Vargemma Read online

  But Bren wasn’t a trailblazer, and while Greg was here he wasn’t even fleet commander. He was valuable, but he wasn’t that valuable. He didn’t want to die, but Star Force couldn’t just wait this out and the Director had already stated through the battlemap that Star Force would not back down from the Hadarak and that they’d kill the Uriti over his dead ass.

  Greg hated letting someone else risk themself, but Bren was an Archon too and they’d come to an agreement. Star Force citizens were being murdered across the galaxy and there was little they could do to stop it, only mitigate it when it began. The answers lay with what was inside that stronghold, and they needed to know what that barrier was if they were going to have a chance of penetrating it.

  Point of fact, they needed to know if it was Essence and if it could be penetrated by Essence…and whether or not that would set off an alarm inside. Bren knew this might be a suicide mission, but he wasn’t going in unprepared. He evacuated his entire command ship, then took three other empty warships with him on the slow route in. That meant 5 months travel creeping in towards the nebula then decelerating against the micro-star’s gravity and what else they could get from the surrounding nebula.

  When they finally hit the edge of it they hadn’t slowed down enough, so they had to use the friction to come to a halt, then very slowly move to rendezvous with the automated ships, one of which was on the outside of the nebula and acting as a more powerful transmitter. That hadn’t alerted the Vargemma, but when the warships got near the barrier Bren kept waiting for an attack, either from the ships or from the Sphere itself.

  Neither happened, and his donut-shaped command ship kept getting closer to the barrier, which he could already see with his enhanced eyes was made of Essence…or maybe enhanced by Essence. Regardless, it glowed dimly. Very dimly for something that size, which was probably why the Uriti couldn’t see it from lightyears away.

  Bren stopped the ship only a kilometer away from the barrier, then walked into a dropship and had a mooring beam from the ship attach itself to the dropship in order to allow him to ‘fly’ it in an efficient manner, for the gravity was so weak he almost could have got out and swam through the gas faster.

  He also needed the precise movements to avoid hitting the barrier, which seemed not to exist at all on sensors. Bren could see it easily, so he had the dropship towed up next to it, then he opened the rear hatch and swung it around facing the barrier, getting within two meters of it at the closest.

  The Archon walked out in the artificial gravity of the dropship, looking at the magnificent thing. The Essence was of a variety he had never encountered before, immensely complex and almost beautiful. It was also laced with non-Essence energy similar to a cloaking device, but heavily altered by the mixing.

  “Ok,” he said to himself, hoping this wouldn’t set off an alarm. “Time to see if I can get through.”

  He knew his telemetry was being sent back to Greg constantly, but the comm lag didn’t allow him to talk to him or vice versa. He was on his own here, but if he did die the trailblazer would have record of it. Bren wasn’t going to walk through the barrier, for he didn’t want to get mind wiped, but his Essence was another matter.

  He caused a rush, wondering if that would be enough to attract attention. He held it for nearly half an hour, watching for a respond and getting none, before he finally caused it to stretch out into a ‘stick’ extending from his right arm. He pushed it into the barrier, feeling it get whittled away on contact.

  He frowned. That had never happened before.

  He tried again with the same results, then he tried to harden his Essence to the max and found he could get a little more penetration before his ‘stick’ was destroyed where it hit the barrier. Then he tried to make a hollow tube out of it, and make it very thick, hoping to push through and create a small empty area inside for signals to pass through and, hopefully later, a person…but it failed miserably.

  The barrier was strong, very strong, and everything he put into it fell apart like a snowball, including his ‘straw,’ but at least he confirmed the barrier was more than a couple inches thick, for he got that far before he lost control of his own Essence to the field.

  “Damn it, they said defense was based on converting the enemy’s Essence into your own, and this thing is conscripting mine like it wanted to bolt. Greg, this is a no go. I’m going to stay here and work the relay to see what I can find, but this barrier is definitely Essence based and far more complex than we thought. I don’t think you’re going to have any better luck. I’m not dead yet, and unless this spooked them I think I’m in the clear. I’m going to wait ready to run, but if I’m not approached I’m holding position. Figure this thing out, buddy, because we’re not getting any people through the barrier.”

  Greg frowned when he finally got Bren’s message, for if they couldn’t get people through the barrier and couldn’t remotely control drones through it, the enemy was pretty much secure in their position. He could try a kamikaze attack with drones from this side not slowing down, but that Yeg’gor-light armor would absorb most of the collision and the magma beneath would solidify in the wound, resealing it soon thereafter.

  They had to hit the Vargemma in their own backyard in order to draw their attention inward and prevent them from making attacks elsewhere, but how were they going to do it? That sphere was beyond anything Star Force could even begin to produce, and the more limited information that came back via the recon drones showed a massive and mostly empty Dyson Sphere with a heavy defense fleet inside with hundreds of Olopars.

  But there wasn’t just one version of ship in there. He could see different fleet designs, ostensibly from different races. They had the perfect hiding spot where nobody could counterattack them, and enough resources on the surface of the sphere to supply them with everything they needed for an unlimited amount of time.

  Something about that didn’t feel right to Greg until he got another update from Bren. It was weeks later, but the Archon had used the limited remote controls available through the shuffle relay to get some technology samples from the outer shell, for it wasn’t just an armor barrier.

  That technology sample included three components Star Force was familiar with that were high end, plus another 6 that were completely unknown to them and beyond current comprehension. They were not primitive, but highly advanced, and even the three that were known were far beyond the technology of the Vargemma ships that had attacked Star Force to date.

  The images of the infrastructure in space was painfully limited, and even active sensors from the surface wouldn’t have given enough data, but Greg was betting that what he was seeing was of the same make and model of the ships and NOT the construction of the Sphere…which meant the Vargemma probably hadn’t built this thing. Someone else had and they were just occupying it?

  Maybe. Or maybe the Vargemma were just using their second line troops, but Greg didn’t think so. He was getting the eerie feeling that they’d stumbled onto something even more advanced than the Vargemma, and that was both terrifying and possibly beneficial if they hadn’t been able to unlock its secrets yet.

  “Covenant and Halo,” he told the other trailblazers in a message he sent to them. “I think we’re actually living it out now. We have got to get in there and look around, regardless of the risks. Otherwise they’ll continue to strike us at will, and if this barrier is Essence fed, I’m guessing we’re not going to win the attrition war with them. They’ve got to have an enormous supply. One of us has to get in there somehow, so the sooner you figure out the Stargate effect the better, because that looks like the only way in and out. And mark my words, if we don’t capitulate soon, I’m guessing the Grid Points will be their next target. We don’t have time to wait. One of us has to play Master Chief and get that barrier down for us to spam them with drones. That’s our only play unless you can figure out something else, because I’ve got nothing to hit them with.”

  8

  March 7, 128539
r />   Jepiker System (Home Two Kingdom)

  Forge

  Vochem had floated around with the fake escort fleet that Davis had left for many months, detailing what he knew of various Jenshar techniques to some of the Archons there before being transferred to the Archon home system…which strangely was not on Earth. The Knights of Quenar had not realized they were based elsewhere, and as soon as he arrived the Head Trainer of their warriors, by the name of Wilson, found him and began asking very specific questions.

  It became apparent to Vochem that Star Force knew more about the Jenshar than the Knights of Quenar were aware, but they had significant gaps that he was glad to fill…at least as best he could. He wasn’t a master by any stretch, but he taught them the way he had learned, which often involved conforming his Jenshar to a specific technique and intermingling it with another’s so they could ‘feel’ the Jenshar and mimic it.

  But that wasn’t enough for Wilson, and he pressed for the reason behind the various techniques, and that was something that Vochem could not provide him. Most of what he did he did by memory, not understanding, though he could read between the lines of the questioning with regard to their attempts to create a Jenshar shield. Wilson never confirmed that, and Vochem knew it was impossible because the Jenshar couldn’t block itself. Every contest, even one with hardened Jenshar into quasi-phyiscal weapons involved one overcoming the other on contact and asserting control, meaning the loser’s construct would melt and the other’s would pass through.

  Then during an exhibition, Vochem had a Jenshar sword extending from his arm blocked by an Archon.

  The Knight of Quenar immediately stopped and backtracked, not understanding what had just happened. What followed was a long conversation that convinced him that Star Force’s breakthrough into the Jenshar had not occurred the same way it had for the Knights of Quenar…or perhaps even for the Vargemma. They had taught them nothing of this clashing of the Jenshar in solidified forms, so either they did not know or they were not giving the Knights of Quenar what Star Force considered to be the basics of the Jenshar.

  That had prompted Vochem to ask for permission to contact the other Knights, and once Davis had given the go ahead the apparently dead Ambassador returned to his people and had a very uncomfortable discussion with them. They were not happy he had disappeared and shared Jenshar techniques with Star Force, but they were even more unhappy with the Vargemma’s sabotaging of the anti-Hadarak efforts and their demand to kill the Uriti while leaving the galaxy at the enemy’s mercy.

  While the Knights of Quenar would be happy to see the Uriti finally dead and gone, the Hadarak had become the worse threat and taking out one of the roadblocks to their expansion was going the wrong way. Plus, the Vargemma had not bothered to explain the demands to his Order, nor the deaths of the Knights on Earth. The Knights of Quenar leadership was stuck with doing nothing…that was, until Vochem revealed his insights as to Star Force’s alternate path with the Jenshar.

  Then had come the knowledge of the Vargemma stronghold. Davis had chosen to share that with Vochem, and it was knowledge the Knights had never obtained from their ‘masters.’ The fact that the sphere was built of technology superior to what the Vargemma used had solidified the ire of the Knights of Quenar, for they’d been told that the Vargemma had constructed the strongholds and were the sole power within the galaxy. But if they were merely squatting on what was a magnificent construct put there by others, then that was duplicity enough for them.

  Combined with the murder of the other Knights, a line was crossed and Vochem returned to Star Force as Ambassador once again, but with a contingent of Jenshar trainers to swap knowledge with Wilson and the Archons as they sought to create a defense against the Vargemma’s offensive power. They didn’t bother to tell the Vargemma that, for they were quietly switching sides in this war and they intended to avenge those killed on Earth if and when they got the opportunity.

  But first they had to learn and teach, and it was becoming clear that there was far more to the Jenshar than they had ever imagined. They’d always treated it as a sea in which to live, never cut off from it and always affected by it. But Star Force looked at it as a power source that they could shut off at will, despite the fact that it inhabited every portion of their bodies.

  The Jenshar was like a book, and each person had different pages of it, but all the pages were of the same material and if one was shared with another it rewrote itself to match the one possessing it. This was how the Knights of Quenar had learned to defend themselves, by rewriting the pages that came there way, and it was also what the Vargemma had greatly enhanced their knowledge of. A stronger opponent could rewrite any attack by a lesser one, but a lesser one had no defense against a stronger attack. It was the hierarchy of the Jenshar users and why the Knights of Quenar had never thought of challenging the Vargemma until they also rose to such a level, but perhaps that was also a ruse on their part to keep the newer acquisitions suppressed.

  By the time Vochem had returned to Forge, what knowledge he had imparted to Wilson had apparently been enough to get them past their plateau, for they now had a very basic technique established to shield themselves from all attacks.

  It was flimsy and unreliable, but it shocked the Jenshar Masters that Vochem had brought with him, and Wilson immediately incorporated them into the testing and refining of the technique that had the Jenshar somehow reflecting and containing the other Jenshar prior to rewriting, almost as if holding it in queue.

  Then Wilson let slip that they had Jenshar weapons that used a reflective effect to store the Jenshar heavily upgraded by a find they’d made. Vochem was not given knowledge or access to that find, but so far the Knights of Quenar had not been able to store Jenshar outside their bodies unless they maintained a stabilization charge. That meant a Knight had to stay with the container constantly modulating the containment aura. If it was left untouched, the stored Jenshar would quickly empty out.

  That was why the Knights of Quenar did not have Jenshar-enhanced weapons that were self-contained and could store up massive amounts. They had technology to move objects when many Knights worked together, including entire cities, but it was all active manipulation of Jenshar and not storage.

  Vochem had assumed Davis’s ring that he stored Jenshar in had to be constantly worn and topped off, but that was not true, for Star Force had learned how to stretch out and delay the emptying enough that they would only have to periodically return to refresh the containment.

  And all this time he had assumed Star Force had used a Ysalamir to wound the Lurker, but now Wilson confided in him that it was actually a Jenshar-enhanced weapon from years of slow storage condensed into a single attack. The Ysalamir did not operate off Jenshar, but Star Force had many such legacy weapons waiting to be used in specific situations, but they did not want to waste them. None had been used in defense against the Vargemma attacks, because Star Force didn’t know where they were going to hit them in order to get the ‘Materia’ there, plus there was no way to guarantee they would work against the absorptive shields of the Olopar.

  Vochem didn’t know how those worked either, nor did any other Knight, but it was clear they could be overcome with enough pressure, and the fact that Star Force had managed to kill one was a big factor in the Knights deciding to align themselves with Star Force. They didn’t want to take on the Vargemma, but doing nothing aided the Hadarak and that was exactly what the Vargemma wanted. The galaxy could be destroyed, but they would survive inside their impressive fortresses while the Knights of Quenar, who had not been allowed access, would also be destroyed.

  So doing nothing was not an option, but taking on the Vargemma was near to suicide…yet the more knowledge was exchanged with Star Force, the more he grew hopeful. If the galaxy was to be saved, it would be Star Force doing the saving and the Knights of Quenar would have to play a support role similar to what they had been doing with the Uriti.

  Then today, out of nowhere, a message from Davis
arrived, from wherever he was hiding in his empire, addressed to Vochem specifically.

  “I would like to thank you for the work you’ve done, and in the limited trust you have given us. Though there are still issues with how the Knights of Quenar operate that I cannot ignore, I am not in a position to do anything about it at the moment, as you well know. Hopefully we will not one day be forced into war against each other, for I think you are learning, albeit slowly, but I’ll take what progress I can get,” Davis’s hologram said with a smile.

  “You also saved my life, but in addition to that you helped us obtain all the Uriti…assuming the two that died actually died. I wish we had some evidence of those deaths to be sure, but your recovery of the others has been critical to the development of our herd. In light of our recent alliance and our previous arrangement regarding the Uriti, I am trusting you with a secret recently discovered. In addition to the Ysalamir, it is how we are going to defeat the Hadarak. You once said if I could give you a pathway to victory you would help us…and you already are, so this is a bit backwards, but I give it to you none the less.”

  “Wilson has already informed you of our Materia weapons and how we have to slowly charge them over years, if not millennia, to build up enough charge. The larger number of the Knights of Quenar that can use Essence would speed this process up, as previously discussed, but that is no longer necessary. We have learned that the Lurker can pull Essence from Hadarak, but in truth it does not pull it. The Hadarak has the ability to give its Essence to the Lurker. And so do the Uriti.”

  Vochem’s wolf-like muzzle fell open at that revelation, figuring out the consequences of that statement a split second before Davis said it.

  “We’ve recently learned that they can give their Essence to one of our Archons, and in fact use them as a channel to send Essence into a Materia to accumulate a full charge in a matter of hours. Only the amount of Essence the Archon can sustain passing through them is the issue, for the Uriti and Hadarak appear to be able to deliver as much as needed instantaneously.”