Star Force: LITrpg (Star Force Universe Book 64) Read online

  “Why are you here?” Puar asked.

  “I am here to divert you,” the Protovic said, pointing a glowing hand off into the woods. “Follow me.”

  Puar did as instructed, following his handler through the underbrush where no trail led. Eventually they came to a rock wall that dissolved into a tunnel entrance at Reganno’s gesture. The two went inside and the rock sealed over behind them, with Puar becoming very curious as to where they were going. Were there two obelisks in this level?

  “You have completed your training, Puar,” Reganno said, gesturing towards a round platform in the center of the room at the end of the tunnel. “Stand there.”

  Puar felt a rush of adrenaline and pride. This was totally unexpected, yet it was what he had been working towards for months. He thought he was far from ready, but apparently he had been doing far better in his hidden mental training than he had guessed.

  He walked up onto the stone-like platform and stood dead center, looking around at the dozen statues that lined the perimeter of the room. They were three times his height, and all were Vargemma races from the Temples…but not just races. He knew these individuals. All Vargemma did. They were first to become Varkemma and were known as heroes amongst the Temple underground…as well as reviled by those who still hated Star Force.

  “Each Vargemma has a choice, Puar. To continue to oppose us, or join us in the fight against the Hadarak. Though you don’t know it, your loyalties have been made clear through your simulated training. You will never recover those memories, so it will forever be a mystery to you, but let me attest to the fact that we no longer doubt that you are one of us in spirit. Now you will become one of us in fact as well.”

  Reganno pulled a spear from the hand of one of the statues and brought it over to Puar, pointing the end of it towards him.

  “I, Reganno, of the Elcee, do hereby sanction the elevation of this warrior into the ranks of the Varkemma. To fight, and perhaps die, defending the galaxy against the Hadarak and all others who embrace the darkside. The Varkemma are a breed of the light, and the light shall never be betrayed by one of them. If you accept this responsibility, grasp the spear and take their mark.”

  Puar exhaled slowly, then reached his left paw up and slid the spear between toes, not having an actual thumb to hold something with. When he did so his paw locked to the spear, numbing slightly, as a glowing silver icon was tattooed onto the top of his fur…though on closer inspection he saw that it was his fur that was actually changing color to produce the Star Force symbol wrapped inside a sphere, representing the Temples from which all Varkemma originated.

  When his paw unnumbed, Reganno withdrew the spear and placed it back into the statue’s hand.

  “Training is over. The war is going poorly, and we’re losing many evacuees because we can’t get to them fast enough. When the V’kit’no’sat abandoned the front the Hadarak began to spread much more quickly, and their advance has only been accelerating since. We need as many Varkemma as we can get there, now, to stem the tide long enough to save more lives. Are you ready for this, Puar?”

  “I have been waiting for this my entire life,” he said confidently. “Send me to the Hadarak.”

  Reganno nodded. “Good. But first we need to get you equipped. In order to maximize your damage all Varkemma carry an Essence ring,” he said, holding up his hand for emphasis. “We can fashion one for your toes, ankles, neck, or a crown. But many quadrupeds have opted for an imbedded jewel on their bodies. How would you like to carry yours?”

  “It is best if I cannot be parted from it. Can it be melded to my skull?”

  “Yes.”

  “Just above my eyes and between, assuming it is strong enough to survive a head butt?”

  “It’s not a melee weapon, but it’s designed to take a hit when needed,” Reganno said as he walked to a section of wall that melted away for him, revealing an array of rings and other silver jewel-bearing items. He withdrew one along with a small circular regenerator, then walked back over to the platform where Puar stood.

  “Kneel,” he said, prompting the larger cat to dip his head down low enough for the Elcee to reach, then he proceeded to place the jewel exactly where Puar had indicated. After a brief moment of numbing he withdrew, carrying the regenerator with him as the jewel now remained.

  Reganno waved a hand and a shimmering mirror appeared before Puar, allowing him to inspect his new addition.

  “Is this satisfactory?”

  “It is indeed,” Puar said, his heart swelling with pride. “How do I charge it?”

  “Touch it to the Essence source and you will be able to draw any amount needed over a matter of seconds. Be advised, it is more than just a Magicite. It is also a Materia.”

  “A weapon?”

  “Yes. It will allow you certain skills that you may or may not already possess,” Reganno said, raising his own fist towards one of the statues that carried a shield, and from his ring he fired a green beam into it. The shield was apparently more than just statue, because it caught the beam and absorbed it without taking any damage.

  “You have to be able to operate it using Essence, but you will learn quickly enough. It can be used with your own Essence as well, though keep that as a last resort.”

  Puar closed his eyes, feeling the mental connection to it…as well as the knowledge of how to use it.

  “I already know how,” he declared.

  “Knowing and doing are two different things. You will get some practice on the way to the front,” he said, snapping his fingers.

  The platform Puar was on began to rise as a hole in the ceiling formed, but Reganno was not coming with him.

  “Good luck, Varkemma. Remember that if you die, you fail all future missions. So keep yourself alive in order to do maximum damage.”

  Puar nodded, then Reganno was out of view as the shaft overhead obscured the chamber below. His rate of ascension increased until the walls were whipping by at a rapid pace. He didn’t dare touch them, not at this speed, but he wondered if there was a shield there to protect the occupant.

  Suddenly the movement shifted to lateral, without him feeling the transition. That meant he was inside an IDF field at least, nulling out acceleration forces as he was carried far away from his previous position. So far in fact it took more than half an hour to arrive at his destination…which was a hangar with numerous dropships in the process of boarding.

  “You with the paws, over here, now!” a Star Force Calavari said, pointing one of his four hands towards a ramp into a ship.

  Puar did as told, seeing other Vargemma around him coming from tunnels such as his as a larger group was assembling to the right. He was not directed there, but into a dropship that, upon entering, he saw was nearly full of people…all of which had the Varkemma symbol somewhere conspicuous on their bodies, as well as their silver jewels.

  His jaw almost dropped. Were new Varkemma being created this fast? He knew the Temple was vast, but he had no idea so many were being recruited beyond the Trigorma. Was his race restricted in number due to their population? Or perhaps there were other variables. Regardless, it seemed they were being shipped out as soon as they were knighted, and something about that felt appropriate to Puar, as well as a little bit desperate.

  Reganno had said many people were dying because Star Force couldn’t get to them in time, and it seemed they were not going to waste any lives by having the new Varkemma linger here.

  Puar squeezed in amongst the others, packed too tightly to even sit down, as a few more followed him in, then the boarding ramp rose up and they lifted off, leaving him and many members of other races…some of which had been rivals…packed together into a nightmare situation.

  But nobody fought each other. There wasn’t even any arguing or tension in the air. Everyone was looking around at each other, recognizing the fact that they had all been chosen to become Varkemma when the rest of the Temple had not been. They were of the same race now. The race of the silver jewel, and
they were part of Star Force, heading to war to fight side by side in the destiny they had always been promised when the Founders returned, yet Star Force was getting them there far quicker.

  The galaxy demanded it, and Puar and his new kin were ready to answer that call.

  They were Varkemma now, and while they didn’t know a great deal about what that meant, they would learn in time, for Puar knew the front was far, far away. And if they did their job, they’d keep it there and away from the Rim and the Temples.

  His destiny was no longer here. It was out there, where the fighting was, and that transition was one he never thought he’d experience. The Temple had been his life, now it was his past, and he sensed all the others felt the same way. The future lay ahead, amongst the stars they had never seen, but would soon become acquainted with as a constant backdrop to life. A very dangerous and unpredictable backdrop. And one without the Caretakers to look after and police them.

  They were the protectors now, and Puar truly hoped he never returned to the Temple and his old life. This is what he was destined to become, and even if the war was won and the Hadarak defeated, he would not be coming back to the Temple.

  And he suspected the others felt the same.

  7

  December 2, 128690

  Uriti Preserve #8

  Stogori System

  Puar had spent the better part of a month onboard a Star Force Lantern-class transport, but the ship had enough weapon batteries on it to make it a warship as far as the Vargemma were concerned. From what he’d learned so far studying the infinitely large Star Force database now available to him was that there were no unarmed ships within the empire. Everything could defend itself to some extent, and the 18 mile long beast he now rode in was well equipped to do just that.

  It had a mix of ranged, short, and point defense weaponry, but the bulk of the interior space was not devoted to carrying weapons or their ammunition. It was to carry troops along with a massive Essence well buried under 18 layers of armor plating, and that wasn’t even counting what protected the ship itself.

  That well was empty, with Puar and the other Varkemma onboard drawing recharges from a portable secondary ‘lantern’ in one of the cargo bays. The ship itself was new, and all those like it in the war zone were not returning to the Rim to pick up new Varkemma. New ships were being built as fast, if not faster, than Cal-com was providing the elite troops, so this ship hadn’t had a chance to fill up on Essence yet, because apparently the Temples were not the source of it for Star Force.

  He’d always assumed they were producing the Essence themselves or somehow syphoning it off from the Temple’s own reserves, for they’d never touched the racial wells. If they had the Vargemma would have thrown this Temple into a full blown war against the Caretakers in order to defend them, as they had in others, but it seemed Star Force didn’t need to steal Essence from the Vargemma or the Temples at all…because they had a much better source for it.

  Puar couldn’t believe what he was witnessing as the ship he rode in slowly moved up near a giant space beast twice the size of his vessel. There were others here too, though smaller and spread across the system. This was what Star Force called a ‘Uriti Preserve’ and it was mostly off limits to the public, but what the public didn’t know was that the giant beasts that descended from Hadarak had the ability to use one and only one Essence ability…and that was to donate.

  The Warden-class Hadarak also had this ability, which few in the galaxy knew, and it had apparently bred true when a race called the Chixzon captured a Hadarak and experimented on it…as crazy as that sounded. But the end result was before Puar, and looking at the monster he was glad Star Force had discovered a means to, at first, control them, but now they were true allies and willingly donating Essence to the war effort on such a massive scale that it dwarfed what the entire Vargemma population could produce for the Temples.

  The mass of these creatures alone was staggering, and with all that body having to have Essence fixing it to the person inside meant the Uriti had a huge amount to work with, but every time they donated some their Essence pool would become larger the same way the Vargemma adapted with training. He didn’t know how long the Uriti had been used in this manner, perhaps thousands of years, and during that time their ability to produce Essence would have grown with experience and body size, for apparently they never stopped growing larger.

  That was why this one, known as ‘Pacman,’ was so much larger than the others. It had been one of the original Uriti recovered from their hidden prisons within the galaxy. The smaller ones were then bred asexually from the larger ones, and each was identical to its spawn, giving Star Force a variety of designs. This one was a large disc with a section missing out of it, and within the wedge of empty space was a massive biological weapon that could kill, or at least severely damage, Puar’s ship with a single shot.

  All the Uriti had weapons, unlike the Warden Hadarak. He’d wondered why they weren’t deployed to fight in the war until he came across a notation that said Uriti viewed the Hadarak as their kin and became deeply conflicted when forced to fight them. So much so that some, under the previous control of the Zak’de’ron, had started to go insane. Because of that, Star Force was keeping them away from the Hadarak, but they were contributing greatly to the war effort simply by producing Essence for others, like Puar, to use almost without restriction.

  The thought of that was crazy. He’d spent his entire life learning how to apportion his own Essence, giving some to the Temple as was required, some to his race, and to devote the rest to his personal training without taxing himself to the point where he became incapacitated. But the ability to pull from a well so large you didn’t have to worry about expending it all would give him insane combat capabilities.

  Him and the others onboard. There were no Elcee here to instruct them. Instead there was a single Archon, and one that couldn’t use Essence. Reganno hadn’t been kidding when he said that if they could become Varkemma they would be fully trusted. No one onboard could operate the Essence equipment for the well except them, and that meant no one had any defense against Essence attack should any of them betray the trust given to them.

  Puar thought that was unwise, but it was also comforting. He wasn’t being given probational status. This was his home now, and no one was going to be looking at him for possible betrayal. Whatever had occurred in the Temples apparently stayed in the Temples, and it seemed that anyone not worthy of complete trust would never be let outside them.

  There was one veteran Varkemma here, to operate the Lantern, but it was the Archon that was instructing them on what was to come and continuing their training…for even a troop ship such as this held chambers exclusively for training. There were no widespread challenge courses like he’d been using in Redemption, but any skill he sought to work on had the apparatus for it here…including a few for Essence abilities.

  Puar had been staying away from those for the most part, in order not to consume much Essence that they all had to share, but now that they were in the Preserve to get fully loaded up, the Archon had instructed them to devote at least a small portion of each day to making sure their Essence skills were well practiced and familiar. As for any heavy training, he promised they’d get plenty of it on the battlefield, so they needed to work on strengthening their bodies and stamina for what was to come most of all.

  Right now no one was training. All were gathered around viewing portals or holographic terminals so they could see the refueling process. Their ship was coming so very close to the Uriti that it obscured most of their vision above, leaving the starfield visible below. Puar still wasn’t used to being able to see in all directions, feeling like he would start falling and never stop, but for the moment it was the dark gray Uriti that dominated the exterior view.

  Puar blinked as his Essence vision kicked in without him even trying to activate it. A surge so large and powerful leapt from the Uriti to the center of the ship, with the bleed off hitting him
and the others onboard like a wave of mist…but a wave that they could absorb a bit of themselves.

  He did just that, sucking it in and sending it to his forehead jewel, for his body was already full. In training they didn’t expend their own, because drawing from the jewel caused an over surge in their body that actually increased their maximum capacity more than regular training. It also meant that they’d be at full power if something damaged their personal well and it bled off its contents in a matter of seconds.

  That was a worry, but it would take a direct hit to do that. And a direct hit to his forehead would kill him, so if the jewel took the hit and saved his life it was worth the loss. Plus he’d still have his full body’s worth of Essence to fight with after that, so jewel usage had become the primary protocol amongst the Varkemma in training, though they did expend some of their own to recharge it afterwards, then let a good night’s sleep replenish the small amount their body lost and bring them back up to full power.

  But what was happening now was mindboggling. The Uriti wasn’t trying to target him or the others. The beam of Essence coming from it to the ship was so massive this was just a byproduct of it and the glare to his Essence vision was blinding. Fortunately it couldn’t damage his sight, but if someone nearby him was charging an attack to kill him with he never would have known until it was too late.

  The beam was heading straight into the ship’s well and charging it. Holograms all over the ship lit up showing the status, and it was moving very slowly. The ‘Lantern’ in the ship must have been designed to hold a massive amount, and he wondered just how much the Uriti would be able to donate…but to his surprise the beam never stopped during the 18+ minutes it took to charge the well, and when it finally hit 100% the beam ceased, giving Puar a newfound respect for the Uriti and the Hadarak. They were truly beyond the Vargemma in terms of Essence powers, and it was no wonder the Founders had told them not to engage the Hadarak until they returned.