Vargemma

by Aer-ki Jyr

  “That means we can produce Materia in large numbers, and do so quickly. With them we can hunt the Hadarak effectively, and along with the Ysalamiri we have a way to win…if the Vargemma do not take them from us. Perhaps they knew of this capability even before we did, for they are trying to kill the Uriti and we must keep them hidden. If we can defeat the Vargemma, we have a pathway to defeating the Hadarak and open up the conventional war against the minions without interference.”

  “The trouble is, their minions are expanding exponentially and they alone have the ability to conquer the galaxy if unchecked, so we must defeat the Vargemma. If you’ve been holding anything back, please assist us. We have the key to defeat the Hadarak, but we must get past the Vargemma first. I do not believe negotiation is an option. They have to be conquered, one way or another. Not dishonorably, but effectively.”

  “And this is also my opportunity to remind you that if we had killed the Uriti long ago like you wanted, we wouldn’t now have their recharge capability. They also gave us the Ysalamir weapon. They are our key to defeating the Hadarak, and we must return to spawning new ones. We cannot do that, and just recently the Vargemma attacked and destroyed one of their spawning cradles. It’s almost as if they are allied with the Hadarak, for they are doing more damage to us than the Hadarak are.”

  “So…secret given. Do not share it beyond your ranks. You wanted hope. Now you have it.”

  The hologram shut down, and Vochem sat in his Star Force quarters in silence. What Davis had said made simple sense, almost as if he should have known all along and was just blind to it, but that didn’t diminish the implications.

  They’d done it. They’d actually found a way to kill Hadarak en mass, and while Vochem definitely wanted to see these Materia in action, he didn’t doubt their effect after seeing data on the Lurker’s wound. Davis hadn’t said how big these Materia were, but he guessed they were much smaller than Ysalamir, perhaps even mountable on standard warships. Jenshar had curious effects when mixed with physics, and the Vargemma employed many of them…and if Star Force now had a similar capability, with the Uriti supplying the power…

  Vochem stood up, his four spider-like legs going wide as he flexed his entire body in a fiery rage of confidence. The Knights of Quenar had indeed chosen the winning side, but Star Force needed them to find a way to defeat the Vargemma. If the stalemate lasted, even if the Vargemma stopped attacking installations, the Hadarak would win. Star Force had to be free to fight them with their new weapons, and the Knights of Quenar had to give them that cover.

  Vochem didn’t know how they’d do it, but they now had their mission. They had assisted Star Force before, because they had the ability to control the Uriti, and they would do the same now again, because Star Force had the ability to kill the Hadarak and because their nature was so tame he knew they’d never betray the Knights of Quenar.

  But that same tame nature might not be enough to defeat the Vargemma if sacrifices had to be made. If ‘dishonorable’ methods were required to achieve victory, the Knights of Quenar would have to implement them, for he knew Star Force would not.

  Vochem left his quarters, enroute to one of the Knights of Quenar ships. He had to return to his people and make them aware of the gigantic shift that had just occurred, for this information was too sensitive to try and transmit back to their territory. He had to go in person and make them understand that this was their moment in galactic history above and beyond what they had done with the Uriti.

  Star Force was the future of the galaxy, and a peaceful one at that…if the Knights of Quenar could keep them alive. Dark deeds may be necessary in the coming days and Star Force would not have the will to carry them out, but that lack of will also made them safe to ally with, and was therefore acceptable. They could be controlled via their code of conduct, but the Vargemma could not for they were as unscrupulous as the Knights of Quenar, and that made them much more dangerous.

  And yet, Star Force had come so far in such a limited amount of time whereas the Vargemma had hidden from the Hadarak. Perhaps Star Force was right, and they had a methodology that was superior in the long term. Vochem truly wanted to investigate that theory, but there was no time now. The Vargemma had to fall, and fighting honorably might not be enough.

  He wasn’t going to rule out Star Force finding a way, but the Knights of Quenar had to be ready to act to ensure they won, no matter what methods were necessary. Even if it meant breaking their alliance by doing something that Davis could not tolerate, the Knights of Quenar must ensure Star Force wins this fight so they can then protect the galaxy against the worse threat.

  And if it came to a contest of raw effectiveness, Vochem would put his Knights up against the Vargemma any day. They were literally bred for this task, and if there was a means to accomplish a task, they would find and utilize it. No matter what the cost of victory would be.

  The mission came first. And it didn’t matter how much the Vargemma scared him. If he had to go through them, then he and the others would. Death was not failure, only defeat was. And the Knights of Quenar would find a way to win or die in pursuit of their quest. No more waiting and watching. No more lurking in the Rim and pulling strings of others. This was the moment their Order had been created for, though their forbearers could not have anticipated it playing out on this large a scale.

  A rampaging Uriti was of small importance compared to what they now faced, and the Knights of Quenar had to rise to meet the challenges ahead.

  Challenges…perhaps his time with Davis was wearing off on him. But so be it. Whatever made him stronger. They were going to need every advantage they could scrape together, for he knew the Vargemma had not played their full hand yet. And if his fears were correct, they were capable of a great deal more wizardry than they had told his people about.

  And what they had told them already scared him to the bone, for Star Force wasn’t the first race to cross them…and the few others that had tried had been wiped from the face of the galaxy as punishment for their disobedience.

  9

  February 15, 128540

  Krichkraw Nebula (Novatis Kingdom)

  Vargemma Stronghold

  Bren had spent months sending drones and supplies through the barrier, and using both to establish a small outpost just inside the armored shell and within the rock layer on the other side, yet shallow enough not to get into the magma layer. The Vargemma hadn’t interfered, nor was there any sign that they even knew, and the Archon had been growing his little base on the other side all the way up until another ship arrived with a trio of people.

  Two were Knights of Quenar, the other was Greg. Bren had given him a long, hard look when they’d met up onboard his command ship, but then let it go. Yes, Greg was too valuable to lose, but he was an Archon and Archons didn’t like leading from behind. And Bren had had a similar argument with him before Greg had allowed him to go, so there were no grounds for him to complain about Greg being here.

  “I trust there’s a plan?” Bren asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “They’re going to punt you and me over the barrier and we’re going to have a look around,” Greg said bluntly.

  Bren’s eyes widened. “Did you ask…”

  “Nope. They’d just say no and we need eyes in there.”

  “How are they getting us across?”

  “The Den’gar will allow us to cross into the Jenshar realm,” one of the Knights explained. “It will bypass the barrier and revert you on the other side. I will carry you across, for this one’s skills are not adequate yet.”

  Greg shrugged. “I can make it work, I just haven’t had much practice.”

  “Did something happen that I don’t know about?” Bren asked.

  “Much,” Greg said. “Nothing that I wanted to encode on drones. We’re working together and swapping techniques. They know quite a bit.”

  “But they’re staying here?”

  “One of us must in order to navigate the other, or w
e will become ballistic.”

  “How do we get back?” Bren asked.

  “Same way,” Greg said. “We just call for a lift and he’ll pull us back across, even if Bor’ot isn’t with us.”

  “The barrier is made of Essence,” Bren warned. “Is that going to mess with the technique?”

  “When in the Jenshar, nothing of this realm affects you.”

  “Anything I need to know?” Greg asked the Archon.

  “We’ve got room for 4 on the other side, easy. But I haven’t created any real transit tubes up top. Just the ones the drones use, and they collapse regularly. Quite a bit of volcanic activity in this region of the sphere…and no, it’s not from our pinprick. There are volcanos out there that appear to be very old.”

  “How close?”

  “Thousands of miles at the closest, but we’re still getting mild tremors. I need to build a proper tunnel but I didn’t want to risk it yet. And the drones just chew through the debris anyway.”

  “So will we, then. You ready?”

  “I’ve been ready. Can they manage without us?”

  “I’ve given them limited access to my ship’s systems. Enough to run if needed. But we need plenty of supplies on the other side in case we get stranded.”

  “Supplies I have in plenty,” Bren said, referencing the automated supply ships parked nearby the pure black barrier that didn’t reflect even a hint of the blue from the nebula. “They push through easy. You just need the drones ready to catch on the other side.”

  “Make a list,” Greg said eagerly. “Let’s get going…”

  The two Archons and Knights of Quenar stood on the edge of the barrier inside a dropship only a few meters away. The plan was to use the Stargate technique to get them to the other side, then they could fly using their armor into the airlock covering the hole in the Sphere’s armor. Bor’ot had been given a set of Star Force commando armor, for he had nothing well suited for space beyond emergency procedures. Vech’ni was staying behind on the dropship and doing the pushing, and when Bor’ot disappeared along with the two Archons, the remaining Knight could see them as a Jenshar bubble in front of him.

  He used his own Jenshar to grasp hold of it and move it towards and through the barrier…except it would not go through. It acted as if it hit a physical wall, for the edge of the bubble would not pass within it, nor would it bounce off. It just stopped and no matter how much pressure Vech’ni applied, it would not budge.

  Eventually he pulled it back inside the dropship and peeled the bubble off, pulling the three passengers back into normal reality with odd looks on their faces when their helmets retracted.

  “What’s wrong?” Bor’ot asked a split second before Greg could.

  “I cannot penetrate the barrier. The Den’gar will not go through. It is as if it is a solid wall.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Bren said, kicking the toe of his boot into the floor in frustration. “I knew it was too easy.”

  “I thought you said nothing could affect us in the Essence realm?” Greg asked. “Was someone else actively pushing us back?”

  “No. I have never encountered something like this before. I apologize gravely. I do not know what is happening. This barrier defies my knowledge of the Jenshar.”

  “Not surprising,” Bren scoffed. “I think it defies theirs too,” he said, pointing a thumb towards the Vargemma inside.

  “Can you elaborate on that?” the trailblazer asked.

  “It’s a gut feeling. I’ve got nothing solid to go on, but the more I see footage of what’s out there, I know they’re squatters. They did not build this place. Someone else did, and they laced it with building materials. There’s even solari laced into the magma. This was built by someone else for someone else to use. Maybe as a cage, or a safe haven. Maybe for the Vargemma by someone else. But whoever built this thing is beyond our technology and far beyond the Vargemma’s. They’ve got sub-atomic restructuring so different from ours the drone systems can’t even identify it.”

  “And you think the barrier is definitely their doing and not the Vargemma’s?”

  “The Vargemma might be powering it, but if they understood even a part of this technology they wouldn’t have such crappy ships.”

  “Their strength is the Jenshar,” Vech’ni reminded him. “They are doing damage without needing advanced technology.”

  “They’d use it if they had it,” Bren insisted. “So you have no idea how to get through this?”

  “I do not even know how it is structured,” the Knight admitted. “Den’gar has never failed us before.”

  “Did you learn it from them?”

  “We did.”

  “Then maybe there’s something they didn’t tell you about it.”

  “Like a passcode?” Greg added.

  “That or there’s a door up there somewhere that will let you through. Can you disrupt this stuff at all?”

  “I will try,” he said, with both Knights raising their hands towards the barrier meters away, but Bren couldn’t sense or see any disruptions within it. Then Bor’ot swore something in his native language that Star Force’s translation programming couldn’t quantify.

  “What?” Greg asked.

  “It conscripts our Jenshar on contact as if it were alive, but I sense no person attached to it. It behaves as if it does not follow the rules of the Jenshar.”

  “Or your rules were never rules to begin with,” Bren lectured. “Just guidelines.”

  “Given by the Vargemma, who were definitely holding stuff back,” Greg finished.

  “No. We learned of the Jenshar on our own. The Vargemma added to our knowledge. This barrier defies all we have learned. It should not exist.”

  “Can you tell us anything about it?” the trailblazer pressed.

  “It is tight matrix. Far too tight,” Bor’ot said. “I do not understand how something this complex could cover such a massive structure. Distance from lifeform diminishes Jenshar control and longevity. The Jenshar should escape it, but I sense no diffusion. It is stable Jenshar, and that only occurs within the body of a living being. I cannot explain it.”

  “Nutfudder,” Greg said, using a custom swear word that Rafa had long ago made up on the fly just babbling, and it’d stuck. “Then we just took a long trip out here for nothing.”

  “We will stay and study the barrier,” Vech’ni said firmly. “We may discover much with time.”

  “Or not,” Bren added pessimistically. “We’ve got to get in there somehow.”

  “I know,” Greg said, blowing out a deep breath. “Just not today, it seems.”

  Meanwhile in Itaru…

  A trio of tiny Ari’tat walked in formation across what must have seemed like an enormous plaza up towards Mak’to’ran’s platform, for they massed less than his foot all combined. They were flimsy little things, but their place in the V’kit’no’sat had been sealed by their cunning and ingenuity. They could not achieve victory through raw strength, so they provided the empire the other skills that those who did possess the strength never bothered to cultivate to their fullest.

  The V’kit’no’sat leader waited until they were nearly out of sight beneath the edge of his platform, then they hopped up on it and walked to metallic pads imbedded within the soft platform that rose up to bring them closer to the Era’tran’s head height and the swirling holographic map of the galaxy to his left.

  “What is the status of Legion?” Mak’to’ran demanded, for he’d given the Ari’tat the privilege and great responsibility for completing the project and keeping it a secret from the rest of the empire…and whoever else might have eyes within.

  “The technology is not easy to construct, and a complete prototype was not fashioned prior to the attack on the shipyards. We are attempting to complete the work, but it is tedious. We cannot field a useable Ysalamir yet, and it is not for lack of trying. We must finish what Star Force did not in order to get the necessary yield from the devices.”

  Mak’to’ran huff
ed, but he knew better than to expect these Ari’tat of lying to him. He’d chosen them because they were above suspicion, so he was inclined to take them at their word.

  “What estimate of their completion can you reliably give me?”

  “A loose estimate of 3-6 years,” the red one said apologetically. All Ari’tat were born a random color, bright in the extreme and monotone, though variations were often added through medical alteration. Mak’to’ran suspected it was a primitive but effective defense mechanism to avoid being stepped on, though it did also help him tell the tiny V’kit’no’sat apart, for their mental signatures were also nearly identical. “Mass production, if all goes well, will follow thereafter, but we may need to spend a great deal of time increasing effectiveness. We will have useable weapons within a decade. How useable I cannot say, beyond them being able to destroy some Yeg’gor on impact.”

  “Have you been monitoring the Lurker’s path?”

  The tiny eyes on all three Ari’tat blinked in unison. “No. Our efforts are totally focused on the Legion project. Where the Lurker is cannot be a factor until we have a weapon to damage it…unless it approaches one of the test facilities?”

  “It does not, and hopefully it will not be able to find it through means we are unaware of…but the Hadarak do have some means of information gathering that we are not aware of. The Lurker has come to two of the sites where the Ysalamiri were destroyed, as if it could follow their scent. What technology inside them could allow this to happen?”

  “None that we are aware.”

  “Then there must be spies involved…or traitors. You must keep Legion safe, Ari’tat. The empire depends on this.”