Star Force: Bloodlust (SF54) Page 9

  Eventually the outpost beneath them was overwhelmed, but the newly arrived ground troops were holding position a kilometer outside it with a tight cluster of tanks with infantry around them firing up randomly into the air and managing to hit the Lacvamat infantry enough to do damage, even when their plasma spit only brushed against them. The tank blasts did far more damage, and through sheer number of weaponsfire the swarm began to thin.

  Then like clockwork when their numbers diminished to a predetermined level, the Lacvamat swarm turned and fled, all of them, in a matter of seconds as their fighters flew around behind them, covering their exit as they left the Scionate ground troops behind to reclaim what was left of their orb-battered outpost.

  Ven’poi tried to chase after them, but their fighters wouldn’t let him or the others get close to the swarm that was now tightly bunched up to make it easier to protect as they flew rapidly across the landscape back towards one of their surface encampments, which were literally prefabricated vertical buildings where the flyers would roost. Ven’poi desperately wanted to bust one of them up, but their defenses were too strong to go up against with anything less than a full ground assault…or a warship.

  But still, the idea was to hurt and stall the enemy. With that momentarily accomplished the Scionate pilot flew back over his own troops, waiting for orders on where to go next and getting a recall order to his carrier transport. He flew back inside the bay and set it down on the appropriate spot, then abandoned the cockpit and let the crew move it to where they wanted for service and repair, for he’d taken a few hull hits during the fighting.

  Others hadn’t been so lucky, and a number of slots in the bay remained empty. Pushing aside thoughts of the dead, he headed further into the grounded ship to get some water and an update on their next mission…keeping himself ready to be called to the hangar at any time. They’d come down directly into the heart of the fighting and it was unlikely that they were going to get much of a respite, for the enemy was hungry for their world and wouldn’t be denied for long.

  How soon the rest of the Scionate military arrived would determine the fate of this planet, and Ven’poi truly didn’t know who would come out the victor, with only the relentless bloodshed to come being a certainty.

  10

  January 29, 2553

  Plenx System (Dvapp Territory)

  Rvitx

  Paul read through Morgan’s report, his anger growing at the Scionate, but he wasn’t overly surprised. This was the third notice that had come through the relays of Scionate units suddenly abandoning their assignments. A day ago he had gotten the answer as to why…the Lacvamat had cited that it was the Scionate who had launched the bioweapon on Leerbot and the avians had subsequently attacked one of their systems in response. Given the amount of troops the Scionate had devoted to the border they were at a disadvantage to the otherwise inferior Lacvamat, necessitating the recall to defend themselves against what, according to the few reports had made their way out to Paul, was a huge offensive.

  But that didn’t excuse the Scionate leaving other troops behind. According to Morgan they didn’t even tell her they were leaving, just up and pulled out in the middle of fighting resulting in many dead soldiers and even Morgan had to pull a Houdini just to survive. Paul didn’t care if Earth was under V’kit’no’sat attack, he wouldn’t sacrifice others to return to defend his home a few hours early.

  Fortunately some of the other Scionate commanders had been more tactful, informing the Star Force and Protovic troops that they were leaving but still offering no explanation. Paul expected that was because they didn’t want to argue when their minds were already set, but regardless of their motivation they’d just significantly weakened the Skarron front and handed the enemy two worlds that were in contention…maybe more, with the reports filtering in through the relay grid and those, like Morgan’s, that had to get back to a grid nexus just to log in and be sent.

  There were no Scionate units in Plenx, so Paul hadn’t lost any of his troops but several other systems had. He wanted to send some of his off to counter the losses but he couldn’t afford to do so. He’d finally gotten the Skarron offensive on Rvitx pushed into a stalemate and was using it to reset the battlefield to his liking. Given time he’d push the Skarrons back but he needed all the troops he could get to do it. The fighting was still heavy and looked to favor the enemy, yet Paul could read between the lines and knew he just about had them beat, so long as there weren’t any surprises heading his way.

  No, he couldn’t reinforce anyone else. The best he could hope to do was win this campaign quickly so he could leave it in Dvapp hands and move off to another…but this was a planet he was talking about and taking it back from the enemy wasn’t going to be easy nor quick, and it was going to take his unique skills to lead them to do it, so he couldn’t redeploy himself either.

  If the weakened systems were going to get reinforced it wasn’t going to come from him…which he explained in detail in a message that he sent out, hoping some of the others would be in a better position to help. If it wasn’t for the Voku disrupting the Skarron reinforcements the Scionate and Lacvamat would have just handed the enemy the border worlds...and he wasn’t entirely sure that they hadn’t. Right now there were at minimum 12 systems that were vulnerable. He didn’t know if the Skarrons could take advantage of that or not with the limited fleets they had, but those with troops already on the ground were beginning to roll over the weakened opposition.

  Paul expected more updates to come in emphasizing that point, but his hands were tied so he tried to put it out of mind and focus on the problems before him…reclaiming the Dvapp planet and preserving the surviving civilian population while killing as many of their warships as possible.

  Morgan waited for the boarding ramp to lower fully before she walked out the back of the Eagle-class dropship and onto the plaza surrounding the Scionate ruling den on Vaadsip, leaving about a 300 meter walk between the ship and the entrance with yellow-armored quadrupeds surrounding it and blocking her way. They began to part as she got close, seeing that she had no weapons, opening a path to her up to a pair of Scionate standing in front of the closed doors in their ceremonial armor, indicating that they were permanent guards assigned to the den rather than the standard military versions surrounding it as backup security.

  “Permission is required prior to entry, Human,” one spoke, referencing the fact that Morgan’s dropship had simply informed the Scionate that it was coming down. The Scionate hadn’t fired on it, despite their never agreeing to let it land, but giving her access to the ruling den wasn’t going to happen, especially after what had happened the last time she was here…though it was for that reason that the other guards were giving her extra room as she passed through them. Her armor color had changed and the designed thinned down a bit, but otherwise she was still the same intimidating presence that she’d been when she, Paul, and Kara had kicked the old bloodline out of power…for which this one was still grateful.

  Morgan didn’t stop walking forward, nor did she say anything. There was a brief staring match as she approached the two, then when it appeared she was going to walk between them they moved to block her way.

  With a single stiffened palm, she pushed her arm forward on the go and threw both armored Scionate back through the air and into the closed doors with a concussive energy blast, bouncing them off it hard and dropping them to the ground.

  “Open the doors or I will myself,” she said loudly, coming to a standstill a few meters in front of the tall, closed entrance.

  She let her demand sink in for a long moment, then when there was no response she pulled back her arms into a Kamehameha position and readied a large blast to begin breaking through when the doors cracked open and began to slowly pull apart. The two shell-shocked guards stepped aside at the insistence of others that had received a comm message from those inside and got out of Morgan’s way as she continued to walk forward, meeting up with a ceremonial honor guard that led he
r in and through the building…more to keep others from interfering with her than to keep her from going where she wanted, which was obviously next to impossible to do with the Archon.

  When they came to the audience chamber the guards stayed outside, allowing her private access to the room…that held only a single occupant. As she walked inside the doors closed behind her, sealing her inside with the Scionate leader, Jen’ton, coming down off his pedestal and meeting her halfway wearing no armor.

  “I do not apologize for the recall order,” he said stoically

  “One hour,” Morgan said icily. “One hour and I could have arranged a pullout. Your people gave no warning and left in the middle of battle. I lost 26,481 soldiers, most of my fleet, and the planet because you idiots couldn’t open a comm channel.”

  The Scionate’s eyes narrowed. “Where was this?”

  “Weema.”

  Jen’ton frowned and turned around, walking back to his pedestal and accessing the controls there to bring up the battle reports. It took him a moment to find the ones for the system Morgan had mentioned, then even longer for him to read through them.

  Morgan gave him time, her anger not abating with it.

  Finally the Scionate leader shut off the holograms and turned around. “If what you say is true I have no record of it. Our troops recalled from there withdrew without incident.”

  “I was on the planet at the time.”

  Jen’ton looked up at her. “I will investigate the matter further. If the commander in question abandoned his post prematurely he will be punished for it.”

  Morgan took a step forward and suddenly Jen’ton found his throat constricting and his body being lifted up into the air with his legs and backside dangling from an invisible grip.

  “Twenty six thousand,” Morgan repeated ever so slowly, “four hundred and eighty one of my people are dead because of the Scionate. The planet we fought to retake is now fully in the hands of the enemy. My ships were destroyed trying to save as many of us as we could evacuate in the time you didn’t give us. The entire front is now weakened and vulnerable to a Skarron push, with even a small one now capable of taking more worlds. You betrayed us and the entire ADZ.”

  “Re…lease me,” Jen’ton demanded.

  Morgan held her Vader choke, pinching her fingers a little closer together and tightening her grip while she pulled her helmet off with her other hand, then tossed it onto the ground to her left.

  “We told you that we would not tolerate any more misdeeds,” she said as the doors far behind her burst open and the guards rushed in, running over to where she was strangling their leader with her magic.

  Morgan raised her ‘free’ hand, though technically her other one wasn’t necessary other than for theatrics, and summoned up a surge of Jumat, pooling it outside her armor for a moment then throwing it out in a hemispherical wave as the guards got within a few meters of her and Jen’ton, bowling them over with ease while her body didn’t so much as twitch.

  “Killing…me won’t…change anything,” Jen’ton said defiantly.

  “I was going for pain,” she said, taking a quick moment while the guards gathered themselves to access the Scionate’s mind and inject a stinging pain sensation…the feeling of a plasma burn from her distant memory translated as best she could into Jen’ton’s realtime senses. She forced it into his mind for only a second, just enough to get his attention before she telekinetically threw him over top of her and to the ground in front of the guards as she opened up and emitted the largest Fornax field she could, sending everyone around her also the ground.

  She held the effect, simultaneously targeting one mind at a time and sending the Scionate individually into a deep sleep, neutralizing the guards until half of them were down and staying down, then she released the field and began to pick off the others in twos and threes, leaving Jen’ton to slowly stand up in the center as his dozens of guards were dropping like flies around him.

  “Blame the Lacvamat!” he roared, both fear and anger in his tone. “They invaded us. We have to defend our own worlds!”

  Morgan didn’t answer, still looking at and dropping guards as more came in and ran over to the fallen others. One actually fired a plasma shot at her, but she saw it coming and put out a telekinetic ‘net’ that actually caught the fiery ball of gas a few meters in front of her. She held it in place and let its glow fade out into nothingness before releasing the now hot air into the room…then she pointed at the one who had fired at her and sent a Jumat blast his way, knocking him back four meters to where he skidded across the ground and into the legs of another oncoming guard.

  “What would you have us do?” Jen’ton demanded as she continued to mow down guards with her ‘sleep stun.’ “Let the Lacvamat take our worlds and kill our people? They are already close to doing that with the troops we recalled. We must defend our own kin!”

  Morgan swiped an arm through the air sideways and bowled back another half dozen at range, then finally looked at Jen’ton, who was crouching three meters away and to the right. “Not by sacrificing others.”

  “We have a right to defend our own first.”

  Morgan’s rage ticked up a notch when he said ‘right’ and she telekinetically grabbed him again, dragging him across the floor and under her. She dropped a knee down on top of him and held him in place while once again emitting a huge Fornax field, dropping all the conscious guards in the room, then picking off a few more with her sleep stun before finally relenting and seeing Jen’ton’s eyes focus on her again as his body began to recover its function.

  “You speak of honor as the foundation of Scionate society…but the truth is you have none. What you have is a bastardized version that puts you and your kin above all others, and where they cross swords with honor to you slay it to justify your own pride. Those you abandoned on the front are no less valuable than those at risk to the Lacvamat. You could have withdrew your troops in conjunction with us, we could have formed a plan that would have kept the front relatively secure with no unnecessary losses but you didn’t give a damn about anyone else! You just up and pulled out…and to what, fight the Lacvamat?”

  Morgan raised her arm again and threw out another Jumat wave, knocking down the guards that kept trying to get close to her and their besieged leader despite the mounting bodies all around testifying to the stupidity of that notion.

  “Your military is superior to theirs,” Morgan bit out. “You didn’t recall everyone to defend yourselves. When your pathetically slow jumpships finally arrive you’re going to push them off the worlds they have taken and then annihilate them for the impudence of attacking you! You let my troops die to go on a bloodlust!”

  Morgan repeated her Fornax field, taking down and neutralizing a few more before continuing to speak.

  “The Lacvamat claim you poisoned their world. They’re reacting the same way you are. Irrationally and dishonorably striking back at their supposed enemies.”

  “We did not attack them,” Jen’ton said, snarling up at her face that was only a few inches above him, close enough to smell her Human breath. “If we had we would not have hidden our intent.”

  “You sure about that?” Morgan asked irreverently. “Seems you don’t know what the hell your people are doing. Perhaps you should investigate that too,” she said, throwing up her arm again as more guards got a bit too close and sending these flying backwards so hard they took down others behind them, some of which were knocked unconscious by the impacts.

  “We are not to blame in this war,” Jen’ton reiterated. “Why are you not on their homeworld?”

  “They didn’t abandon my troops in battle!” Morgan said, slapping him hard across the face with her armored hand before emitting another brief Fornax field. “We put you in power to rule wisely and you stab us in the back, you treasonous bastard. We’ll deal with the Lacvamat on our own terms, but as you damn well know we don’t have the troops to spare. We don’t even have enough to hold the border worlds without you, and
we’re going to have to scramble to try and find a way and hope the Skarrons don’t recognize and take advantage of the weakness.”

  “You aren’t defending yourself against attack any more than the Lacvamat are. You’ve been building towards this for decades and now that you both have an excuse you’re going to go all out, damn the ADZ and everyone else in it, just to fulfill your bloodlust…and you know we can’t stop you without pulling troops off the border, which we WILL NOT DO.”

  Morgan knocked some more guards down, but more and more kept coming in, making the room very cluttered and forcing her to keep rendering them unconscious in order to maintain a buffer zone around her and their leader.

  “If you want to fight go ahead and bleed your dishonorable asses dry. The Sentinels we have guarding your worlds won’t defend you or the Lacvamat. In fact, we’re going to move them to the front to try and help fill the holes you’ve left us with. If the Skarrons or lizards or anyone else feel like jumping across the border and hitting you, well, you’re going to have to defend yourselves on your own merits…but then again you’re good at that, aren’t you? Going it alone and all. Putting yourselves first and saying to hell with your allies, so I think you’ll understand the concept, but don’t misunderstand this as consent. We simply can’t stop you…now. But don’t expect that to always remain the case.”

  Morgan Fornaxed again, this time having to take down more than before. Apparently the masses outside on the plaza were finally working their way inside.

  “And if you have a change of heart and feeling like fighting our true enemy again, you won’t be doing so with us. Pick your own battlegrounds, because we’re not sharing ours with ‘allies’ that may or may not stab us in the back again. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…not happening.”