Star Force: Ice Queen

by Aer-ki Jyr

  Then there were the other factories being hit, one of which was a bioharvest facility. The indoor growth pods hadn’t been damaged, for there were so many stretched across miles of facility it would be hard to do much damage to them without a warship overhead. No, the saboteurs had hit the mechanized part of the process where grains, nuts, fruits, tubers, and other produce was harvested and processed. It was the factory part of the bioharvest facility that had been hit and damaged, which again caused a pileup of raw foodstuffs that couldn’t be dealt with locally.

  Thankfully there were manual ways of harvesting the crops and the Duke had assembled emergency teams to keep the flow going and reroute it directly to the cooks who would then have extra duties preparing it. Also, foodstuff supply was one area that necessitated redundancy, so Eoxion was producing more than it needed and laying emergency supplies away continuously from 729 different bioharvest factories on this planet alone. The disruption in only one of them might not seem significant, but it did matter and was one more thing Jessica had to account for as she shifted resources and people everywhere trying to put out figurative fires before they started as the literal ones continued to pop up.

  And just now another one did. A warning came across from a drone frame production facility along the equator. Massive malfunctions were occurring and the emergency shutdown procedures were locking the entire factory down at the first sign of a glitch to mitigate the damage, but multiple explosions were being reported internally with no sign of…

  Wait. There was something going on. A ‘curiosity’ flag had been pinged on the battlemap indicating that someone should take a look at it. Jessica knew security would be handling it but she zoomed in on the location and saw a string of Kiritak workers leaving the facility…but they weren’t. Rather they were running around in a circle and…

  Then Jessica saw it, zooming down even lower, and a group of them were jumping on something invisible and trying to hold on to it as security was running towards them. The Duke saw several of the smaller Kiritak get thrown through the air like cannon balls, but others rushed to replace them and dove at what they could not see but could still feel.

  Then several stun blasts were fired as non-Commando security officers in armor ran up and just fired on the ball of Kiritak with enough shots getting through them to disrupt the stealth field beneath. When that happened the computer operating the sensors immediately tagged Zen’zat armor and alarms sounded across the planet for those watching the appropriate screens.

  The Zen’zat, apparently knowing his cover had been blown, dropped the stealth and began shooting back with the security officers all but running away as the Kiritak scattered. It wasn’t until the shields of two security officers were breached and they were lying on the ground with holes burnt in their armor did a security Commando finally arrive with a few other non-Commandos with her. Apparently she ordered them to stay at range and shoot while she rushed the larger green/black silhouette.

  She didn’t make it far, for another invisible body slammed into hers and threw her aside…then both Zen’zat took off running under a hail of fire.

  Jessica wanted to watch but knew she couldn’t, letting it go and knowing the Archons would be organizing everything from afar as she watched the readouts from the factory get worse and worse, finally plateauing at less than full damage as production ground to a halt. With a combination of minds’ eye and the holograms she quickly got readouts on what had been damaged and began calculating time for repair as she immediately sent construction crews there to start cleanup and repair.

  The loss of this factory would slow the orbital drone production even more, for with less framework available the slips she was opening up by transporting the armorless drones away would soon begin to go dark as the lack of material finally caught up to them. That hadn’t happened yet, though they were only a few weeks away, and the additional loss of part of this factory would only snowball that in about 3 weeks time.

  Jessica slammed her right fist down onto the ice-like smooth armrest of her throne. She wished she had an army of Archons here to hunt these bastards down, or even a few Arc Commandos or Arc Knights who could see through these damn stealth fields with their Pefbar, but all she had was the 3 Archons and herself. No one else on the planet had Pefbar and the reinforcements from other systems hadn’t arrived yet…not to say there were many coming, for the Archons assigned to her realm numbered all of 23 and she had no Arc Commandos or Arc Knights.

  Her territory was not on the warfront, V’kit’no’sat or Rim, so there was no point in wasting their presence here when there was plenty of fighting to do elsewhere. Some Archons had to be around just in case, and those here were mainly helping with the development of the Elves, but she was not equipped to fight this type of invasion.

  Sure, she had plenty of Commandos and Knights, and if these Zen’zat were visible they could take care of them, but only the security stations, her castle, and a few other valuable locations had ‘Mist’ scanners, which was the common term for technological Pefbar that covered an area with an energy field and could feel anything that moved through it. The stealth fields these Zen’zat were operating with wouldn’t work on the Mist scanner, so she was fairly safe here in her castle…assuming they tried to get in the front door and not go through a wall…but nowhere else on the planet had them.

  There were portable units that the Archons had deployed to their best guesses for upcoming targets, but there were far too few and despite her reallocation of resources to start mass producing more there was no way to throw down a wide enough net across all her cities without a decade of prep work…and with this being a quiet system geared for maximum exports she’d never had reason to do so before, but was regretting it heavily now.

  Maybe now that a Zen’zat had been spotted the Archons could run them down, but Jessica wasn’t counting on it. The Wood Elves realm was the safest place to be now, for their biological sensory net was programmed to withdraw from the presence of a Pefbar field and that’s apparently how the Zen’zat navigated when fully stealthed. That meant whenever one went into The Wood the Elves could feel the blank spot, as they had initially, though not before they all recognized the threat.

  Since then there had been no more incursions there, and Jessica wished she’d planted more of the Ysalamiri trees in the city. As it was there were none save for one in the bottom of her castle. It had been the first one created, and not only did it produce a detection field over 100 meters in radius, it could move its branches like arms when so directed, taking on different shapes to create steps or platforms, or even to hit enemies that were stupid enough to stand beneath it.

  Only the Wood Elves could control it, though, and that was by design. Even she and the Archons couldn’t tap into the ‘sight’ of The Wood, though the Elves could pass it onto them telepathically like any other thought.

  As bad as this situation was, it could have been a lot worse and Jessica was grateful they didn’t have an enemy fleet over their head firing down on the planet. But while she was responsible for her realm she also had a responsibility to aid those on the fronts with exports, and every attack that happened chipped away at her ability to do so. Eoxion was her major export producer, and if these sabotage teams continued this rampage Jessica was going to have to face self-sufficiency problems of her own…and she did not want to have to ask for support from other realms.

  While Monarchs always helped each other out, it was with heavy shame that one became a burden to the others. They were meant to be the ones planning and preparing for the bad days so that they could support others…to become needy meant failure, and Jessica was quite angry to have these invisible little pricks tearing apart everything she’d been building on top of the deaths they were racking up.

  Of the 15 regions in what was currently Star Force territory…not counting what was lost in the now Devastation Zone…Seon held a place on the Rimward border, but it was a long territory and Jessica’s realm was in the coreward half butting
up against the central Deu and Pavana Regions. Deu connected to the largest Region, simply designated ‘Rim’ because it had originally been the ‘Rim Region’ when Star Force first acquired The Nexus expansion races. A great deal more had been added since, but the Rim Region was now the coreward border, and that fact underlined how much territory was being lost to the V’kit’no’sat.

  Which was why Davis had left the name ‘Rim Region’ intact, as a reminder, as he worked out of the Totana Region. It was on rim border and heavily involved in expansion fighting as trailblazer Steve-004 was pushing outward trying to get to the Neerson race…one of the abandoned Nexus races that had long ago applied for membership in Star Force. Yori-007 was with them now, trying to help them survive until the border could reach out to them, with Davis working to integrate and sustain those other smaller races being added to the empire with limited supplies.

  The Director was making more out of less in a way that inspired Jessica whenever she checked on his status updates, with all the Monarchs able to watch each other in order to better coordinate resources. There was so much she’d learned from just watching him, and Jessica always took any opportunity she could to communicate with, let alone visit the Director and the Arch Dukes, who all were true masterminds of logistics and civilization creation.

  It had been Davis that had personally chosen Jessica for her elevation to Monarch back before that’d even been the official designator. He’d made her a Baron, like he did with everyone else he found worthy of this high position of responsibility, and Jessica was proud to have risen all the way to Duke since, but he’d chosen her from outside Star Force unlike everyone else that had come from within.

  She’d always felt that in some way he expected more of her and she’d wanted to live up to that benchmark, and when she’d been assigned as the replacement for Arch Duke Hightower in Epsilon Eridani Jessica felt that had validated her. It was the second most important system within Star Force and she’d been entrusted to guard and cultivate it while the best of the best went rimward to work their magic on the frontier.

  When Epsilon Eridani fell it hadn’t been a surprise, but what it did to Jessica had been. She’d felt hollow and useless afterwards…not because of failure, but because her ability to do anything had been stripped from her. A Monarch’s power was in her infrastructure, her population, her cargo fleet, and in a lesser amount her warships and Archons that pretty much did their own independent thing. When she’d lost the second most powerful system in the empire she’d been left with just being Jessica again, and she’d hated that. It was like she’d been elevated to superhero status then had the enemy suck away that superpower.

  She’d gone back to being normal…and normal was awful. She couldn’t help anyone, and somehow worse was the way that she’d been eliminated from the action. Jessica was out of the club, even while still being a Monarch, and that had felt so wrong.

  The Director had seen it differently, but then again he was never out of the club. He had built the club and the whole of the empire was his to command. After Epsilon Eridani Jessica had nothing of her own to command until Davis had given her this startup…an agonizing process for a Duke who was used to dealing with so much, but it was her chance to get back in the club and she’d been dutifully increasing her industrial power to this day. Even with all her current systems combined they were no comparison for what Epsilon Eridani had been on its own, but this realm was hers again and she was a player on the empire-wide scene...albeit a small one, but entrusted with a project key to Star Force’s future.

  Now that project was under attack and her infrastructure was being stripped from her a piece at a time with her unable to do anything about it. The Archons handled security, not Monarchs, and she didn’t blame the 3 here for what was happening. It was fate that she was upset with, that after all this time and effort she was beginning to be diminished again…and with trillions of people on the rim front living or dying by the supplies the Monarchs could export to them, it wasn’t a selfish desire for power that was driving Jessica, but rather the reverse. She needed to be in the game in order to help protect people…and here she was getting booted from it again.

  She wasn’t out yet, and it would take a handful of saboteurs a long time to take down everything she’d built across 18 systems, but she could see it happening all over again, this time in slow motion, and the helplessness she was feeling to stop it was making her sick to her stomach as she tried to mitigate the damage and reroute resources and personnel to combat this…but it felt like a hopeless endeavor that she was just stretching out longer.

  But she’d do it, if only to give the Archons more time to find and stop these bastards. They might be able to, or maybe they wouldn’t. She didn’t know, but she’d give them and the rest of the people in her realm every advantage she could. That was her responsibility and privilege, and if her power was going to be taken from her yet again she’d go down fighting…if only out of spite to do everything she possibly could.

  Davis had taught her that after Epsilon Eridani, for he’d had to watch from afar as his Sol had been taken, including Earth, and she had to admit that was far worse. She’d only inherited Epsilon Eridani, not created it from scratch like Hightower had.

  So she was going to fight this to whatever end, for that was her duty and privilege. For the moment she still had power to act with. They hadn’t taken it from her yet.

  And if they were going to, she was going to be as stubborn and steadfast as possible, making them rip it away from her with all force.

  That’s what Davis had told her to be, no matter how much it hurt in the process. Despair was something she could dwell on after it was all over.

  So Jessica sat in her control throne sending out widescale orders and micromanaging even the slightest of others. Anywhere and everywhere she could get traction on this she would, for she was a Monarch and she was not just going to take this lying down…and even one additional drone sent to the front would make a difference, for they needed all they could get.

  8

  Connor sprinted across the top of an industrial building near to where the sabotage had recently gone down, stopping momentarily to reach back to Carrie, who was lagging behind, with a Bataf conduit. The energy field stretched out between them, linked in battlemeld, and allowed him to pull her towards him…essentially reeling in a solid string connecting them only to use it as a pole vault at the very end and send her flying out ahead of him.

  She landed on the roof of the next building with the ViLord sprinting and jumping across the gap, closing in on his slower Apprentice as they managed to stay within Ikrid range of one of the Zen’zat that was now fleeing the brief battle. The Kiritak and security forces had managed to identify and delay him just enough for the Archon pair to get to the approximate location and send out a Neritu pulse…an upgraded version of Ikrid that used both minds combined with a little special tissue added to greatly increase their range.

  They’d gotten 3 pings off it, but had lost the other two as they raced on ahead. The dropship that had brought the Archon in had flown in as close as they could, then they’d fallen to rooftops and continued the pursuit on foot with their psionics being the only way the Zen’zat could be tracked within their stealth fields.

  This Zen’zat was fast, but Connor was faster. The problem was he needed Carrie with him and she wasn’t…hence the cheating to push her past her natural speed. Unfortunately Connor hadn’t reached Frieza level yet and obtained the ability to fly, making this an even chase, for no Zen’zat had ever obtained it either as far as the V’kit’no’sat database from millennia ago knew and none had been seen in the time since.

  Just before he caught up to the Padawan she jumped off the edge of the building, falling partway to the distant street below where the Zen’zat was sprinting through, but she hit something before she got halfway down and angled to the side in the direction their quarry was running. Carrie stepped from one invisible foothold to another as she descended t
he stairs that the pair had just created with their Qwe’kal psionic.

  Connor was producing them for Carrier to step on, but they were firmly locked to their positions even as he ran…then when he fell he landed on one that she produced for him, with both of them literally running through the air downward as they supported each other until Carrie got to ground a few dozen meters behind where the Zen’zat mental signature was…though they didn’t even need it now, for they were within the Pefbar bubble he was using to navigate with and a telekinetic shove partially slowed Carrie down before she pulsed her Rentar to negate it.

  But then she stopped entirely and planted her feet before Connor could get all the way to ground. She let him pull a Jedi jump off of one step, then they both let go their Qwe’kal as a new Bataf formed between them. Carrie’s boots skidded on the pavement as she dragged the invisible conduit that felt as firm as a metal pole over her head via her outstretched hands, adding as much momentum to Connors jump as she could.

  Both their minds were linked together, so there was no inefficiency in communication as the ViLord was launched ahead of her and landed on the other side of the Zen’zat…where he released a Jumat blast that knocked the 7 foot tall warrior into a sidewall, disrupting his stealth field momentarily before he disappeared again, but not from both Archons’ Pefbar sight.

  Using Carrie to help him, the pair emitted a small Yinbi field around the Zen’zat…which was the same as the IDF used to protect starship crews from acceleration damage. On the Zen’zat it negated gravity and his next step sent him flying up into the air and partially out of the IDF. The two Archons altered it slightly, catching him midair and floating forward on his momentum in a slow cartwheel.