushing the lizard killing even faster than their suicidal rush to destroy the Menbati was accomplishing in its own right.

  Her skill and power had impressed the Menbati to no end, and she didn’t hesitate to jump into combat whenever needed or just because she felt like it. Staying on the world for the next several months, she got the lizard infestation cleared out then began organizing the withdrawal of most of their bases now that the bulk of the Protovic troops would be moving on to another system. Already having sent back a report to Davis, she wasn’t surprised when a convoy of civilian ships with military escort arrived along with a reply.

  Annexation approved. Ward status granted. Judging by the extensive underground structures the Menbati have developed I get the feeling these guys could have some Kiritak qualities with industry in mind. Their combat prowess I imagine will be lackluster, but I’ll leave that to you. Subsequent convoys will be forthcoming. I want these guys upgraded faster than typical for a ward and a full evaluation of their potential with measurable numbers. If they are eager to contribute then they may very well achieve more than ward status, and I want to know what they’re capable of.

  Oh, and as for renaming them, I think it would be a good way to fully test their commitment to an empire they don’t truly understand. If they’re really onboard and willing to follow your lead, get these guys up to speed as fast as you can. If you don’t want to head up this annexation personally, I’ll let you choose a replacement or defer to me. Just get things moving quickly. If these guys balk, I want to know sooner rather than later.

  Sara smiled. Not because he was giving her the green light to annex them, but because he was letting her rename them after her favorite little spike ball.

  Henceforth the Menbati would be known as the Rammus. Both singular and plural in form.

  5

  January 3, 3160

  Shemtala System (Star Force territory)

  Yametren

  Stan stood onboard his flagship, a Warship-class jumpship and the only military vessel left in the star system aside from Sara’s small fleet that was just now leaving orbit. He’d spent several months with her going over what she wanted done with the Menb…the Rammus, and now she was leaving him to single-handedly bring this race into the empire. That was what he’d wanted, but he hadn’t expected to be left in full command.

  Sara was still going to be directing things from afar, but all the onsite adjustments and brainstorming were going to be his responsibility, with that being the largest task he’d ever been assigned to date. But he was an Archon and embraced challenges, with this one offering more than he’d ever expected to be entrusted with. That meant he had to come through, and with something like this there was no procedure to follow. Sara had laid out the basics for him, but had also made him aware of how much he’d have to rely on intuition and adaptation.

  Stan blew out a slow breath, watching her ships jump out of orbit enroute to the star. It was all on him now…well, sort of. He was in charge but he had a good staff of techs and administrators with him, though they’d be taking their cues from him, and despite the instructions Sara had given him he was going to have to make up a lot of this on the fly.

  Taking her advice, he was going to base himself off the warship rather than posting to a firebase on the surface. There were already a few left over from the lizard cleansing that had been converted into supply depots and interface sites with the Rammus, but a proper city hadn’t been built yet. That was waiting on the designs he set down, and Sara had left that bit up to him, for it had a lot to do with the Rammus and if he wanted a joint habitation right off or wanted a separate facility to then build others out of.

  At least the translators were a lot better now. Sara had got people working on those first thing when the convoy arrived, though they did have an odd glitch in them in which ‘yes’ often was translated as ‘ok.’ Stan had asked about that and found it wasn’t a glitch per say, but an alteration that Sara had made. He’d asked her about it and she’d just smiled, not offering a reason and he hadn’t pressed. He could order them to change it, but wasn’t going to bother. She probably had a reason for it, and it didn’t really interfere with communication.

  And he wasn’t about to second guess a trailblazer on something like this. She might not care…or she might kick his ass the next time they met.

  He walked over to his command chair and sat down, pulling up the Star Force territory map. His efforts would be confined to this single star system, but he needed to find a niche within the empire for these guys so he had to think big picture right n
ow.

  In the center of the map was the ADZ, the population crunch interior of their now massive territory. Beyond it to the spinward side, which he tended to think of as ‘west,’ was the Calavari Region. Rimward was the Bsidd Region while the patchy network of Axius expansions were up above. The lizard coreward territory line was, naturally, in towards the core with the Achkor Region in between. To the ‘east’ and against the galactic spin was the region the lizards hadn’t gotten to, leaving it with a multitude of races and far too many for Star Force to keep track of. This area was loosely referred to as the Expanded Region and stretched out down below the ADZ as well.

  Straight down from the ADZ was the link that ran to Voku territory, with the Benoid slightly off to the side. Skarron territory met up with them there, but did not touch near to Star Force. It was, in fact, getting further away as the lizard line extended and devoured the other enemy empire. There was a glut of systems coreward and down from the ADZ that had not yet succumbed to either the Skarrons or the lizards, but the latter were slowly eating into them and Stan had been told that if/when they hit the geographical boundary Star Force had marked they’d have to hold them there as well all the way down to Voku territory.

  On the map there were also little lines reaching up to the top of the galactic plane all along that border ahead of where the lizards had actually reached. Each of those little dots held outpost-level colonies designed to plant the flag and provide an oasis in the great distances that had to be traveled, but were never intended to grow too large. Those living there were building, of course, but there was no additional material or personnel being pumped in from afar to speed up that process, letting them develop at a leisurely pace as they set up a network of surveillance patrols, probes, and relays along the border so they would know when the lizards eventually worked their way there.

  Those little lines were insufficient on their own, but they had reached all the way up to the top of the galaxy, approximately 500 lightyears away from the ADZ that sat in roughly the center of the plane. There was no firm upper boundary, for there were scattered systems beyond orbiting off the main group, but the edge of that group had been reached and two small outposts had been established beyond it, having to jump much further distances between stars to get there, but the view they had was worth it.