Star Force: Equity (Star Force Universe Book 46) Read online

  That last part Jyra hadn’t even contemplated. She knew the V’kit’no’sat had a number of servant races beyond the Zen’zat, but them taking on the Ziviri just struck her as odd. She wasn’t sure if it was desperation or choice of race, though their size certainly fit with V’kit’no’sat standards, but typically slave races added something unique to the empire. It wasn’t until the Duke explained the full potential of the Ziviri genetic memories did she understand. If they could program one Ziviri exactly as they liked, whether through medical alteration or training, that one could reproduce an army of the same mindset, insuring their loyalty and predictability.

  That was the working theory at least, and a good number of the Ziviri were buying their offer. Precautions were being made in all other Ziviri systems, but this tactic had caught several off guard already and the V’kit’no’sat were now in sole possession of three systems with dozens more under siege.

  The Duke said he was talking to her because they needed everyone with telepathy they had to go out to the worlds not yet taken and help to figure out which populations would be susceptible to the V’kit’no’sat offer when made, for they were sure to repeat the tactic elsewhere. Jyra was being reassigned to surveillance duty, and those worlds deemed vulnerable would start to be evacuated even before they were attacked.

  Star Force was at a disadvantage as it was, but there was no way they could hold what they had with the Ziviri turning on them too, so the plan was to pick a handful of worlds and pull all the loyal Ziviri to them, along with all the other Star Force personnel on the other worlds. Once they did that they might have a chance of holding out, for they weren’t expecting any reinforcements from the rest of the empire.

  To put it bluntly, they were in a bind. Balboa was stable with decently strong shield generators across the entire planet and a loyal population, but it was a mostly empty world. They did have Bsidd and some Kiritak that could reproduce rapidly if needed, but building planetary infrastructure took time and they’d been relying on the Ziviri to operate, if not produce, the bulk of the region’s logistical production.

  “It looks like we’re screwed,” Jyra said to Phobotsi, a fellow Protovic Commando in Clan Saiyan that was sitting on a bench in the equipment room as Jyra was packing a duffle with various types of equipment…including a telepathic booster, for Ziviri were hard to read even when making physical contact.

  “Then we at least make them pay for it.”

  “I can’t stand these ingrates,” she said, half throwing a canister into her open bag. “We play nice, keep most of them alive, then help them rebuild and they turn on us the first chance they get.”

  “What did you expect? They were hostile before…”

  Jyra sighed. “I expected some of them to see the light. I guess that was just wishful thinking on my part.”

  “Some have.”

  “Less than 1% on Baskerno, and those that stayed loyal were killed by the others. They don’t even care to spare their own race.”

  “Genetic memories can be a bitch,” the Protovic told her, not knowing the irony of that statement, for most of the Protovic were unaware of the time bomb that had been in their own genetic code before Star Force had quietly washed it away.

  “Yeah, but there comes a point where you have to make a choice. I expected more of them to choose us after we showed them what we really were and they had enough data to counteract any propaganda.”

  “Apparently they did make their choice. I just wish I could help you.”

  “Not your fault they’re dense to everything but a deep Ikrid scan.”

  “I’m surprised the V’kit’no’sat would tolerate that.”

  “They gave the Zen’zat blocks, so why would that be so bad?” Jyra countered as he continued to pack what looked like far more equipment than she should need.

  “Zen’zat are elite slaves used as intermediaries between the member races. The other slaves are not. How do they expect to control them?”

  “The old fashioned way, I suppose. Just kill any that don’t do as they’re told.”

  “You think this is also a play for the Rim after they get done with us?”

  “I don’t give a damn.”

  “It just doesn’t make sense to me,” the Protovic argued. “It looks like they need help to beat us, and that should hurt their ego.”

  “Having to hit and run hurts their ego, but that’s preferable to getting obliterated by the Uriti,” Jyra said as she finished and sealed up her duffle before swinging it over her armored shoulder. “Make sure this planet is here when I get back.”

  “Make sure you get back,” he said, accepting her handshake.

  “That’s the plan. Seriously though, if we lose this system I think we’re sunk.”

  “They’ll have to fight against these Ziviri to do it.”

  “That doesn’t leave me inspired.”

  “Nice to know you’re not going to get backstabbed though.”

  “Point,” she said, heading for the door with the Protovic in tow. “Though don’t put it completely out of mind. Especially for the converts. They could always shift.”

  “Not a chance. They’ve seen the holos of Ziviri killing Ziviri, and they’re pissed. Any of those traitors set foot here and the loyals will finish them off for us.”

  “They won’t be the ones coming,” Jyra said as she moved into the hallway and threw the Protovic a short, two fingered salute, then headed to the spaceport and from there left the planet.

  10,478 lightyears away…

  Kara-317 stood on her hands upside down in a wobbly handstand as her feet wavered over top of her, near to tipping. Her muscles tightened and realigned for more than the thousandth time as she fought the gravity inside the training chamber. It was set at 22g, more than any Human could survive, but Archons weren’t quite Human anymore and she also had additional upgrades from her Vorch’nas, but she wasn’t using its IDF field to cheat. She was fighting the gravity with nothing but muscle and grit, with her hands being pressed into the semi-soft floor nearly half an inch from the compression.

  The clock in front of her, also inverted, showed her only at 3 minutes and 29 seconds, but that was in fact a new record for both her and Star Force at the 22g mark. In fact, no other Archon had ever logged a mark above 16g. At least, nothing more than a few seconds, and it took at least 20 seconds to make the scoreboard. Anything less was deemed a failure.

  Kara didn’t have much left in her. Her muscles weren’t overly tired, but the stress was more than they could handle. She made it another 5 seconds before her feet tipped backwards and she couldn’t fully correct. Her body went through several contortions trying to readjust but she knew she’d lost it long before her back came slamming down on the floor. The normal short fall was amplified by the heavy gravity and hit her like a punch to the gut by Paul, and had it not been for her Mebvat psionic, her bones would have broken with the hit, she had no doubt.

  But this wasn’t the first time she’d hit the ground. Far from it. Kara rolled over onto her side and forced herself up into a crouch on one knee to rest her arms, though they were being dragged down to the floor as if pulled by magnets.

  She barely felt it, having gotten used to the heavy gravity, but her arms simply were not as strong as her legs and unable to support her weight, which well surpassed a ton with the gravity set so high.

  Kara would have mouthed off if she could, but the gravity worked on her jaw muscles as well, making it hard to talk. In fact, it worked every muscle in her body, which was why she liked these training sessions. They were short but very intense, and having been in the chamber for less than 5 minutes and barely moving, she was already sweating considerably.

  The Archon forced herself to stand, feeling wobbly again but able to handle it with the superior strength of her legs. She walked a few laps around the basketball court-sized circular chamber, then she’d had enough, having to call ‘uncle’ and mentally reset the gravity in the chamber to a measly 5g.

  Kara’s body ached with relief as the weight seemed to disappear, despite the fact that the chamber still had gravity 5 times normal, which was Earth standard. It always had been since Star Force’s inception, but right now this felt ‘normal’ for Kara. She gave herself another 30 seconds to recover, then began running laps and punching at various floating orbs that didn’t seem to feel the gravity at all.

  That wasn’t true, for they were affected just the same, but they had gravity drives that kept them afloat no matter what the pull of gravity was and they always felt light when she hit them, for her arms were having to fight the gravity more than the mass of the targets…and even more so now, for her arms were protesting mightily after the 22g handstand she’d made them endure.

  But Kara fought through it and got in a ‘light’ 5g workout before turning the gravity back to normal and shutting down the chamber, for no one else used it but her. Other Star Force races handled gravity differently, but none could naturally deal with 22g. The Bsidd were the best, but even they would crumple here. Others like the Kvash might not physically be squashed, but they couldn’t move much at all, becoming little statues while the Dvapp would just become a pool of sandy playdoh unable to hold much of a shape.

  In fact, if they were spread out too far they’d die, so they had to be extra careful in gravity chambers, though the Star Force Dvapp used them often at lower settings. Kara didn’t know if the independent Dvapp race did or not, but then again they weren’t all that keen on training and relied mostly on their natural abilities rather than acquired ones.

  Kara’s ability to survive here was an acquired one, and she intended to get all the way up to 25g before she started to fan out her training and get better at maintaining the higher gravities rather than pushing her short term tolerance further. But today she was done…here at least. The rest of the day would be normal gravity training, but after a nap. Heavy gravity always drained her in an odd way, and if she didn’t let her body process the microdamage immediately her other workouts would suffer for it.

  She sensed the Paladin mind outside the door before she opened it, then saw Viceroy Brisco waiting for her.

  “Trouble?” she asked rather than invading his mind to find the answer, but his mood told her something was wrong.

  “It’s finally happened. Two V’kit’no’sat races have invaded our coreward border. We are under assault.”

  Kara’s eyes narrowed dangerously. Up until now in the war the Paladin had continued to expand and had been sending back shipments of standard drones to assist in the replenishment of the existing fleets, but with all the low priority targets the V’kit’no’sat had been hitting, including some in the Frontier Region as the enemy hit them at their weakest point, she’d expected them to show up on the Paladin’s turf eventually.

  “Which races?”

  “The Zep’sha and the Tim’ka, and they’re working with combined fleets.”

  Kara growled, knowing this wasn’t good, and the Viceroy huffed his agreement. The Zep’sha were cousins of the Oso’lon, formerly known as ‘Diplodocus’ in old Earth history. Their necks and tails were a bit closer to snakes while the Pas’cha had higher arching necks than even the Oso’lon. All three were damn near identical, but the Zep’sha and the Pas’cha were essentially the Oso’lon’s personally annexed races and had both the stature and firepower that position allowed. They were not top tier races, but both were strong second tier and now one of them had been sent to fight the Paladin.

  The other race, the Tim’ka, was a mid level aquatic formerly known as the ‘Nothosaurus’. They could live on land, so technically they were amphibian, but they spent most of their time in the water and did not participate in land combat. They used Zen’zat for that, but if they were pairing with the Zep’sha they wouldn’t have to worry about it…and the Zep’sha wouldn’t have to worry about assaulting water worlds. Together they made for a very formidable duo, and Kara wondered why the Paladin had attracted such a heavy hand.

  “Looks like we’re not getting off easy.”

  “It would seem not,” the Paladin agreed. “We will carry our weight in this conflict after all.”

  “Yes we will. Let’s get going. Thrawn is going to need all the help he can get.”

  “Your flagship has been put on notice. I was merely waiting for you to finish your workout.”

  Kara patting him on his scaly shoulder, for most of the Paladin uniforms did not have sleeves, and the pair headed for a waiting dropship that took them up to the monstrous jumpship that Kara would be organizing this war from, now that the V’kit’no’sat had finally arrived. Thrawn was already deployed closer to the coreward border and would be there before she was, and both would be bringing huge fleets with them.

  If the V’kit’no’sat thought they’d be able to sweep up a massive amount of territory and pressure the main portion of Star Force from the spinward side, they were going to be deeply disappointed.

  6

  July 2, 4907

  Gahjo System (Yev Region)

  Siotol

  Arch Duke Karthen had led the Bsidd since trailblazer Larissa-048 had annexed their race into Star Force. He’d had sporadic contact with her over the years, for she had never stopped keeping an eye on the Bsidd, but unless there was something new involved she left the running of the faction up to the Arch Duke. When they’d decided to create new Bsidd variants she’d been heavily involved, but as for the growth of Star Force’s largest faction, that was mostly Karthen’s doing.

  Every region in Star Force territory other than the Paladin Zone had a strong Bsidd presence, either in the form of shared systems or exclusive ones, but the Yev Region was dominated by the insect-like race and Karthen had the job of maintaining the border. It didn’t connect to the Devastation Zone, rather it was bracketed by systems that were neither Star Force nor those purged by the V’kit’no’sat, but being inhabited by other races didn’t prevent the V’kit’no’sat from crossing through them to hit the Yev Region.

  They hadn’t previously, content to go for the closest systems and hammer away until they fell, then move on to the next closest ones. Now they were employing a totally different tactic…hitting where Star Force was weak across the entire border, and even backdooring around the perimeter to come in through the rimward section of the Frontier Zone. Fortunately there weren’t large amounts of enemy troops doing that, but there were enough that they were taking systems and forcing some of the roaming fleets to be dispersed to the rear rather than reinforcing the main lines.

  So far the V’kit’no’sat were not skipping over too many systems and plunging into the interior. That would have been stupid, for the ganking potential of nearby Star Force systems would be too great. There would be too many avenues for reinforcements to arrive and cut them off, so the V’kit’no’sat were keeping open space behind them, more or less, so their reinforcements could flow somewhat unhindered. The trailblazers were not letting them move freely, constantly ambushing their relief fleets as they arrived and hitting them while they moved laterally back and forth across the border, but if the V’kit’no’sat dove past the front and hit the interior systems their movement potential would be blunted by the system defense fleets that could easily pop over a system or two to assist.

  Karthen didn’t know where most of the trailblazers were, for they were roaming around wherever their instincts told them to go, but he did know that the Yev Region was the only one under assault where the V’kit’no’sat did not have a firm fixed base of operations. So far the Bsidd, along with numerous Clans plus Axius and Beacon troops, had prevented any permanent holds. When the Uriti came knocking they punted all temporarily taken systems back into the Star Force category, but the same was not so elsewhere.

  The V’kit’no’sat had taken many systems and secured them with a combination of ground troops and prisoners. The prisoners prevented direct Uriti attacks and the ground troops kept Star Force from reclaiming them, as they were doing in many systems. But those systems that were now firmly held by the V’kit’no’sat were being used as staging bases and the trailblazers couldn’t keep their Uriti sitting there in blockade mode or many other systems would fall in their absence.

  Karthen was intent on not letting the V’kit’no’sat get a foothold in the Yev Region, and he had two Uriti of his own assigned to non-trailblazers and tasked with guarding a sub-region each. They would not travel beyond it, rather be the guard dogs patrolling the most important systems that were pouring out replacement drones and other necessary equipment at a rapid pace. The other Uriti were out and about roaming the front lines, and so far the two Uriti Karthen had under his command had not seen combat because the V’kit’no’sat had not pushed far enough into the region to draw them out.

  Ross-059 and Clark-066 were out on the border now fighting a combination of Sarofan, Vid’sen, Qua’cho, and Sli’nar with Bsidd fleets escorting the Uriti and numerous others defending key systems or roaming the front systems so the V’kit’no’sat couldn’t predict where they were or how many ships they had to bring to the fight. That unpredictability was helping the war effort in all regions, but there were so many V’kit’no’sat fleets that Star Force couldn’t keep up and systems were permanently falling…and when that happened the V’kit’no’sat got stronger and were able to throw up supply bases that Star Force couldn’t touch without killing their own people, which wasn’t an option.

  Karthen had hoped to keep the V’kit’no’sat out of the Yev Region as he played ‘whack a mole’ without giving them any permanent roots, but a fifth race had recently showed up and started kicking the crap out of his fleets. Apparently the V’kit’no’sat realized they’d not assigned enough heavy hitters to the Yev Region, so now a portion of the Hjar’at fleet was in Karthen’s backyard and he was seeing constant reports of how ruthlessly efficient they were. Even their warships were better than the rest, if only in how they organized their fleet formations, but on the ground they were incredibly hard to stop.