Star Force: Leonidas (SF96) (Star Force Origin Series) Read online

  Dexter smiled. “If their navy goes atmospheric, we won’t have much time to work with.”

  “We’re going to wait until a region is almost obliterated, then swoop in and pick up whoever is left. In and out one shot, leaving no one behind.”

  “That’s going to be hard to time.”

  “I know, but I’m not going to go down and capture part of the defenders only to weaken the last stand of others.”

  “Good call there.”

  “Captain, we’re going to need both warships, so get us looping together in a way that doesn’t suggest we’re going to ground. We’ll need as much head start as we can get.”

  “I assume you’re going down yourself?”

  “I’m the biggest gun we’ve got, so yes.”

  “And while the drones are waiting for you to do your collection?” Dexter asked.

  “You torch every Skarron unit within range.”

  “Turkey shoot,” he said with pleasure.

  “Mind the missiles. It appears they’ve upgraded a bit.”

  “So have we.”

  “I know, but don’t get sloppy. We’re going to get hit going down and up.”

  “Then you’d better let me use all of them and keep the jumpships running.”

  “Exactly what I was thinking.”

  “Making it so,” Dexter said, walking across the bridge towards the nexus to start prepping.

  “Captain. Make preparations for unwilling guests.”

  “How many?”

  “As many as we can fit on the dropships.”

  “A single load?”

  Aaron nodded. “We won’t have time to cycle, and if we made time we wouldn’t have the supplies or room to house them all. I’m going to wait until there are just enough left,” he said grimly. “I hate that, but getting anyone out of here alive is going to be a victory.”

  3 days later…

  16 cubes fell down through the atmosphere so fast they appeared to be meteors all the while being tracked and intercepted by missiles fired from the Skarron walkers, though most of the ominous streaks headed towards them never made it, for there was a halo of other drones coming down around them in skirmisher formation and hitting the missiles with what anti-air could break through the turbulent fireballs. When they all slowed enough to become visible, the missile carnage increased as even the boxes fired back and knocked chunks of the rivers of ordinance down before they struck shields that barely flickered with energy loss.

  Star Force technology had progressed so far since their war against the Skarrons that there was no contest now…but sadly there was no way to save this planet or the other with the fleet and army arrayed to destroy it. Superior tech was one thing but so was numbers, and even inferior weapons did damage. Take enough hits and they’d get through the drones’ shields, which was why the anti-air fire was so intense. Offensive defense in its purest form, and it was more than enough to get the drones down to the surface.

  But the missile attacks didn’t end there, nor did the curve of the planet stop incoming fire. More and more missiles flew across the horizon towards them but Dexter, safely tucked away onboard a jumpship, organized his chess board with the loose drones forming a circular perimeter around the falling city they’d chosen to rescue as the boxed up formations floated in low over the center and blasted away at the Skarron walkers and any large groups of infantry that were visible on the city streets.

  After several minutes of cleansing, the bottom edge of those boxes detached with that drone sliding up and gaining some more altitude to help shoot missiles or anything else while the others held a rigid position and the dropships safely protected within began to spill out and down into the city on flights of less than a mile.

  One Dragon-class dropship landed over the rubble of a crushed building and opened its big bay doors to release a pair of mechs…the only two Aaron had brought with them. The neos ran out and into the city hunting for Skarron elites in their battle armor or anything else they could squash while the trailblazer followed them out on foot along with several other Archons that had been accompanying him in his training group…which he was now very glad to have alongside him.

  They broke up, heading different ways and hunting down whatever Skarron or Aronsic minds that they came across nearby the dropships while Aaron and others headed straight for the failing Protovic defenses. The last few bits of them were confined into two main areas and a handful of other holdouts that were about to get run over. Aaron headed on foot to one of the latter, bypassing everything else hostile in between himself and them in order to get there in time, though he did shoot a few Aronsic on the way exacting a tiny bit of revenge for the planet’s inhabitants, but given so much carnage around him it didn’t matter. Dead Protovic, Aronsic, and Skarrons were everywhere, with a lot of their bodies smashed by the feet of walkers or the Skarrons themselves as they ran over the dead or dying as they pushed further and further into the city.

  With a crash a Skarron fighter…or more like half of it…fell to Aaron’s left and imbedded itself into the bottom half of a building, adding to the rubble and throwing out a shower of tiny rock chips that bounced off the Archon’s shields as he continued to run with more fighters going down as they tried to get to the city interior to target the dropships. That was a suicide run with all the drones overhead, but they were making it anyway hoping to get a few through…for they had many to replace whatever they lost and it didn’t look like the Skarrons were worried about reducing casualties so long as they achieved their objective.

  A thought about them not coming with enough supplies anticipating major losses crossed his mind, but he didn’t have time to dwell on it as he came up on the Protovic defense lines and saw several hobbits get vaporized by a pulse cannon that pulverized some building debris behind them at the same time. Bits and pieces of flesh flew everywhere, but more Aronsic poured in from a street on the far right in columns to charge the gun until Aaron waved a hand and knocked them all down with a Jumat blast.

  The pulse cannon didn’t hesitate, blasting away at them on the ground as Aaron came into view and Jedi jumped over their firing arc to land on the other side in a nook where the gunner couldn’t see…out of which flew four more Aronsic, but before the Protovic could shoot them a series of blue plasma bolts from Aaron took them down and added to the defensive effort. When the trailblazer ran out into the sights of the gunners they didn’t fire on him, suddenly knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was a friend and allowing him to run up to them and hop over the broken wall they were positioned within, coming down in the midst of the 8 glowing faces.

  He didn’t speak, but thoughts flowed into their minds sufficient enough that when he pointed to the sky they knew he was here to evacuate them. Who he was they didn’t know, hidden beneath that unusual armor, but given that these men were about to die along with the rest of their mostly dead planet, and they knew it, they didn’t ask questions and followed Aaron out, leaving their pulse cannon mount behind and rushed the approaching Aronsic wave…that suddenly all tripped and fell over one another.

  The next moment their bodies were flying back through the air like rag dolls and piling up further down the street, with them not having a moment to rest as Aaron was throwing one Jumat blast after another to clear the street up until a Skarron came into view and was too massive to dislodge in a similar way. When it tipped its topside arms over and pointed its infantry cannons on the tips at the Protovic it became a statue, freezing in place as Aaron put several shots from his rifle into its ugly face as he led the Protovic by and back towards the dropship.

  The trailblazer continued providing psionic and traditional weaponsfire cover along the way, though one of the neos came crashing into view from the right just as a group of Skarron elites came charging forward on the left hunting the Protovic survivors and intending on running them down with their heavy, shiny armor protecting them from most small arms fire. Aaron immediately circled around to get between them and the Prot
ovic, throwing up a wide bioshield to cover all of them while sending the telepathic impulse of ‘get behind me’ to them while also messing the with minds of the first few elites…though he needn’t have bothered.

  The neo ran out and right by Aaron’s group, punting the first Skarron with a kick from its metallic foot across the street and into the side of a building, then it dropped to a knee and punched another one flat into the pavement as the rest scampered away from the far too agile mech while returning some fire. A few got away, but those stupid enough to stay put and shoot were physically smashed so to avoid firing maulers close to the Protovic, though Aaron could have shielded them enough if needed from anything less than a direct hit.

  The caution was welcome, as was the assist, and with another dose of telepathic prodding Aaron got the 8 Protovic moving again. When the dropship came within range he pointed and all but shouted at them to go, breaking off from them while a couple of other Archons guarding the craft took over and escorted the war weary fighters inside using their lesser telepathic skills.

  Minutes passed and more arrived in small groups, but over an hour later several hundred showed up along with Aaron, who gave the go ahead for the pilot to take off once the pair of mechs walked back onboard.

  The Protovic, who’d been politely disarmed, stood against the sides of the bay as the two giant machines strode in and parked themselves in statue position and cracked open the access ports on the back with more usually armored aliens climbing out and down to the floor of the bay as the outer doors closed, but not before the skyline shifted and the Protovic could see their damaged city drifting below them.

  One of the mech pilots walked over to Aaron as the Protovic were starting to ask questions that he couldn’t easily answer, for their language was new and undocumented. It would take time to learn it, though a few Archons had been sent on tech retrieval missions on their way back to the dropships to see if they could find something to grab that would help in the process.

  Right now though all he had was telepathy to work with, and that was a powerful tool at his disposal. If worst came to worst he could knock them all unconscious with a thought or take control of their bodies, but right now he wanted them to know they were among friends and while getting inside their heads to do that was certainly effective, there was another way that he’d thought of before leaving the ADZ, though he hadn’t expected it to come into play during combat.

  The mech pilot walked up beside Aaron and the trailblazer triggered his armor to split apart. When it did and his Human visage became visible all the Protovic recoiled, either physically or mentally, and he knew they’d never seen his like before. Aaron continued to send reassuring emotions to them then pointed to the mechwarrior beside him.

  After a short delay that set of armor split apart as well, with all of the Protovics’ jaws dropping. As battle scarred and manic as these survivors were being suddenly rescued when they were doomed to die fighting an unwinnable battle was enough to put them on edge, but the sight of another Protovic face amongst these aliens was almost too much to bear and a few of them stumbled as they lost their balance with sheer relief and shock.

  The orange and green glowing faces, some bleeding, most covered in grime or dust that diminished their bioluminescence, just stared at the new Protovic’s face, uniform and overall alien persona. He was one of them, but he glowed pink and blue…something that none of these Protovic had ever thought possible, and in that moment Aaron knew that these, at least, did not know of other variants. Though if they had, they still wouldn’t have recognized a Star Force Protovic, for the base green had been replaced with blue and that offset the pink creating a color combination that was theoretically nowhere else in the galaxy aside from Star Force.

  The mechwarrior walked up to one of the shaky ones and put a hand on his shoulder, knowing he couldn’t understand his words, but using his own limited telepathy to help translate as much as he could.

  “You’re safe now, brothers. Safe,” he repeated as two others walked closer, with one of them reaching out a glowing finger and poking him in the side of the head to see if he was real.

  “You are not dreaming. You are here. I am here. And both of us have many questions to ask.”

  7

  October 29, 3574

  Unknown System (Crusade front)

  Outer Zone

  Sitting far out into the system with no planets nearby to navigationally grapple with, Aaron’s three ships waited out of the reach of the Skarrons while recording from afar the final destruction of the Protovic civilization in this system while the trailblazer met with the escapees one at a time. With him was a neural interlink similar to a control nexus, worn around his head, that allowed him to mentally link with the ship’s computer and, more importantly, the language analysis program there that he’d help design long ago.

  Using his Sav-enhanced Ikrid, he was able to analyze the thoughts of each Protovic as he talked with them. Neither could understand the other’s language, but with each word spoken by the Protovic he analyzed what it meant inside the mind and cataloged it using the analysis program…or rather cataloged all the possible meanings, and fortunately with Aaron’s Ikrid skill, his Sav, and his familiarity with the program, he was making thousands of notations per second as he gradually established the basis of these Protovics’ language via process of elimination.

  Once the basic structure and vocabulary was established he no longer needed them to speak, and he went about ransacking their minds for more words and meanings, funneling them all through his own mind and into the program faster than any Archon or even the language specialist techs could have…for he’d taught many of them these very skills when they’d been gifted the Ikrid necessary to begin unlocking unknown languages, making him the best in-person translator Star Force had.

  Within only a handful of days he had a basic language program for ‘Veersnobva,’ which was what they called their language. Rather than trying to speak it himself, he used an automated translation matrix in which an auditory dampener was set up via energy field between the two of them on the table, diminishing but not eliminating the sounds passing through as they were analyzed and overlayed with the computer translation.

  “Can you understand me?” Aaron asked, and he didn’t need his Ikrid to see the shock in the Protovic’s eyes when he did.

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Over the past few days we’ve built a translation program. It will get better with time, so be aware that there may be some errors involved at present.”

  “How have you done this?” the glowing orange/green face asked Aaron, as they were the only two people in the interrogation room.

  “I can read your mind, Dashmir,” he said, using the man’s name, “and I have taken what I learned and input it into a computer program. I still am now, using this device.”

  Aaron pointed to the ring on his head, but the Protovic merely shook his in dismay.

  “What is going on?”

  “The galaxy is far bigger than you know,” Aaron indulged, sensing his confusion and brittle nerves. Even with a few days to rest the destruction of his world and the bloody fight he’d made to defend it were nearly crippling his will to live. “Not many races have telepathy, but a handful do. Including some Protovic. You’ve not seen others of different colors, have you?”

  “No.”

  “There are those with green and pink markings that have it naturally, or rather once they unlock the dormant ability. All of you have dormant abilities, though my medics say yours has not unlocked yet. I find that curious, given how technologically advanced you are. To answer your question in part, we came here looking for your people because we are searching for Protovic everywhere within our reach. This area was beyond our search zone, but word of the fighting reached us through an ally.”

  “What do you want with us?”

  “It is complicated, but know that we have been inviting all the Protovic that we find to join us in our territory where we ha
ve built a section of our empire specifically for you. The one you met earlier was born there, and is special because he has the abilities from all the different colors, making him very powerful. He has the strength and speed enhancements that Oranges possess, and that you have within you. At some point it will unlock for your people and you will see a great increase throughout your civilization, and the same has happened for others. Not all, but many. There are Protovic spread throughout the galaxy in small groups and we have been trying to bring you all together.”

  “For what purpose?”

  “Our empire has hundreds of different races within it. We stand as a beacon of light against the darkness, and to it many fleeing tragedy run. Your civilization is far from us, but you are welcome there if you wish you come. The same goes for the rest of your people if they have the ships to travel the distance.”

  “You came to offer us sanctuary?”

  “Yes. And to investigate your current condition.”

  “How far away?”

  Aaron knew that wouldn’t translate, so he paused a moment while he dug into the Protovic’s mind and pulled up the distance measurements. They were approximate, given he had to reference images, but it should have been a decent ballpark figure.

  “1300 lightyears straight shot. Longer when you have to bounce back and forth between stars.”

  The Protovic slumped in his seat. “That would take us years.”

  “I know. But you and the rest we pulled out of that fight are welcome to travel back with us, and it will take less than a year. We would offer more, but we have limited supplies onboard our three ships.”

  “Thank you for saving us…whoever you are.”

  “My name is Aaron. I’m an Archon. One of the leaders of Star Force.”

  “Leader? You were the one on the planet fighting.”

  “Yes.”

  “Since when do leaders do anything but hide behind the soldiers?” he said with obvious disgust.