Star Force: Newbslayer (SF64)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  “So long as they don’t send a second attack force, yes.”

  “I meant with the locals.”

  “There’s a lot of good will out there right now for us. Enough that we’re already getting support from some of the citizenry. I think we can handle things, even if the bureaucrats feel like trying to throw some weight around.”

  “See that you do,” Jenna said before turning around and slowly walking off with Levi. They made their way about half a kilometer off to a courtyard large enough to accommodate a dropship that they called down with supplies. When it landed they camped out in the rear compartment, getting ambrosia and some foodstuffs while still staying in their armor. A Knight came down with it and stood guard outside while they hung around the open ramp, just sitting and staring off in a fatigue-induced haze until the mercs caught up with them again.

  They brought their empty rifles and pistols back, then Brayden gave them a situation update from his search teams. They were finding pockets of citizens that had taken to hiding, and in some cases sealing themselves into whatever hideaways they thought could preserve them. It was going to take some time to rescue them from their own imprisonment, but the Marauders insisted that they could handle that, and with no more Varshoo troops showing up in the search the Archons finally called it a day after the last of the prisoners were recovered, both from the Defense Force and the city streets, and loaded up into Marauder transports.

  Those were taken to a landing zone outside the city where other dropships were coming down to pick them up. Jenna trusted them enough to finish the handover without her babysitting them, so she took Levi and herself back up to the Jor-El with both heading straight for their quarters, already having got some food and ambrosia in the dropship.

  Jenna didn’t even bother to shower, simply pulling her sweaty self out of her armor and flopping down on her bed, resisting the urge to fall asleep as she activated her Sesspik. The healing trance took a moment to begin, but when it did the ache in her head diminished by half instantly, with the remainder slowly eeking away as she sped her recovery as quickly as possible, knowing that unless their luck was very, very good there was going to be more fighting in the other cities, and that they couldn’t delay retaking them very long.

  As it turned out, she and Levi would have to fight three more battles against the largest sections of the Varshoo army before the rest of their units finally accepted her offer of retreat. A lot of the Tieor government didn’t care for that option, wanting the invaders captured or killed, but with the Marauders backing up the two supersoldiers they were able to provide enough intimidation cover to allow the Varshoo to evacuate the cities they still possessed and return to their troop transports.

  Those were allowed to fly up to orbit and dock with the cargo ships that were still in the system. Given that some had fled with their jumpship, it was a tight fit squeezing them all in on their own vessels, but there they would stay until jumpships were sent to pick them up, with a Varshoo courier vessel being sent out immediately to relay the request and inform the others as to what had happened here.

  The Varshoo warships, on the other hand, were not returning with them. Star Force took possession of those and subsequently turned them over to the Marauders, along with the task that Brayden had been initially reluctant to accept…that being the permanent defense of Tieor. The mercenary preferred to pick and choose where he fought, but he was also ambitious, which was part of the reason he had left Star Force to begin with, and Jenna had just given him an entire planet of his own.

  It took several weeks of wrangling and threats, but eventually what was left of the Tieor government and Defense Force agreed to her terms. The Marauders would take over full responsibility for the defense of the planet, in whatever manner they chose, supplanting the inadequate local defenders. With their own more advanced technology, the captured Varshoo warfleet, and the battle records of what had taken place across the planet, the local Tieor population was firmly behind the change, feeling that they were extremely fortunate not to be living in occupied territory right now, and with that support the local government couldn’t do anything to remove the new rulers of the planet.

  But rulers in a caretaker sense. Jenna had instructed them to defend and pacify the planet, ensuring that no bad behavior was going on with the government and interfering when necessary, but otherwise letting the locals manage themselves. That would keep the Marauders independent, but still involved enough to bring a bit of civilization to Tieor, though obviously not up to Star Force standards.

  As for the Jor-El, it would be leaving as soon as the Varshoo jumpships came to pick up their army, after which time the Marauders would be on their own, both in terms of military support and oversight. Jenna made it clear to Brayden that he was completely on his own, and whether this turned out to be a beneficial turn of events or just a delay in the Varshoo taking over she wouldn’t know, for Star Force wasn’t going to maintain any ties, even surveillance. The mercs were on their own, for better or worse.

  Accepting the dangerous challenge for what it was Brayden, thanked the Archons for their decision to return and the new future for his mercenary unit…whose reputation had just skyrocketed, not to mention their war assets, though many of the ships would have to be refitted, possibly back in the ADZ at a later time. Never the less, they had suddenly become a naval-equipped organization with a planet full of resources and personnel to draw off of.

  Brayden still intended to keep the Marauders as 100% ex-Star Force personnel, but recognized that he’d need to set up some support units with locals. He had a lot of work ahead of him, very lucrative work considering the fee Tieor would be annually paying them, both in currency and raw materials, plus real-estate to set up proper bases.

  Jenna left him and his men to their own volition, not sure how Tieor would play out but washing her hands of it. She’d done an awful lot to help out, and done so in a typically Star Force way, but their fate was now their own. A day after the Varshoo jumpships departed with their troops the Ma’kri left as well, heading to the nearest clandestine Star Force base for resupply, then it would be off again on another mission of Jenna’s choosing.

  Where that would lead her and her apprentice she didn’t know, but there was always need for them somewhere on the border and she liked being a roamer far better than being tied to a semi-permanent assignment for a decade or more.

  As they traveled back from Tieor she wrote up a report that would post to the message boards as soon as they got back on the grid. She sent a special flag with it, for the attention of the trailblazers, in which she detailed how useful the master/apprentice system was, for to her knowledge such a pairing had never been pushed to that limit. Jenna added the subsequent problems with the psionic overusage, including the battlemeld abilities, noting that some additional high endurance training should be devised to counter the problem.

  And throwing a training issue out to the trailblazers was the equivalent of feeding them candy. Either they or Wilson would come up with a counter program in short order, but for Jenna she wasn’t going to worry about it. Her focus was on getting into the action and making a difference on the front lines, whether lizard huge or border world small. She’d use whatever training they devised, but she wasn’t going to waste her time experimenting and designing it.

  That was for others. She and Levi both were cut out for action, and one way or another they always found their way to a mission that required it. The lizards might be the greatest threat Star Force currently faced, but that didn’t mean all the little ones didn’t matter, and as both she and her current and futures apprentices grew in strength, the bigger the difference they could make in these small conflicts where sending in a Star Force army wasn’t an option.

  Jenna hadn’t originally intended to take on that role, but accepted it for what it became as well as the nickname some of the others on the major front lines gave her.

  Newbslayer.

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