Star Force: Axius (SF47) Read online

  With every event cycle bringing more and more people into the fold and greater pressure on them to succeed, the Omnigames became a social event across the ADZ with intense media scrutiny, broadcast out over the relay network Star Force had set up so people could follow it ‘live’ as it occurred over the month-long competition. Omnigame ‘athletes’ rose to prominent social status, with many devoting their lives to the pursuit of making their world’s team.

  This cycle’s tournament held 198 events, adding 3 to the previous competition and expanding the field once again. Star Force continually grew the event, and the prizes, but always in a responsible way and not in demands to the public, who wanted all manner of things added. Simple things like running races were not included, for the simple fact that biology would win out and a Scionate vs. an Irondel would be no match whatsoever.

  Also, all the events had real life applications. Even the videogame subset of the Omnigames had crossover applications to the remote-controlled drones that Axius used in the ADF, and which Star Force had begun producing in small amounts for purchase by the various races, encouraging them to move away from mass casualties military tactics and go in for more of a hardware expendability platform.

  Remotely controlling various simulations essentially negated the biology differences, save for the control interfaces, but in addition to Star Force’s work in developing unique harnesses and controls for every race, those motivated races created their own upgrades, wanting the most efficient means of interface available to increase their chances of success, and with races like the Reen who had colonies on multiple Alliance Worlds, producing new tech to aid their athletes gave them more than one opportunity for gain, and the same was true of the other races, for Star Force hadn’t let any of them colonize an entire Alliance World, wisely mixing them up from the inception of the sanctuary program.

  There were favorites in certain events and categories, but the competition was so diverse that there was no dominant planet or race, meaning that as much as the races were competing against each other socially, they actually were rooting for each other when it came to their local worlds, for their success would mean credits awarded to all, which encouraged a great amount of teamwork in the games and prep work that otherwise would not have occurred.

  A392 wasn’t the only jumpship entering the system with Omnigame delegations, which included athletes, dignitaries, and hoards of media. Califret was one of five Axius colonies that had the facilities to host the Omnigames, with them rotating accordingly, and as had become common in the run-up to the games, orbit became saturated with jumpship arrivals, with the transit network having to reroute existing circuits and pull jumpships off others to accommodate the influx of visitors to the planet.

  Califret was the only Axius colony in the system, though several other rocky planets remained uncolonized at present. That said, more than 10 million spectators arrived on the planet specifically for the Omnigames, in addition to the regular traffic flow coming off the Alliance jumpships.

  But they weren’t the only ones coming. Many of the races brought their own jumpships into orbit, carrying their own media and dignitaries, such as the Scionate, who only had 1 Alliance World representation, which was Vashni, in the Lkat System, that had served as their transitional base to facilitate the transfer of their population to the systems Star Force had given exclusively to them. Those planets didn’t qualify for the games, but since they had one foothold in the Alliance Worlds they stocked it with their most skilled individuals, transferring them there for the express purpose of competing in the Omnigames and giving Vashni a favored position in several events.

  Other Scionate were here, representing Axius colonies, but they were independent of the Scionate Empire, and while there might have been a little bit of racial support there, they were mostly considered to be competition rather than allies, for if an Axius colony won a prize, it went to Axius exclusively, fueling their already impressive growth and allowing for more immigration slots that were draining a growing trickle of population away from the other races, which was more of a hit to their pride than their population pools. Axius may have been growing, but the bulk of the ADZ’s population still resided on the Alliance Worlds.

  New to this cycle’s tournament was the addition of the Protovic, who up until now hadn’t qualified because they had no Alliance World colonies. With their own territory now mostly intact and their military fighting the Skarrons on other people’s worlds, their government had begun to focus itself more on the political situation within the ADZ, and at their request Star Force had granted them a territory slot on one of the newest Alliance Worlds. The same was true of the Dvapp, who had also been enticed into joining the ADZ community, along with several other races that had previously been located within the ADZ without a piece of an Alliance World.

  The only exceptions were the Hycre and Star Force, except that Axius was part of Star Force as well as the host of the games. No Human, Kiritas, Kiritak, Nexus, or Calavari colony took part, for they had no Alliance World slots…and Hycre couldn’t live on the surface very well, thus they had not been interested in the program or the games. They, like the Calavari, had more important things to worry about. That attitude also set them apart from the others, and further insulated the Calavari from the public’s perspective, with few realizing just how large and strong they were regrowing.

  So with the influx of transit network jumpship traffic came small fleets from the major powers, showing off as much as they were coming to watch the games and support their various delegations. The gathering also functioned as a diplomatic and commercial event, with a lot of wheeling and dealing going on behind the scenes for all types of endeavors, with the influx of a wide flung populace being brought together onto a single planet for the mutual event. That alone brought more traffic into planetary orbit, with a lot of the non-Star Force jumpships coming from races who came to conduct business rather than focus on the Omnigames.

  When Mark-084 arrived on a Clan Gunstar jumpship he met up with the traffic mess in orbit, but the local navigational system had it all neatly arranged into prescribed orbits, having taken a cue from Earth’s well experienced network which was far more cluttered that Califret. The trailblazer rode a dropship down to the planet along with a host of other pilots that he had brought with him from the Alliance starfighter training center that he had created on Oberon, or rather recreated after Daka had to be evacuated. A lot of his former colleagues were here, participating in the games on behalf of the Alliance Worlds, which was why he and some of his current training delegations had come to observe…wishing they could actually participate.

  Those that came with him were mostly Star Force, for the elite pilots from other races were usually recalled specifically for the games, though there were a number of Scionate with him that hadn’t been qualified because they weren’t currently living on their colony and weren’t deemed as the best the Scionate had to offer, so they’d tagged along on Mark’s invitation.

  But like any good trailblazer, Mark wasn’t just going to sit and watch, and as had become common, in the days leading up to the piloting competitions he and other Star Force pilots had an exhibition tournament of their own, completely prizeless save for bragging rights, in which the athletes could participate or not as they chose. It was all simulator work for the games, but Califret had a decent atmosphere and Mark extended some of the exhibition to real life, having brought with him a lot of spare and new starfighters for others to try out above and beyond the standard Valerie. He’d even brought the X-wing with him, given that he’d been tinkering with it and bringing it up to snuff…barely.

  Still, it was fun to fly and see a few others he let in the cockpit have fun with it, adding to the Omnigames a pilots gala on the side, with the same being true of the mechwarriors. Not all races used mechs, and in fact most did not, but since Star Force did and others were patterning after them and creating their own versions, Cora had started coming to the games as well and schooli
ng the other races on just how much you could do with a biped war machine.

  Mark caught up with her a few days into their preview tournaments, which they scheduled to conclude before their respective Omnigame events so as not to overlap and draw attention away from the competitions, finding her having a chat in a public lounge with an envirosuit-clad Gnar. He walked up to her and telekinetically poked her in the ribs, but otherwise let her finish her conversation before saying anything else.

  When the Gnar left her table she waved a hand at him to sit down, with several other onlookers frowning, wanting to have gotten a few minutes to talk with the mechwarrior legend…though when they saw the white with black stripe uniform that Mark also wore their curiosity at seeing two of the Archon strikers in the same place overrode their disappointment as they stood around trying to listen in amongst the noise in the overcrowded lounge.

  “About time you showed up,” she said, poking him back as he sat, enough to see him visibly shift to the side from the invisible impact that she screwed in hard for extra effect.

  “Busy busy,” Mark said, smiling as he looked at her never-changing face. “How’s business?”

  “The same. Ironhold now has more mechs than any other planet in the ADZ, most of which are mine, but the more advanced ones are running short of qualified pilots. I’m having to beat the bushes to find good recruits, and most of the ones I spent so much time on in the past have retired to old age or died already because they didn’t achieve self-sufficiency…which is really frustrating. I don’t like losing friends in the first place, but to have spent so much time training these wannabes only to have them quit and go civi is insulting. You can’t train a good mechwarrior in less than a decade, and most of these jokers,” she said, pointing at the various races around them, “want it done in 2 years, tops.”

  “What for, most of them aren’t fighting on the fronts anyway?”

  “They want their defense forces up to snuff without actually making them up to snuff…which they can’t unless they start insisting that their troops attain self-sufficiency. I’ve added extra physical training requirements for them while they’re on Ironhold, but when they go back home I have no control. I’ve managed to grab hold of a few and make them permanent residents, otherwise I’d be pulling my hair out. It’s sad to say, but the Australians are now kicking their butt.”

  “I know,” Mark said, having to endure a similar situation. “But on the up side, I recently came across a squadron of Kitot, and they’re settling in nicely for at least a century of training…or two.”

  “Kitot? I thought they went with the Kvash.”

  “They did, but some are finding their way across the lizard lines and into the ADZ. Not many, and they’re having to do it on their own. No Hycre help. But a combat squadron made it across in a trashed cargo ship, with them ending up on my doorstep. From the stories they’re telling, it’s gone from bad to worse over there and had they stayed they’d have been doing nothing but digging their own graves.”

  “They deserted?”

  Mark nodded. “A group of five ships, with no jumpship to travel on. Only the one made it across the occupation zone, and as I said, it was beat to hell when the Calavari finally found it. They sent the pilots to me, given that one of them I’d briefly met on Daka had requested asylum. Their longer default lifespans are quite a relief compared to some of these younglings.”

  “I didn’t know we had any Kitot in the ADZ.”

  “319, to be exact. Not enough to build a colony for, so they’re just being logged as guests in a number of facilities. I bought Ekka with me, and he’s been getting quite a few stares, which is surprising, given how many different faces are around here.”

  “You got any current pilots in the games?”

  “Can’t with the residential restrictions.”

  Cora raised an eyebrow. “Well I do.”

  Mark frowned. “How?”

  “They were born on the Alliance World. Only those migrating around have the residential restriction.”

  “Why weren’t they pulled off for pre-games training?”

  “Because Ironhold has the best facilities for that.”

  “Well not me. Anyone they want for the games they take away early and I usually don’t get them back.”

  “Competition is a lot more fierce for pilots,” Cora said offhand, referencing the fact that mech combat had only been added to the games two tournaments ago. That had been encouraging the races without mechs to start experimenting with them, even if just for the sake of winning credits for their worlds…with most of their hopefuls training under Cora on Ironhold.

  “So they think. The Calavari I’ve got would wipe the floor with them easily.”

  “And you?”

  Mark locked eyes with her. “You shouldn’t have to ask.”

  “Am I to assume that means you’ve been showing off the past few days?”

  “It does. And you?”

  “Not yet, but I’m working up to it. The neo is too mobile for them to handle, so I’ve been going easy on them. Don’t want it to be a total trouncing on their first run,” she said with a smile, glancing at several of the mechwarriors standing around her…though in truth they didn’t truly merit that title.

  “Would you like a better challenge?”

  Cora’s eyes widened. “You have the time?”

  “I can squeeze in one demo. That way these guys can watch and you won’t have to hold back.”

  “Much,” she said with a cocky glance.

  “We’ll see. I have no doubt I’m going to lose, but I bet I can make you sweat a bit.”

  Cora turned to look at the others. “Hear that fellas? You’re in for a show. Archons train in all 5 disciplines, and even though this one is our best pilot, he’s also a decent mechwarrior for Star Force standards,” she said, looking back at Mark. “And if we’re lucky, we’ll be able to round up a few more Archons for a bit bigger melee.”

  “I’ll see what kind of a team I can rustle up,” Mark promised.

  “You do that,” Cora said, standing up and telekinetically poking him in the ribs again. “But right now we’re heading to the sanctum…unless you’re pressed for time?” she added, almost as an afterthought.

  “Been there earlier, but I’m up for a second workout before I hit the sack.”

  When he stood up there was a chorus of groans, with the mechwarriors seeing that the two of them were going to depart.

  “I’ll catch the rest of you later,” Cora promised, “but right now a couple of old friends need to do some catching up over training drills. I’ll be back here tomorrow evening.”

  “You are quite popular,” Mark commented after they’d left the table and got out the door, having to smoosh their way through a couple of clogged points. Any more bodies in the lounge and it was going to be difficult to move at all.

  “Like you’re not?”

  “I don’t get out in the crowds unless I have to.”

  “Chicken.”

  “How?”

  “You’ve got psionics, so what are you afraid of?”

  “Wasting time.”

  “Normally I’d agree, but I’m here to meet and greet and school. Not everything can be taught from the cockpit via beatdowns.”

  “Don’t they get annoying?”

  “I don’t spend that much time mingling. Training always comes first.”

  “Good. Thought you’d gone civi there for a moment,” Mark said, blocking her elbow as she tried to ram it into his gut as she cut across in front of him to head to an opening in the crowd that led to the main walkway. “Too slow, chica.”

  “We’ll see,” she said, eager to get into a sparring match with someone that could keep up with and potentially beat her.

  9

  June 13, 2532

  Ursala System (Beta Region)

  Califret

  “Are you heading to the viewing arena?” Ekka asked in the trade language, given he hadn’t quite mastered English yet,
as he and Mark climbed out of the simulators in the training area along with a dozen other pilots.

  The little three-legged ‘tripod’ stood next to the trailblazer’s pod, already having climbed out ahead of him as Mark briefly ran through the post-drill statistics. The Kitot barely came up to his waist, but in the cockpit of a fighter size mattered little, evidenced by the Urik’kadel who were heavily favored in the piloting events, the next of which was due to start within an hour.

  “Not straight off, but I’ll meet you guys there before the first challenge.”

  Ekka inclined its pointed head and shuffled off on tiny, rapid steps as it followed the other pilots out. Mark shut down his simulator and did the same, having finished yet another informal session in his school of badass. He’d asked the Kitot to join him, with the rest of the pilots being people he’d never met before, but all of which were veteran or aspiring pilots with résumés that deserved his attention. Some wanted to test the trailblazer’s skills, or just watch them in action, while others found it an honor to interact with him or were hoping to show him some sign of latent skill to get them an invite to Oberon.

  As it was, he had a full slate of pilots, both from Star Force and other races that he was overseeing the training of. Now that he was in charge instead of the Calavari, there had been some changes made to the feel of the pilot mecca. There was still a looseness to it all, but what Mark provided was structure that the pilots could latch onto as they chose, jumping into challenges as well as joining training teams that progressed through very specific drills meant to home or teach a specific skill set.