Star Force: Empire (SF58) Read online

  “How many people are onboard those ships?” Ren’jar’tel asked.

  “Difficult to say without knowing what races there are, but I’d conservatively estimate over 100,000 each, plus their fighting equipment, which will including mechs and other large craft.”

  “How do you know all this?”

  “I know because I once fought with them, long ago.”

  “And now?”

  “Now? As you can see I am not fit to fight those dancers, let alone a lizard. My time has passed and I earned my keep, now I sit back and watch others continue the fight.”

  “Why haven’t you obtained self-sufficiency?” someone asked from behind the Calavari.

  “I did, once, as do all our troops…but after I finished my duty, well, the strains of civilian life are so few that retaining your strength is not a priority. I am not proud to admit it, but I got lazy. It is a well-deserved, restful lazy, but my body has deteriorated none the less. I am content as I am, and have lived a long life. I have no regrets.”

  “Why not start training again?” Ren’jar’tel asked.

  The Calavari stared down at him, his bulk coming more from fat than muscle. “Perhaps the same reason you do not.”

  Ren’jar’tel scoffed beneath his mask. “I’m not old.”

  “But you are not self-sufficiency either…and do not try to tell me otherwise. I have been around too long not to be able to tell the difference, no matter what race you are. Ask yourself why you do not train, then you will have my answer in that it is the same.”

  “I don’t need to train,” the Protovic said, not sure where this conversation was going.

  “You’d rather watch others…act,” the Calavari said, pointing one of his lower hands at the dancers, “than do so yourself.”

  “I’m not a dancer.”

  “No, but you are inactive, as are most people in Axius. You are taught differently in the maturia, then you slowly lose what you gained there. It is common and due to a lack of motivation. I predate Axius, I was not born here, but back on one of the original Calavari worlds just before they fell. I fought to help my people survive, and that we have accomplished. Now I am content to pass the torch to others who wish to fight. I have earned my place here, whereas most of you do not nor ever will.”

  “You’re saying we don’t belong here?” the Critel asked.

  “No, no, do not misinterpret my meaning. I only say that most do not contribute. That is a luxury that Star Force allows you, and it is a luxury that I am enjoying right now, though as I said I earned my keep early on, just as those,” he said, pointing to the rising ships now three in number, “are doing now.”

  “I’d rather watch the dancers,” Ren’jar’tel said, turning his attention back to them as they jumped and flipped around in the darkness, lighting the faces of the crowd nearest to them in their multi-colored glow.

  “As you wish, youngling. Your path is yours to choose. Fortunately not all of Axius feels the same way, and a good number of them are heading out now to keep us and others safe.”

  “Why don’t you go with them?” Ren’jar’tel asked, his attention now fully back on the dancers.

  “I lost one leg, and it is something that I do not wish to repeat.”

  The Protovic spun around, seeing both of the big Calavari’s legs from the knees down to his shoes in fleshy yellow/orange.

  “It was regrown,” he explained, “but with it went a great deal of my strength. As did my self-sufficiency.”

  “Sounds like you quit,” Ren’jar’tel said, wishing the Calavari would just shut up and let him enjoy the nude dancers in peace.

  “At least I had something to quit. Most never begin,” he said, followed by some heavy footsteps as the old man walked off to Ren’jar’tel’s relief.

  The Protovic sat and watched the dancers for several more minutes, then glanced back at the now black horizon. The cityscape below was lit, with just enough of a haze to block out most of the stars, though it was more than enough to light the underside of the stream of transports rising up and disappearing in the distance. He saw at least a dozen, once again in awe at the sheer size of them, and now a bit more so knowing who and what was inside.

  He shook the thought off and returned his attention to the park and the living campfire in the center that was dancing around. He wasn’t a fighter and never would be, but he was glad the others were and silently wished them good luck before his mind was once again lost in the spectacle of his nude kin and he returned to the normal ebb and flow of Axius civilian life.

  Waiting in orbit around the central star a Ma’kri floated next to a slew of Axius jumpships, all of which were taking on personnel and cargo from the various planets. The Ma’kri was a recent arrival, bringing with it an Archon commander and some light battle damage from a recent engagement. Two of the Ka’sevron cannons had been knocked out, but the rest of the weaponry remained intact and the ship wasn’t retreating to a shipyard for repairs. With a bit of secondary armor covering the damage in the primary plating it had come here to pick up reinforcements, then was heading back into battle at the head of an Axius fleet.

  While unknown to most, Axius was technically a branch of mainline Star Force, but one focused on non-Human adjuncts. They used all the same technology as the Human forces did, and as such the Axius-produced drones were the same make and model of the ones produced in Epsilon Eridani or Sol. There were some variations in mechs and fighters, but that was largely given to the fact that the different races had different talents and needs. Valeries were used more than skeets, and the whole line of mini-mechs was not present within the Human mainline forces, but otherwise they were the same and operated out of the mainline hierarchy of Administrators, meaning that in the upper levels Humans ran Axius the same way they ran the Core Region.

  The Calavari were different, with Human oversight and command but with the Calavari handling a lot of internal decisions on their own and customizing their equipment to their liking. Axius was a mixed bag of races that was growing with each decade that passed, making it the communal mixing ground that Star Force was using to unite the various races in the ADZ as well as to make use of their skillsets. That generated a unique Axius culture, but not a singular identity, for different Axius colonies had different feels to them, some with denizens only a few inches tall where others were multiple meters in height.

  They were all Axius, and all Star Force, but unlike the Calavari there was no nationalist bond uniting them. They were a scattering of individuals, most of whom were living off of Star Force’s generosity…and that didn’t come anywhere close to the level of self-reliance necessary for a semi-independent status within the empire.

  But it had never been intended to become that. Axius was like the majority of Human colonies who existed primarily with a lazy and uninterested population, but out of which enough volunteers came to take care of the rest. Axius produced far less warriors and workers by percent than the Human colonies did, but the sheer size of Axius, which now outstripped all but the Kiritak, meant it was fielding a high number of troops and resources that Star Force had come to rely upon.

  Right now that meant calling up troops waiting for just this occasion, and doing so within a day of the Ma’kri ship coming into the system. Where they had been extensively training, now the Axius troops were being shuffled onto transports and taken up to the jumpships...and after loading the Archon would be taking them to locations unknown to do battle against what they also didn’t know. The Axius troops weren’t the most veteran in Star Force, but they were solid and motivated, willing to go where needed with no questions asked. Some of them had even migrated over to the mainline fleets and armies, where their physiology allowed them to pass the Human requirements.

  That was rare but not unheard of, with the Axius format much more beneficial in taking advantage of the differences in the races and their capabilities. As such, while the Human mainline troops might be the more skilled, Axius would often pack a bigger punch du
e to its diversity of fighting styles and equipment…so long as it was properly used. The more complex something was the more likelihood of it being messed up, which was why there was almost always an Archon involved when Axius deployed.

  This one took the combined fleet of Axius cargo ships and warships across Zeta Region and into Beta, depressing so low that they nearly dropped into Gamma over the weeks that passed but ended up on the lowest border of the Skarron advance. Here they were still pushing forward, not yet having encountered the edge of the ADZ for it angled back around the curve that it was. The troops here were not from the same source as those now fully engaged with the lizards, and these were continuing their typical push into the weaker systems that surrounded the ADZ without too much resistance.

  The Voku border was far below on the galactic plane, leaving no one in the area with the strength to repel what was really an easy gobbling up of systems by the enemy, but in recent years Star Force had been pushing its diplomatic efforts out beyond the ADZ and establishing contact with hundreds of new races so they could share intel on their mutual enemies.

  This continuing push below the ADZ had been one such instance where an associate of Star Force’s had relayed to them the reconnaissance reports that had allowed a small fleet of Ma’kri to seek out and engage several of the Skarron expeditionary fleets, blocking a few invasions but eventually biting off more than they could chew. The eventual reinforcements had come and it was either time to back off or up Star Force’s game…with Flynn-046 choosing the latter and sending back one of his ships to pull up Axius reinforcements so they could remove one of the forward Skarron strongholds.

  Do that and they’d put the Skarron offensive behind schedule enough to buy the local region a decade, at least, with Star Force coordinating those local races that were willing and helping them organize a stronger, mutual defensive line to avoid the easy gains the Skarrons had been previously making.

  Star Force couldn’t be everywhere at once, but a few hard strikes here and there coupled with a strategic game plan for the locals could make a world of difference in the near future, and since Star Force’s end game was predicated on unlocking more and more pyramid tech they had to try and keep the ADZ from being totally surrounded, and to do that they had to work and think proactively.

  And when the Archons called, Axius was there to answer, as was every other military force within the empire…and they were using them all, right down to the more developed wards, to fight battles beyond mere self-defense and save as many people as they could, all the while more and more refugees fled both the lizard and the Skarron offenses and continued to pour into the ADZ by whatever means they had to get there.

  6

  June 19, 2652

  Unnamed System (Beyond the ADZ)

  Point 6

  The seda decelerated against the gas giant’s gravity well, with the massive jump cradle surrounding it like a spider grasping its prey as it slowed the medium-sized station down using its considerable engine power. Already in orbit, having arrived a few minutes ahead, was the Canderous fleet some 18 ships strong with another 34 on the way, trailing slightly behind the seda in loose escort formation.

  None of them were jumpships, or in the case of Canderous, jump ‘rods’ for the spacefaring civilization had forgone the traditional Star Force model and rebuilt their fleet based on the Skarron navy, in which each individual ship was capable of making slow jumps between star systems. Now every Canderous ship from cargo hauler to warship was interstellar jump capable, with only their sedas requiring a lift. Those were meant to be stationary, but their fleet wasn’t, and the idea of a number of ships getting stranded in a system because their jumpship malfunctioned or was destroyed was something the Canderians weren’t too keen on.

  They lived in space, operated in space, and only went planetside to gather resources or to fight…with this current mission being right up their alley, for there wasn’t a habitable planet within the unclaimed system that was situated beyond the Alpha and Epsilon Regions. The gas giant the seda was being placed into orbit around had a slew of moons and there were six other sizeable rocky, yet barren worlds without atmosphere for Canderous to harvest resources from, but there was nothing here even remotely capable of housing a standard civilization.

  Star Force could have built colonies on the worlds, contained within sealed cities like they had in many other locations, but this system was to be Canderous only with no ADZ resources devoted to it. The seda had within it all the necessary crews and factories required to build another just like it…and many more. Right now it was isolated and alone, with only a handful of warships to guard it against threats in the region, but those threats were minor as far as Star Force’s scouting reports indicated. No, Canderous was here for another reason beyond colonization.

  While others built up the defenses within and around the ADZ Canderous had been tasked to go beyond it, into the expected expansion path of the lizards and build up outposts that they could monitor the local areas from and hopefully pick off small scale invasions before they grew to the point where the mainline fleet would be required. So many systems were falling to the lizards simply due to the fact that no one was around to fight them, with them picking up valuable planets with almost no resistance at all.

  Sure, there were major battles being fought elsewhere, but the lizards were assaulting so many systems that neither Star Force nor anyone else could counter them all, let alone detect them. Even with their relay grid and progressively faster communication between star systems there was always a lag, and that relay system didn’t extend beyond the ADZ save for a few locations, meaning outside the ADZ the lizards were gobbling up easy targets, some of whom Star Force only learned about from survivors fleeing their way.

  While lizard territory was too vast to contain, Canderous had been tasked with slowing them down. To that end they were picking 29 widely spaced systems and putting down roots, in this case a seda in each, and developing those systems while scouting out the surrounding area and establishing permanent patrols once they built up their fleets. Each location was well ahead of the lizards current lines, with the intention to be that Canderous could be firmly established in their outposts and fielding sizeable fleets by the time the first lizard ships arrived, but with their tendency to hop over some systems and go for others there was no way of telling when it would be, but sooner or later they would come and Canderous would be waiting for them.

  They knew they didn’t have the firepower to resist a major invasion, but what they planned to build their outposts into was a small scale, high numbered fleet that could monitor and hit the type of seed planting invasions that the lizards had originally hit Epsilon Eridani with…a handful of ships that would create a lizard colony and grow their way into greater strength. If they could detect and take out those when they arrived, they could deny the lizards hundreds of planets going forward. In the greater scheme of things that was a small number, but the less they had to work with the better.

  The lizards were veterans at fighting in multiple arenas simultaneously and Star Force was going to take a page out of their book, letting Canderous play with their expeditionary forces and cause them the kind of havoc the lizards typically caused others.

  To that end the giant seed that the seda was dropped into a stable orbit and immediately began sending out short range craft to the nearby moons, landing mining equipment and other gear there for the work crews to begin assembling. The seda was purposefully over staffed, knowing that they weren’t going to get any personnel reinforcements for several years to come and the local birth rate wasn’t going to be enough to supply what they needed. The rest of Canderous would make up for that, but aside from this initial seda and fleet, Point 6 was going to have to build everything else on site.

  The jump cradle detached from the seda after it was secured into a fixed orbit and left immediately, capable of traveling far faster on its journey back to the ADZ than any of its previous escorts could. It would re
port back that the outpost was now operational and growing, but beyond that the Canderians would be on their own for months, if not years before the next ship came to check on them. They were about 3 months away from the ADZ given their ‘slow’ gravity drives and more than 3 weeks away from the nearest Point outpost, making them truly on their own with no relay links back to the ADZ…only courier ships should they send one.

  But that didn’t worry Canderous, for this environment was one that they lived and thrived within. They’d chosen a system far enough away from the lizard lines to give them plenty of time to build and they set out to do that immediately, sending only two warships away to begin scouting the neighboring systems and updating the limited maps they’d been given. This was their turf now and they needed to get to know it in detail if they were going to end up monitoring and lightly defending all of it, not through establishing bases and putting up Sentinels, but by creating and maintaining patrolling fleets to knock down any small scale invasions that might occur, or rather would. It was the timetable and location that was in question.

  With the two ships jumping out, the rest spread around the system pulling more detailed surveys, dropping off sensor probes and comm relays, and otherwise fully claiming the uninhabited system as theirs. How much traffic passed through en route to other systems they didn’t know, but there hadn’t been so much as a scratch of infrastructure in the system when previously scouted, nor was it marked on any of the local maps as belonging to anyone. It was simply one of the ‘junk’ systems set in between the others and used as a hopping off point to shorten jumplines or avoid bad ones.

  Canderous intended for it to remain that way, with them not taking up any positions near the star other than dropping off some monitoring probes. If no one knew they were in the system that was fine, they’d just build quietly and keep an eye on the local star systems, waiting and watching for the inevitable arrival of their enemy while the rest of Star Force fought the major battles.