Star Force: Nexus (SF57) Read online

  “Whether you choose to pursue those or not is your own choice. Regardless you will be able to live here without responsibilities for the rest of your lives, though you will also be able to move elsewhere within the ADZ where possible. There are many options, but right now I’m guessing you just want to get settled, or maybe explore a bit?”

  Nizzi looked up at her. “What are the rules?”

  “We’ll get to those shortly. First we need to assign quarters. Who wants this one?”

  One of the others immediately volunteered, upon which the attendant assigned him an ID tag. She did the same with Nizzi and the others, then gave them a little time to explore their individual living areas before they regrouped in a facility in another building. There they were asked many questions, medically scanned, given foodstuffs and clothing to sample with the Humans and some other races making quick adjustments were needed. It took a few hours, then the attendant took them on a brief tour of the surrounding buildings and facilties, showing them the stores and communal areas, which were packed with people, then she took them back to their quarters and told them they’d meet again the next day.

  When Nizzi and the others went to their quarters they jumped into the water tunnels and explored the area, seeing that they were just a tiny swim away from each other and an empty room that appeared to be all theirs. They gathered there and talked, working out some of their nervousness and mentally marking their territory…though Nadfe got a little too excited and soiled the water with a few bubbles.

  Nizzi didn’t blame him, much, for he was also feeling out of sorts. If what the Human said was true they could stay here and be safe…but in exchange for nothing? That didn’t feel right and he expected there to be some sort of trap. Some of the others felt the same way and decided to be very cautious, staying with each other at all times and near their quarters whenever possible.

  The next few days were spent going through more ‘indoctrination’ in which they learned about the planet and the ways of Star Force. Many things surprised them, such as the rule saying they couldn’t eat meat, but that was a small price to pay in exchange for safety…and Nizzi wished the others had made it here. He didn’t know where they were or how many had made it out of their homeworld, with only those beside him making up his community now.

  That wasn’t new, for they’d been alone on their ship for a long time, but here and now, with so many other people on this planet, he felt lonely again, with a deep sadness setting in that didn’t go away. For the next several months he and the others kept to their quarters, doing nothing more than hiding away from the galaxy until they had a visitor that arrived in their quarters area through the water hallways.

  It was a Human with no legs, but blue skin almost like them. She also glowed in spots, including her eyes. The first time Nizzi saw her he was taken aback, not in fear but amazement. She was a pure breather, he could tell, and clearly dominated the water with her movements and size. He got the feeling this person was both very old and wise, but she moved with considerable youth.

  Trouble was, she didn’t speak Darfar. Nizzi and the others had to talk to her via a datapad that did the translating, for they hadn’t yet learned the native language, nor planned to. What this person wanted, whose name was Jaavblet, was to offer the Ollofan different quarters in one of the ocean cities. She said that it was for water breathers only, save for some Humans of course, and that she felt they would be more welcome there than here.

  Nizzi was surprised by what she was saying, for the city in question was one that he and the others had learned of through the information terminals. It was closed off, meaning they couldn’t go there nor could any others without invitation…which apparently now they were getting. However, there was a price to pay.

  Jaavblet wanted their help on a construction project. If they completed it the 18 of them would earn a permanent upgrade to their status, which would mean larger quarters and a tiny stipend of credits every cycle. At first the others refused, for they didn’t want to leave their little home here, but Nizzi offered a compromise and volunteered to go look at the city and the construction project so they could know what it was that was being asked of them.

  Jaavblet agreed and Nizzi went with her, wondering what in the galaxy he was doing as he followed her through the water tunnels and into new areas of the city where he’d never ventured before, eventually heading lower and lower until they came to a transit system that Jaavblet led him to. They both got into a small water car that shot them across the underside of the city all the way over to the ocean, with the transition being visible through the clear ceiling of the car as the tunnel they were in disappeared and the open water became visible…along with all the craft in it.

  The edge of the continent was full of underwater habitats and infrastructure, including ships, but they all were left behind as the small car shot through the water just above the seafloor, traveling on a solid rim that was propelling it all the way out to the distant city. It took a long time to get there, but just before they arrived Jaavblet pointed out the window and Nizzi saw the construction project that was ongoing.

  It was another underwater city being built, and only now in the early stages of construction. The water was too hazy to make out much, but a flurry of lights showed movement all around, both large and small, as people were working on the project.

  When they got inside the city Jaavblet showed Nizzi almost identical quarters to what they were now staying in, along with the upgraded ones they could get upon completion of the project, then she took him out to the construction site and showed him how he and his fellow Ollofan could help. What she wanted wasn’t complicated, with them being little more than couriers carrying small parts back and forth so the work crews wouldn’t have to leave their positions. It would require four of them per day, if they wanted to make the deal as a group, and it didn’t matter which four. They could even switch off during the day if needed, for it would be a round the clock shift on the 24 hour day.

  The planet’s rotation was 38 hours, but they were so far down under water that the sun didn’t penetrate, so they kept with what was standard for Star Force. Nizzi figured up the math, seeing that it would take some work on their part, but by sharing the load it wouldn’t be too much trouble. Before he made up his mind he asked if he could try out what it was that they wanted him to do, with Jaavblet taking him out to the construction site and swimming with him as they navigated the chaotic area, sure to stay away from the bigger pieces of equipment moving about.

  He was given a small satchel of parts or tools, he wasn’t sure which, and swam them out to the place Jaavblet showed him, giving the other tailed ‘Humans’ the bag and letting them pull out what they needed. When it was empty she took him back to a refilling point, showed him which ones to pick up out of which container, then had him swim back. No fuss, no problem.

  Nizzi repeated the process for a good half hour, doing little more than swimming and getting a workout while the larger aliens did all the real work. After he saw that it wasn’t much more than a long series of swims that they were asking of them, he went back to the others and told them what he’d learned. It took some convincing, but a week later they relocated and began helping the Star Force Elarioni build the new city, and in the process became acquainted with the other workers and the larger aquatic community as a whole.

  No longer did they shy away hiding from the world, but began making it their home, tentatively at first, then becoming accustomed to the other races as neighbors and even friends. They would never replace their own kin, but the loneliness that Nizzi and the others were plagued by gradually faded, leaving them with a new future free of the Li’vorkrachnika and other worry, for over time they learned that Star Force was both huge, powerful, fair, and wise…with the Ollofan immensely grateful and later proud to become part of the empire and contribute to it in whatever tiny way they could.

  8

  January 30, 2642

  Vasper System (lizard territo
ry)

  Deegan

  Nem’tran’cov waited inside the Protovic transport encased in a flexible body armor that was concealing both his luminous body and the perspiration on his forehead. He and the other infantry were about to enter combat, not in the defense of one of their own worlds as his forebears had done countless times, but in taking the offensive against the Cajdital on one of their worlds. It was to be his first combat mission aside from the extensive training he’d received, and he as nervous beyond words.

  The Protovic stood armor to armor with the others in his unit, all veterans. He was the spur of the moment replacement for another that had been lost, not to combat but to retirement. Thus he was being thrust into a role that was, honestly, more than he was ready for, but the others assured him that his training was complete and that he would fit in fine, relying on their experience and simply following orders as they fought as a group of 8.

  There were far more than 8 in the transport, but those to which he was assigned were right next to him, waiting for the go signal to deploy. When it occurred there was no mad rush outside, as he’d expected, but rather everyone simply walked off the transport and set foot on the extremely dry ground of the enemy-held world.

  Nem’tran’cov lingered a bit, looking around until he was nudged ahead, then he walked with the others over to a prefab command post that had recently been set up. As they did so another transport was offloading tanks and he could see a few Valeries in the air above, but no sign of the enemy.

  For some reason he’d been expecting to come out fighting, but as he quickly learned they were in a processing base that was handling all the incoming troop transports. He and the others would be deployed out to a number of battlegrounds soon enough, but for now everything was calm and orderly…which unnerved him even more. He wanted to get into the heat of it to shake off these nerves and lose his rookie status, but for the moment he was going to have to wait for another long ride.

  His 8 man team was held over for several hours, then were taken aboard a tiny aerial transport and flown across the flat, dirty landscape to a mountain ridge several hundred miles away. It was only some 800 meters high, but on this world that counted as mountains and supplied the little bit of terrain available. This mountain range held several Cajdital bases, dug into the subsurface, and his team was to probe the area around known entrances. Nothing major, just a bit of recon that would hopefully be followed up later with a full assault, but without knowing exactly what was there, the Protovic’s nerves were as troublesome as ever.

  The transport set down on the edge of the flat, offloading the troops in a location that was blind to the known entrances on the far side where Cajdital tanks had been seen coming and going from. Sliding in 5th man in line, Nem’tran’cov followed the others in a slow jog as they moved into the ‘foliage’ that covered the mountains but was distinctly absent on the large plains. Rather than typical trees, the area was covered with what looked like spikes rising up at all number of angles and topping out at some 25 meters tall.

  They bent over enough to obscure the location of the troops, giving them some badly needed cover…as well as the enemy troops if they were out and about. It wouldn’t be hard to hide a small personnel entrance in the mess of spike trees, and if there were any here the Protovic recon team needed to find them before the main assault occurred on the other side of the range.

  “Scouting reports are in,” the local Protovic commander commented over holo to the distant Calavari firebase, “and we’ve found several small entrances on the far side. We should be able to force an entry there while you have them distracted.”

  “How many?” the Archon ranger asked.

  “We’ve found eight in total, but there may very well be twice that number. We’ll have troops stationed in the area to hunt down any that get out.”

  “Delay your insertion well into the battle,” the Archon suggested. “If they’re small entrances you could be sending your men into a tricky situation and I don’t have the Archons to spare to scan ahead.”

  “We can handle it. You have my word,” the Protovic said without insult, for he knew well how formidable the Archons were.

  The ranger nodded. “Very well. Attack will commence in approximately 3 hours. I’ll leave you to judge when to go in.”

  “Agreed. Good hunting.”

  “Likewise,” the Archon said, turning off the hologram and looking up at the pair of orange-clad Calavari Knights beside him. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

  “You suspect a trap?”

  “When the lizards are underground…always. Get the mechs in motion and our air cover scanning the area. We’ll fly the troops in after we’ve got our support in place…and I’ll be taking point.”

  The other Calavari huffed. “Could have made credits on that,” he said, turning around and walking out of the battlefield command center to ready their men.

  Vlad-195338 remained behind, sifting through the intel reports again as his staff were updating the battlemap with what the Protovic sent to them along with the commander’s transmission. The mountain ridge was one of many secondary sites on the planet that had to be routed out, now that the primary lizard colonies had been destroyed from orbit then invaded on ground. Most of them had subsurface levels that the rail gun slugs didn’t reach and cleaning those out was always problematic, but a facility like this that was entirely underground was going to be even worse.

  Still, they had the advantage. Orbit was theirs and the mix of Protovic and Calavari troops were spread across the planet hunting down secondary targets and safing the destroyed colonies for engineers to come down and start tearing apart the rubble. This wasn’t a torch and run op like so many others in lizard territory and they meant to keep the planet, which was situated just outside the ADZ and one of many worlds that had formerly belonged to the Calavari. Several of their ruined cities still remained, with lizards swarming over them, but most of what had once been home had been destroyed or deconstructed, leaving a full blown lizard civilization that they now had to dismantle.

  Vlad and a few other Archons were here leading the Calavari, but no other Star Force divisions were present. It was a joint op with the Protovic, whose border wasn’t far off, and yet another small step out from the neutral zone they’d been diligently patrolling and weeding of new lizard invasions. The Calavari weren’t hard up for room to expand just yet, but they fervently wanted to reclaim worlds that had been lost, despite the fact that most of those fighting today hadn’t been born when their original territory fell. Still, they were determined, and it fit into an overall strategy that Paul and the Voku commander had brainstormed.

  Vlad didn’t know the full extent of it, but he had been told they were going after a number of systems near to the ADZ that they intended to keep and see what type of reaction that drew from the lizards, who were right now heavily engaged with the Skarrons. Orica looked to be soon in their hands, but the Skarrons were drawing more and more reinforcements from deep in their coreward territory, with those ships and troops headed straight towards the lizards…leaving the ADZ virtually forgotten.

  The reconnaissance of those battles was something Vlad found more exciting than the entertainment holos, and he studied them regularly. Two massive superpowers were literally throwing down not too far away and Star Force was whistling through the graveyard while they built and researched like crazy. The V’kit’no’sat pyramid would win them the war in the long run, but until they delved further into its technological secrets they had to lay low and avoid attention…which was why taking this world and others made no sense to Vlad, but he trusted Paul to have something up his sleeve, which the trailblazer always did, and was content to focus his attention on the local fights while letting the padawans and now mages handle the big picture planning.

  That focus wasn’t blind delusion, but rather trust. He knew they’d take care of business on their end and that he had to take care of the Calavari here. They were Star Force troops, to be sure
, and could handle their own same as Canderous or the mainline troops, but they didn’t have psionics or the Archons’ unique leadership skills, let alone experience, hence he and several others had been assigned to lead them into battle, as they always did, for within their growing empire whenever there was an invasion to execute you’d find at least one Archon at the lead, if for no other reason than to troubleshoot problems that might arise.

  Vlad had operational command of nearly a third of the Calavari troops on planet, with a few acolytes at his disposal, but they were here to guide more than fight, leaving the heavy fighting to the Calavari, which were more than eager to take territory. They were well trained, but the lizards were devious and he never liked going after them underground…which was why he was assigning himself to this mission and leaving one of the acolytes behind to coordinate other matters until he returned.

  After reviewing the new data and current positioning of his troops across this hemisphere, Vlad went outside and up to the roof of the command post, which had only been built two days ago to replace the prefab unit he’d been using before. There were engineers and Kiritak everywhere building him a small military base even as he worked his troops in and out of the temporary structures. This location was secure, with constant air and mech patrols across the flat terrain with no way for the lizards to sneak up on them, save for tunneling, but he had active scans routinely running on the subsurface to spot anomalies.

  He doubted that any would be able to tunnel this far out from their nearest base, but already the lizards had shown more hideaways than he thought they’d have. They either made them as part of their standard colonization package or they’d expected to get invaded and left plenty of blinds to retreat into. Vlad wasn’t sure which was the case but they were doing everything they could to kill at least a few of his troops, and he didn’t want to lose any of them. So far he hadn’t, for the orbital bombardment had kicked the crap out of their surface resistance, but he had lost a few mechs with the pilots recovered when some explosive traps were triggered.