Star Force: Reignor Read online

  Plausious used the moment of impunity to charge a technique that could not be release immediately. It was an overload beam, designed not to do much damage, but to force the opponent to respond to it with a pushback of raw Essence. Some techniques could be used to buffer it, but if his opponent did not know them, this would come down to a contest of who could generate more Essence faster rather than in longevity.

  The mist and fog ahead of them split suddenly as his opponent used some technique to clear it away, not just from near them, but from half the maksack. Plausious didn’t pay attention to it, charging his attack as much as he could so the initial pop would force his opponent to respond in kind.

  As soon as he saw his eyes line up with his new position, Plausious knew another attack was coming and he had no shield up, so he didn’t wait any longer. He released the column of energy with an extra surge of the built up Essence at the beginning directly towards his taller opponent…with it hitting on a hasty shield for a moment before the counter push began, one Essence flow against another with little modulation.

  The hit against the shield had moved him back further into the water, with him now in it up to his waist, as he pushed both hands forward, using them as twin conduits for the energy flowing out of him. Both fighters could see it in their Essence vision, one beam splashing off the other in a fountain spray between them…then that spray began to move away from his opponent and towards Plausious, meaning he was losing the test of strength.

  Or so his opponent thought.

  Plausious was still feeling him out and not using his max output. He was using his personal well to recharge himself throughout, but he wasn’t drawing on it for extra output. The Reignor was using his natural strength only, still waiting for his opponent to tap into his own well, but so far he had not.

  The fountain spray marking the intersection of the two waves moved out to the halfway point then stopped as Plausious increased his pressure, holding it there for a short period of time waiting for a response. When none came he pushed a little harder, seeing the spray start to move back towards his opponent…which was when Plausious realized he had been attacking at full power this entire time.

  The Reignor upped his pressure to his own max production cap, still not overdrawing on his well. That was his fallback if needed, but this was the most his body could naturally produce moment to moment, and he shoved the spray mark back towards his opponent so fast he would have to respond by upping his own, or using some technique to block or redirect it.

  He did neither.

  Plausious’s wave overwhelmed his opponent and hit his body, knocking him backwards further out into the lake as well as saturating the other person with a different type of Essence. That had a numbing effect, for it did not match the body.

  And into that numbness Plausious transformed his wave into a spike, sending the hard Essence object down through the stream towards his opponent as he lay flat on his back and being shoved further out into the lake by the pressure.

  It almost missed him, but the Reignor altered its direction at the last moment to hit him in the lower torso. He expected another shield to at least deflect it, if not absorb it. Or perhaps a melting technique against the basic Essence tools that Plausious had learned to forge early in his life and then master later.

  But nothing happened. Either his opponent was too numb, too distracted, or didn’t have the wherewithal to do anything other than push back with his weaker Essence stream, for when the spike hit it dove into his body so easily it passed all the way through and out his back, down into the water and hit one of the eels below that were moving up to strike at the easy target.

  The eel died from the impact before his spike disintegrated, but the others didn’t even notice, swimming up and biting at his opponent’s arms and legs with a furious appetite that reeked of the anti-code.

  Plausious felt no more Essence generation within his opponent, and he was not going to watch him get eaten alive, so he reached out with his grapple field, enhanced it with Essence, and plucked him out of the water while flicking off the eels that were hanging on him as he dragged them into the air.

  They thudded back down into the water and swam off while Plausious pulled his opponent’s body over to the shore and set it down there, having to once again push the Ren’mak back as it tried to fly towards him from its position at the top of the maksack.

  Wait, he warned, walking up to his opponent and looking down at him moving slightly against the pain of the gaping hole in his abdomen along with the lesser chunks of his arms and legs that had been chewed out.

  Plausious was on guard for another attack, or at least a few words from him, but neither came. He writhed around for a few moments, then grew still as his body failed him. Soon Plausious saw his remaining Essence swell and puff outwards, disappearing quickly back into the Essence realm as his Core was no longer here to ground it.

  “He is dead,” he told the Ren’mak. “Watch the tunnel overhead. I must attend to something and I need to focus. I will be vulnerable, so you must warn me if something comes down. Do you understand? I need your help to guard me.”

  The Ren’mak thought he was being told to go away again, but then it realized Plausious was asking for help, and he was eager to do something so he immediately agreed and not only flew up near the recently bored tunnel, but into it so he could see the daylight far above and pick up any silhouette that should come down it.

  “Not that close,” Plausious warned. “They may fire their weapon again. Keep the rock between you and the surface, and look up at an angle.”

  The Ren’mak understood, thankfully, and move back down and aside, taking up a proper sentry position as Plausious stood over the body of his unknown opponent.

  He extended his wings out wide, flexing them several times as he prepared himself for a distasteful task. Something he had done several times on Hadarak corpses to keep himself alive here, and something he never wanted to do again…but he needed to one more time, and while it was not a violation of the natural code, it did violate the respect he believed a corpse should be afforded.

  His opponent was dead. He was certain of this as his Core was no longer visible, but he checked with an Essence bounce one more time, finding it completely empty of both Core or Essence. Then he knelt down beside the body and impaled it with several of the spikes on both wings, sinking them in deep as they began to liquefy and suck in tissue from the corpse.

  Plausious avoided his head, drawing tissue only from the lower portion of his body as he simultaneously placed a hand on his head. Doing both was tricky, but decay would diminish both techniques and he knew he could not waste this moment. The dead mind was still fresh, and he forced his way into it, raiding it for memories as he inventoried the unknown race’s tissues, sifting through its construction and jettisoning the tissue he was not interested in.

  There were several abilities he did not possess that could be useful, but he would have to abandon some abilities already in his wings, for they were nearly at maximum tissue density and he did not favor making them any larger. Plus, doing so would take time and this technique must be done immediately, or the harvested tissue would become useless. Only a recently dead corpse was applicable, for reasons the Neofan scientists still could not completely understand. Whoever had created this biotechnology long ago had a knowledge greater than the Neofan’s, but he guessed they were rooted in the anti-code, which was another reason why he did not like using it.

  Plausious discarded the useful tissues as he searched for something else, both in the body and his in the memories, ignoring a treasure trove of information that he only briefly browsed. Information on his peers, their mission in this galaxy, where he had come from, the ongoing war against Star Force, wars against others in distant galaxies, and many things that were agonizingly put aside as he searched for the knowledge of how he was able to control the Hadarak.

  It took a considerable amount of looking, but eventually he discovered both the mental co
mmands and the tissue required for it…which was located in his head. That was why it wasn’t obvious. Plausious, knowing where it was now, sifted through as many memories as he could, not possessing the ability to download them as other Neofan were able. He regretted never absorbing that ability when he had the chance, but survival now took priority, and before the tissues could degrade close to the useless point he abandoned the memory raid and began to dissolve parts of his brain.

  The tissues flowed into his wings, where he sifted out the valuable parts and discarded the rest…with his wings looking like they were bleeding as they discharged the excess. But the tissues that allowed him to transmit to the Hadarak, as well as to produce the telepathic aura that identified them as non-combatants within the hive mind, Plausious took into himself and triggered a rending.

  And it was a rending of him, not the corpse. Select spots in his wings were eviscerated in a painful, fast upgrading process, destroying what was there before as they grew new tissue based on the harvested sample…without it being a direct copy. How that worked he still did not know, but the advancement hurt greatly, and if he should be attacked now he could barely defend himself, for the pain was blinding.

  But when he woke from it, he could sense the Ren’mak in a new way. And beyond them, up on the surface, he could feel fainter signals, all crisscrossing with the others. It wasn’t true telepathy, but something else entirely.

  This was what the Hadarak referred to as the ‘current.’ And the stolen memories of how to use it made it clear he could not take command of the Hadarak at large, only override them locally. The current itself was being transmitted from the Core of the galaxy, then copied and delivered to units further out, so it wasn’t an active transmission, more of a song that directed them to do what was required. Orders without specific parameters. Missions without endings. They were more like protocols, and within those protocols all Hadarak must function.

  Plausious now understood why the Ren’mak had been marked for death. It had gone beyond the protocols, however briefly, and the protocols were clear about what to do in such matters.

  But there were layers. The smaller Hadarak got the least of it, and Plausious was getting all of it streaming into his mind through his wings, and it was a sickening sensation. The song was sour, distorted with the anti-code, but he could understand it now, and with some practice, he should be able to command the Hadarak around him enough to keep them away from the Ren’mak and himself.

  If he was right, their war for survival on this planet just got put on pause. They could travel up to the surface and take supplies from the Hadarak without having to fight for them…unless there was another individual such as this one in the system. Plausious needed to find that out sooner rather than later.

  The memories that could have told him that were now irretrievable as chunks of his brain had been turned into goo, with the remaining parts suitable for more tissue harvesting, but he had what he needed.

  Plausious stood up, withdrawing his wing spikes from the corpse, and just held still as both his wings and his mind tried to process the whirlwind of new information and upgrades taking hold of him.

  When he opened his eyes a long time later, he did so with a new understanding of the universe.

  “Come down,” he told the Ren’mak. “I am finished. We should be safe now.”

  The Ren’mak happily flew to him and landed on his outstretched arm, with the Neofan’s other hand stroking its head affectionately. “I feared I would lose you, my friend. You are recklessly loyal.”

  It squawked back, not understanding the word ‘recklessly,’ so Plausious explained with telepathy. “I need to fly up to the surface and check on something. Stay on my body and I will protect you, but I do not think the Hadarak will bother us further, as long as we are together. If you are alone, they will attack you, so stay with me.”

  The Ren’mak chirped the equivalent of ‘of course,’ and was quite happy to accept that order.

  Plausious looked around at the maksack, with the mist only gradually retaking the cleared area as it flowed back in. He’d never seen it this clear before, and he did not like the idea of leaving their home. They didn’t have to. They could stay down here as long as they liked, but now that they had new options it would be irresponsible not to make use of them.

  Plausious began to slowly fly up towards the tunnel, with the Ren’mak crawling on his arm to get up to his left shoulder where it would happily perch for some time as the Reignor went to test his new command abilities…

  8

  Command of the Hadarak was not a simple genetic passcode. It was a skill that Plausious had to work to develop as his tissues advanced with use. In the beginning it made the Hadarak ignore him…except for his Ren’mak. He had to defend it time and again until he could sense the Hadarak enough to begin speaking to them.

  It was the equivalent of a bare whisper at first, but it was enough to turn some of them away as he defended the now fast access route to the maksack. He did not give it up, and continued to live there as he worked to explore his new potential while digging through the stolen memories as much as he could. They did not remain vivid, but the information they contained was important. How he had controlled the Hadarak was the most important part, and the Reignor’s current training was based off those memories of techniques, but the other stuff he had briefly crossed paths with held far greater implications.

  Star Force was in the Galactic Core, and a great war was ongoing there…and the Veloqueen were there as well. The one he had stolen the memories from knew a little of it as he waited for the expected recall order, which had not manifested yet. All of the ‘overseers’ of the Hadarak would leave this galaxy long before the gateways were completely lost, and they would let their troops continue to fight and die without them.

  But they were still here for now, roaming the massive amount of Hadarak territory looking for things. Ancient things. New things. Curious things. The conquest by the Hadarak was not just about destruction, but detection as well, as if they were looting the galaxy by checking in every system rather than tracking things down by inference or leads. And they were gathering a lot, all of which would be taken back to the Galactic Core and studied there…except for the really important stuff.

  It was being transported outside the galaxy to something called a Ghei’stei. Plausious had no translation for it, but he knew there wasn’t one in this galaxy, and it was linked somehow to the Endgame.

  Or rather the false one. Plausious could see it now. From the Neofan perspective, the Hadarak perspective, and from his own. It was clear as day now, and in his Vision skill he could see what was taking place, and what would take place…or at least what openings there were for such actions to occur. And one thing was made abundantly clear.

  The Neofan and their other ‘peers’ vying for possession of all pre-born were pursuing a hollow goal. The pre-born were not the trigger for the endgame, but they were part of it. A short cut to it in a very, very long game, and the more you had the better your slim odds were of attempting to trigger it.

  But the Reignor now knew the key element, and that was the natural code. It wasn’t just an act of honor, but the clues to triggering the Endgame. The Endgame was something only those who utilized the natural code could achieve. The anti-code could not do it, and would in fact destroy any attempt at the Endgame. That’s why the elder races had their non-interference pact. They were all at least in some part infected with the anti-code, and the anti-code told you to destroy each other, whether it be now or later.

  So they were postponing the carnage for later in order to maintain what they had built…but the anti-code was the antithesis of building. It would always destroy, for that was what it was for. To reset the universe back to the default level. The primitive level. The level of horrors. Kill or be killed. Kill to eat. Steal, pillage, destroy. And live very short lives even if you survived.

  The natural code taught you how to defy this. How to survive in the hars
hness of the physical elements. How to work together, protect each other, and build technology. How to live forever. And how to use the pockets of peace and tranquility to pursue ascension in its many forms.

  The primitive universe did not allow time or opportunity for this, with every moment being a struggle for survival. That’s why the Endgame was seemingly unattainable. A civilization had to tame the universe…or at least a pocket of it…to use as a breeding ground for the ascension of those that would strive to trigger the Endgame.

  Star Force was doing it. Plausious could see that clearly now, though they didn’t understand what they were doing. They were following the code, as others could, and probably as others had in the distant past…only to fail and have everything reset, devoured by the anti-code in one fashion or another, but leaving behind tools that others had picked up and used, just as the Neofan had. Just as the Bond of Resistance had in discovering the intergalactic transportation network. And just as the Hadarak were searching for now.

  But it was useless to them in terms of the Endgame. The natural code was not a luxury or even the preferred path to it. It was the only path. It was the Endgame.

  Plausious didn’t know exactly what would happen, but he could feel it now. The natural code had to be implemented on a large scale. The very basic and default anti-code loaded into the universe had to be challenged and overcome, not in the moment, but to replace it.

  It was like a giant, cruel puzzle that had to be solved, and to do so you had to put right everything that was out of place. And once you did…something would happen. The Reignor knew it now, something in his pre-born knowledge was unlocking and he could finally see it. And he knew he had this knowledge given to him to use in the quest for the Endgame, but not alone. The Endgame was a group effort, and he had to lead the others towards it. It was the very purpose of the universe itself, and when a race tried and failed, the universe would reset giving an opportunity for another to try, over and over again, with the anti-code eating away at the advancements made.