Star Force: Revelation (SF79) Read online

  “He’s cooperating?” Greg asked.

  “Yes, if only to inform us of the superiority of the Chixzon so we’ll ally with them. Kip thinks that’s a ruse for himself to give him the option of cooperating with us. I can’t be sure, but there is a lot of internal conflict within him that’s only growing with time. He’s unlearning what they’ve drilled into his head, but it has to occur one tiny piece at a time. We’re driving him on with training that he’s agreeing to go along with, but for every tweak he makes to himself he runs the risk of plateauing. If he’s ever to break free of this programming it’s going to be a very long, cumulative process that I’m not sure he has the will to pursue. Brad and Kip are planning to drag him there if they can, which is why they’re not leaving Nym.”

  “But that’s not why they sent you back?” Davis guessed.

  “No. They’re still holding out hope of saving Radonon from himself, and we owe it to him to keep trying, but they could have informed you of that process by message. I’m here to discuss what we can’t put into messages.”

  “Start by assuming we know nothing,” Greg prompted, “and give us a full summary. We’ll pick at it from there until we get up to speed.”

  Amy sighed again, blowing out a long breath that she channeled into a silent whistle. “We can’t get a firm lock on the timeline, but we do know that the Chixzon empire existed prior to the V’kit’no’sat. They controlled most of the galaxy outside the inner half, with what they call the ‘Klamensh’ being a plague on the interior. We’ve confirmed that they are Hadarak, and that the Chixzon did capture one that ventured too far out. They were lucky more than anything, in that it nearly destroyed the fleet sent to battle it.”

  “We can’t draw a crude map of the Hadarak territory, for like the V’kit’no’sat database pointed out, the Hadarak don’t stick to borders. They pushed out in tendrils, destroyed and fed off systems almost at random, then retreated back towards greater gravity wells to spawn. The Chixzon knew not to mess with them, but one day a single one made its way out and attacked their third most important system in the galaxy. They were obligated to defend it and only succeeded in saving less than a tenth of the population, but at the end of that battle they had wounded the Hadarak to the point where it couldn’t leave the system.”

  “They tried to finish it off and failed, having to call for additional support from their scattered strongholds across the galaxy. Their travel capabilities were subpar so they got really stretched out, and it took some time for even the closest outposts to send them aid,” Amy said, throwing sporadic mental images she’d gotten directly from Radonon at Davis and Greg while she narrated. “When they finally got there a different decision had been made in the interim. They didn’t try to kill it, instead they damaged it further to the point where it was not able to do them much harm, then they corralled it and began to study it as it rapidly healed.”

  “They built their prison facility faster, keeping it bottled up but always having to keep it partially injured. They knew what it was capable of, and that it could call for help, so they continuously destroyed various components as it regrew them. Their hope was to find a weakness or to coopt its abilities into their already significant biotech wing. They use machines for the most part, then trick them out with biotech where advantageous. This project was the first true diversion from that, in that they eventually figured out how to force the Hadarak to spawn.”

  “They lost all of the offspring numerous times before they were able to get them to survive in an artificial gravity well. When they did they killed them and began to experiment with making alterations. It was a huge project, but they knew it would cement their dominance over the galaxy if they could even partially succeed. At the time they had systems scattered around the galaxy, but no brute force capability for domination. They had negotiated and tricked their way into the forefront in most occasions but for a lot of races that wouldn’t work, so the Chixzon just ignored them inside their borders…much like The Nexus is doing now.”

  “When they got their first successful Uriti it was no longer a Hadarak. They’d altered its genetics so much that most of its strengths were gone, but they’d added other things to it. Most important of which was the minion reproduction. Hadarak minions were not effective enough for what the Chixzon wanted, so they altered them to produce what amounts to conventional forces of a biological nature. Fighters, mechs, infantry. The Uriti are sterile, so they can’t reproduce, but they can spawn minions and, more importantly, factory-like independent growths that can then produce more on their own.”

  “Colonies?” Greg asked.

  Amy nodded. “The Uriti could fly between stars like a Hadarak, and with its resilience could go basically anywhere and plant the seeds of an invasion force. If those seeds weren’t found and destroyed they’d multiply exponentially, creating an army of minions that would do the Chixzon’s bidding upon arrival even if the Uriti wasn’t in the system anymore. It was with those minions that they sought out and conquered the races they feared the most, plucking them from the galaxy one at a time while giving the core a wide berth. They had no intention of ever attacking the Hadarak, merely skirting them and their somewhat predictable incursions into the outer rim. They feared the Hadarak would continue to spread to one day consume the entire galaxy, but they too were choosy and didn’t blanket systems in their path like the lizards do.”

  “Radonon was most interested in the current state of the Hadarak. We didn’t tell him of the V’kit’no’sat, but he feared a more widespread presence than there is now. He doesn’t know how long it’s been either, but we’re estimating that they found and captured the single Hadarak at least 12 million years ago, with their eventual defeat no sooner than 5 million.”

  Davis whistled.

  “That’s why the V’kit’no’sat don’t have any records on them,” Greg added.

  “We think there may have been some overlap, but with the blanket of Hadarak covering the core the Chixzon never explored there. They seem to do almost everything out of fear. Not an irrational fear, but a bit of paranoia. The V’kit’no’sat dominate out of ego, while the Chixzon seem to have been motivated by removing threats before they could kill them. They would have destroyed the Hadarak had they a method of doing so, but without one they chose to keep clear of them whenever able rather than embrace the challenge the way the V’kit’no’sat founding races did. There’s no shortage of ego with the Chixzon, but it’s geared towards survival through preemption and subterfuge. The Uriti were the first time they had a blunt force approach, and they used it to conquer the outer rim all the way around the galaxy.”

  “Population?” Davis asked.

  “We don’t have firm numbers, but from Radonon’s sense it is something less than the V’kit’no’sat. They lived in clusters of systems situated in about the size of the ADZ that could support one another if attacked, and they had thousands of those clusters spread across the galaxy, from which they sought out and eliminated anything they thought was a threat. They also acquired biotech from other races, then destroyed them to deny the abilities to anyone else. This is how they got telekinesis, though their version isn’t very powerful. They didn’t know of anyone else in the galaxy that had it, in any form.”

  “Explain these Uriti further,” Greg asked.

  “Smaller than Hadarak, but still miles wide. Each one is different, another upgraded version of the previous and often in different shapes. They could only grow one at a time and they needed resources from across the galaxy to do it, but often one was enough to use as a hammer to subdue whomever they wished. The threat of it alone was the equivalent of a Death Star, for they could only unleash it upon a planet. The first model they had almost no control over, and had to stay clear of it when active. They engineered a recall and submissive mode, but when it attacked it basically destroyed everything around it.”

  “How many did they have?”

  “According to Radonon there were 118 produced, two of which were
destroyed by their own error. Both were early models and they threw them against enemies that were too powerful. They did their job in destroying most of their targets, but they were killed in the process. After that the Chixzon were more cautious about their assaults and they never lost one during the culling period that lasted for at least 500,000 years. They basically went around the galaxy knocking off every major power one at a time until there was no one of sufficient strength to actually kill a Uriti.”

  “When they had the big players eliminated they used the minions to focus on grabbing more control over their territory. They knew better than to overreach and grow too large, but they bullied and threatened other races into working with them, mostly in terms of tribute that ironically went to growing more Uriti. They’re corovon hogs, like the Hadarak, but there are a number of other very select resources needed to accommodate the skills they built them with…not all of which are the same. Different models different attempts, but they’re all build to be a strong point the enemy cannot destroy and will gut their attacking fleet against if they try.”

  “The minions aren’t that strong, not even close, but they use flood tactics like the lizards and with each additional model the minions were also being improved upon. Their most advanced versions were able to conquer whole swaths of territory without even a Uriti supporting them, merely going around and planting them in a location and letting them grow to sufficient numbers. Then a Chixzon command force would come in and assume control, dictating them as they saw fit. It was this reliance on the minions that kept the Chixzon from growing their own forces large enough to make up for the lack of the Uriti when a means of sedating them was discovered.”

  “It was a group effort of races that hadn’t been deemed dangerous enough to be tagged for elimination during the culling phase, which meant they had their hands full with just the minions and a very long war took place. Sedating the Uriti was not a simple nor easy process, but once one was locked down the Chixzon’s enemies defended it as a prize and would not let them recapture and wake it. One by one they plucked them from the lineup until they had only a handful left guarding their homeworlds. For fear of them being taken they didn’t send them out, altering their plans for further galactic conquest into survival mode.”

  “They fought through a retreat with the minions being churned out at home while they looked for other avenues of attack. Many were tried, all ultimately failed on a grand scheme though massive damage was done to their enemies, which continued to grow as more races joined them in a populist crusade to overthrow the Chixzon. While buying themselves time, the Chixzon worked on many backup plans, including the one that they eventually settled on. It was last ditch, but the only viable option at escaping their enemies. Others were tried and assumed to have failed, though Radonon doesn’t know for sure. He thinks that if they had succeeded the Chixzon would already have rebuilt and returned to glory by now, hence he is fairly sure all of them were hunted down and destroyed.”

  “There was a push made at the end, after the Protovic had been quietly seeding across the galaxy, meant to convince their enemies that in one last massive counterattack the Chixzon were finally wiped out. They hoped their enemies would disperse and be destroyed themselves over time by either the Hadarak or events beyond prediction. The split nature of the Protovic genetics was meant to act as an inhibitor to ensure that a massive amount of time passed, with the unlocked varieties responding directly to development, which they also used as a sort of internal clock. They did not want to return so soon that their enemies would be waiting for them. They wanted to disappear from memory, then return to a new galaxy that might not even have record of them. A fresh start, or at least a resetting of the playing field.”

  “Radonon expected the Hadarak to still be a scourge on the galaxy. Apparently the idea of someone actually fighting them successfully hadn’t occurred to the Chixzon.”

  “Who does he think did it?” Davis asked.

  “We left him hanging on that, but gave him access to bits of map to gage his reactions and to spur the analytical circuits in his head. The more he has to learn new things the less hold the programming has on him. It’s pretty much a fool’s errand, given how much Chixzon there is controlling him, but its theoretically possible that he could recover to a semblance of Star Force standards…but it will almost all be new to him. He’s going to have to learn a second time, if it comes to that. Kip and Brad aren’t hopeful, but they’re fighting this one regardless and digging intel out in the process. They insist that the Protovic cannot be allowed to become Chixzon, even if we have to fight a few wars to remove these genetics from the colonies out there.”

  “Uriti aside, they’re that dangerous?” Greg asked.

  “Very. They won’t hit you in the face, they’ll stab you in the back, misdirect you to jump off a cliff. They come at you sideways and are as sneaky as a Teemo. The Uriti gave them a much larger presence in the galaxy than they were used to. Normally most of their power wrangling occurs quietly, and they don’t have a problem with using biological warfare. Radonon has already offered to build a weapon for us to kill the lizards, citing that they have to be destroyed due to the fact that they’re wiping out everything in their path. If the Chixzon don’t have to do it later so much the better, so he’s more than willing to make it happen.”

  “Like hell it is,” Greg scoffed.

  “We pretty much said the same thing.”

  “These Uriti,” Davis asked warily. “Were they killed after they were captured?”

  “No,” Amy said firmly. “They were sedated. Attack them and they wake up. That’s why they had to be guarded as prizes. The Chixzon’s enemies couldn’t destroy them. They’d already taken out those who could long ago, and without the sedative being developed and a lot of gritty war to follow the galaxy would still be in their hands.”

  “I think the V’kit’no’sat would have had something to say about that,” Greg added.

  “It’s a fight I’d be curious to see play out,” Amy admitted. “But do not underestimate the biological knowledge the Chixzon have. Kip and Brad are confident that it’s superior to the V’kit’no’sat, probably because they’ve never had cause to develop it in that direction. The Chixzon have even less scruples, so they’ve delved into scientific regions where the V’kit’no’sat have not gone and gained a formidable arsenal from it.”

  “Not applicable in space battle,” Davis commented.

  “No, it’s not. Which is why they come at you sideways.”

  “‘Come at you sideways,’ is that a quote from somewhere?”

  “Some movie, I don’t remember which,” Amy confessed. “But the metaphor fits.”

  “Serenity,” Greg supplied.

  Amy frowned. “Don’t think I’ve ever seen it. I must have picked it up from someone else then, but I assume you take my meaning?”

  “I do,” Davis said, seeing some of the images of the Uriti as Amy sent them to him and feeling the awe and terror that they invoked…especially when he had a wealth of V’kit’no’sat knowledge on the Hadarak to let him know just how dangerous these things were. “And you’re saying that these Uriti could still be out there somewhere waiting for the Chixzon to come back and free them?”

  “After so many years there’s no way to know what happened to them. Maybe they got loose and returned to the core with the other Hadarak. The V’kit’no’sat have no record of them, so it’s possible they’re still out here somewhere.”

  “Does Nefron know where to look?”

  “No, but there is a short range recall they can use.”

  “Define short,” Greg asked.

  “Depends how much power you put behind it, but we think no more than 80 lightyears. It seems the Chixzon were able to wake up some of them in this manner, which is why their enemies eventually spirited them away to presumably safe locations.”

  “And if one is woke up now, by someone other than the Chixzon, what will it do?”

  “It depends
greatly on which one is woke up,” Amy emphasized, “but expect it to kill whoever it wakes up and then begin to create minions that will attack everyone they come in contact with. That’s how the Chixzon programmed them in the end as a failsafe. If they operate on intuitive drives then there’s no clue what they might do, though seeking out the Hadarak is a possibility.”

  “Would the Hadarak accept them?”

  “No clue.”

  Davis and Greg exchanged glances.

  “What?” Amy asked.

  “I think it’s time we worked on our own biological weapon,” Davis said, to the mage’s dismay.

  “Without Radonon,” Greg added. “We need to be able to infect Protovic populations with a biological weapon that will delete the primary coding.”

  “Can we do that?” Amy asked.

  “I don’t know,” Davis admitted, “but we’re going to figure out how...”

  “…before these bastards pull a Zilean and come back,” Greg finished.

  5

  April 3, 3093

  Aphat System (Bsidd Region)

  Nym

  Radonon dipped down a few inches, prepping his muscular legs for a split second before launching himself up and over the 2 meter wall, then dropping arms spread for a moment before hitting the floor and sprinting ahead with his tail smacking the ground on landing as it usually did. His sprint wasn’t a run, but a triple step forward into a horizontal jump/dash that repeated continuously as he moved down the obstacle course towards the turret ahead.

  It didn’t fire on him until he passed within the circle outlining it at a distance of 55 meters, but he had to go right by it for the corridor didn’t allow him any other options. The tiny projectiles being fired at him splattered when hit, imbuing a stun effect if he was careless enough. The first three he redirected away from his body with his telekinesis, then as he launched himself into another dash he had to stop one cold in front of him, overstressing his limited power enough that the next two he couldn’t fully deflect.