Star Force: Knighthood (SF36)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  Bronsor nodded. “How do I tell the difference?”

  “In its liquid state, Human ambrosia is colored red, Calavari is blue, and Kiritak is green. The laced foodstuffs will also have labels on the containers with the same colors.”

  “Is this how you have become so strong?”

  Jason shook his head. “No, our training has made us strong. The ambrosia has helped us train harder and longer than we’re normally capable of doing.”

  “So in a way yes,” Jace added, “but without the training it will do you little good.”

  “The Knights on the seda will help you figure out how to use it,” Jason said, putting the vile back in the box, “just don’t tell your fellow Calavari about it. It’s something you have to earn, and as of now we don’t have very much of the Calavari version made yet…and we’re still working on increasing the potency of the formula.”

  “It’s a work in progress,” Jace said, “but we want to get you started on it so you won’t be at too much of a disadvantage when you start training with the other Knights.

  “Now,” Jason said, clapping his hands together after having put the box back where he got it. “Time to swap armor. The design is the same, aside from the comm system. This set has more options, given that you’ll be fully active on our network.”

  Bronsor set his helmet down on the ground and began unlatching his gloves.

  “There’s a lot of new stuff for you to learn,” Jace explained, “but that’s normal for new Knights. You’ll be assigned to a unit that will split up as necessary for missions…usually you don’t all fight together. Knights supplement combat teams.”

  “Which is something else you’ll have to learn,” Jason added. “Becoming a Knight doesn’t mean things get easier, it’s a step up to the next level.”

  “I’m not afraid of a challenge,” Bronsor said, pulling off the last bits of his Calavari Knight armor and stepping out of the boots. “I just want to get back into the fight.”

  “You will,” Jace promised, “but you’ve got a lot to learn on the trip.”

  Bronsor walked up to the white armor on the rack and looked at it for a moment, proud of what he’d accomplished, then he took the left boot and opened it up, seeing that it was the exact same dimensions as his previous armor, meaning a custom set.

  Jace and Jason didn’t say anything else until he got all the armor pieces on, including the helmet, and let him move around in it a bit.

  “Everything fit?” Jace asked.

  “Yes, but the visual interface is unusual. It’s all English.”

  “That’s the default setting. You can switch it over to the trade language like your old set if you want, but the more you can assimilate our language the easier it will be to link with the rest of our troops.”

  “I will adapt,” Bronsor promised.

  “Normally Knights don’t carry firearms,” Jason said, “but given that the Nestafar infantry can fly you’ll see them carrying at least a pistol as backup. Given that you have more hands to work with, I want you to always carry one. What’s your preference, stun sword or stun stick?”

  “The sword is too long to use with the shields. I use a pair of sticks, though my first choice is the shotgun.”

  Jason raised an eyebrow. The plasma shotgun was one of the weapons that Star Force armories typically held, but it was rarely used. “Why the shotgun?”

  “When I carry the shields my effective combat range is medium. The shotgun allows the greatest damage and has a shorter barrel.”

  “Something we need to look into,” Jason said, glancing at Jace who nodded. “Just be aware, that typically Knights go into battle only with stun weapons.”

  “Because you usually take prisoners,” Bronsor said, already having heard that rumor.

  “Some situations are different, just remember to focus on the mission objective and how best to accomplish it.”

  Bronsor flexed his neck, with a slight clicking of the flexible plates covering it. “I know my duty. I will not let the Nestafar make me stupid with anger.”

  Jason smiled. “Welcome to the family. Pack a gear duffle and get yourself to the spaceport. There’ll be a ride waiting for you.”

  “Shields and weapons you’ll get from armories,” Jace added. “Duffles are for personal items, though you can get everything you need on site if you want to travel light.”

  “We’ll send replacement armor pieces along. Eventually they’ll be standard in armories, but right now you’re the only one that will need a Calavari set.”

  “I understand,” Bronsor said, looking down on the Humans. “Thank you.”

  Jace smiled. “Go get us some more recruits.”

  Four hours later Bronsor’s dropship landed in the Star Force seda’s hangar bay, after which he met up with the Knights onboard who got him situated into temporary quarters and acquainted with the handful that would be transferring out to Calavari territory with him. Thorough and intense as they were, they ran the newb through the works, testing his speed, strength, memory retention, and sense of humor.

  Bronsor dutifully went along with the process, and within a few days started to understand how the Human Knights operated, and they in turn began to get a sense of what he could and couldn’t do. By the end of the first week they were practicing group maneuvers and troubleshooting ways to coordinate strengths and weaknesses, usually with Bronsor being center in the formation with the faster Humans in skirmish and flanker positions.

  The unit training continued nonstop, with Bronsor being expected to see to a lot of his own fitness training, either at the same time as the others or at a time of his choosing. He worked out with them, so there would be no mistakes as to what he was supposed to be doing, as well as getting a feel for what the Knights trained like, for he’d only seen a few in the roll of instructors or sparring partners before.

  His first impression was how fast they were, and Bronsor knew he’d have to work hard to keep up with them. His second takeaway was the fact that they weren’t that much stronger than him, and he could keep pace with a couple of them on brute strength exercises. Overall he was the weakling amongst the group, but given his greater mass he quickly picked up the nickname ‘Ram’ given that’s how easy he could push through opponents when he needed to.

  Bronsor clung to that strength as a matter of pride, and was happy to have two or three of the Knights test his strength as they tried to figure out the best way to stop a charging Calavari. With his two half shields locked into a wedge in front of him and a short run up, Bronsor turned his 450 pound mass, plus armor, into a juggernaut that the others had to get innovative to stop.

  And that they did, which Bronsor liked. Some of them took to his legs, trying to sweep underneath his shields and trip him up while others used their speed to circle around behind him and latch on to his limbs or neck and drag him to the ground. By the time the jumpship was ready to leave, they’d gone through the exercise so many times they’d gotten quite good at predicting each other’s movements and had quite a lot of fun seeing the other Knights they met up with onboard the troop ship trying to take him down as he ‘ran the gauntlet.’

  The drill instantly became part of the Knight lexicon, with a 50 meters or so stretch of deck with a line Bronsor was trying to get to and that the others were trying to keep him from. Sometimes they went with armor, armor and shields, or nothing at all. His ability to successfully get past 2 and sometimes 3 other Knights at a time immediately made him one of the guys, despite the fact that several of the Knights were female, which was something he didn’t have too much trouble getting used to, given that the Humans all looked the same to him.

  Show a Knight a weakness that someone could exploit against him, and you just became his best friend and new sparring partner. In return the group helped expose Bronsor’s many shortcomings, as well as helping him learn to counter them. Most of the Knights he was traveling with didn’t have a lot of combat experience, but they were all more than 100 years old and had
so much trials experience that they were more knowledgeable about combat than the combat veterans he’d served with in the Calavari military.

  Staging mock wars was another thing he liked about Star Force, and from the stories he was told they were more intense than the real thing because the Knights could learn from their mistakes and come back to try again, whereas in a real war you’d just be dead.

  Bronsor was learning so much from his new brothers that the long trip back out to Calavari territory passed incredibly quick. Wiser as he was, he felt even more inadequate now than before, learning the depth of skill the other Knights possessed, but none the less he was eager to get his feet back on Calavari soil and within reach of the Nestafar so he could put his new skills and armor to the test.

  10

  July 19, 2442

  Atriann System

  Juness

  Bronsor and the other Knights onboard the jumpship watched via vid screens as the warships in the Star Force fleet engaged the Nestafar in orbit over Juness…a Calavari world that was involved in a pitched battle on the surface with the outcome up for grabs even before Morgan’s fleet arrived. The troop jumpships were held back in higher orbit around the planet while the warships and their drones dove in low and went head to head with a fleet of more than 150 Nestafar ships deployed in clusters around the planet.

  Star Force used that to their advantage, hitting with their full force on a single vector, annihilating the ships there before going hunting for the others. As most naval engagements went, it was a much slower process than a ground battle, but the way the Human ships came in and literally ripped apart the Nestafar was something the Calavari fleet had never been able to do. Granted, the Humans did have greater numbers, but even a Calavari fleet of twice their size couldn’t have defeated the Nestafar so efficiently.

  Several drone warships were lost in the fighting, but not one of the control ships was hit, meaning Star Force wiped the Nestafar clean from orbit without a single death on their side. Once again, the Humans’ methodology impressed Bronsor, shedding more light on their now legendary longevity.

  Once orbit was secured and the fleet was broken up hunting down fleeing Nestafar ships, the troop ships and Conduit transports were brought down closer to the planet and the Knights were called to the hangar bays where they loaded up onboard a plethora of dropships along with Archons and Regulars. Bronsor waited in the rear of the tightly packed dropship all the way down to the surface, hearing not a word from the other troops.

  It wasn’t surprising, given the time he’d spent with the Humans, but while Calavari weren’t overly talkative, there would have been some small amount of chatter about what they were going to come up against or some jokes just to break the nerves. None of that happened here. The professionalism of Star Force both impressed and inspired Bronsor, who kept his own thoughts to himself and remained as stoic as the others until the dropship set down and the boarding ramp began to lower ahead of him.

  The troops had boarded the dropship facing backwards, so now as the ramp came down they were facing out. With his shields tucked up against his sides as closely as he could manage, Bronsor watched as those ahead of him filed out, with his helmet receiving a waypoint for him to report to, coming from one of the Archons in command of his current unit.

  The Calavari plodded down the ramp next to several Regulars, flexing his arms and neck inside his armor as he moved off with the others towards the glowing marker digitally emblazoned onto his HUD some several hundred meters off across the courtyard they’d landed in. Juness was a high population world with thousands of cities, but not so overgrown as to have them all bleed together into one giant urban mass. Though he’d never been to this world before he recognized the architecture, as well as the large remembrance plaza he was now standing in.

  The waypoint took them out of the open and into a gap between the surrounding buildings. The other units coming off the dropships split up on their own assignments, leaving 30-40 troops with Bronsor’s group as they met up briefly before plunging into the cityscape.

  After that came a lot of running, which Bronsor labored to keep up with, but he managed. The other two Knights were with him, one ahead and one behind, with Regulars spaced in between them in their dirty white armor. Leading the way were two red armored Archons who knew what their mission objective was, though as of yet the Knights hadn’t been informed.

  The Star Force troops ran across the white stone surface, eyes glancing into every gap between the red/orange buildings and seeing almost no people at all, nor enemy troops. Bronsor didn’t take that as a good sign, but as they progressed further a few isolated faces began popping up in windows and around corners, then the sounds of distant battle began to waft their way back to his audial pickups.

  It was coming from the direction they were running, which he could tell thanks to the directional speakers that successfully mimicked the origin point of sounds his helmet was recording and playing back for him inside the protective barrier that fully obscured his ears. Bronsor ground his teeth in anticipation and continued running along with the others.

  “We have Calavari troops engaging the Nestafar ahead,” one of the Archons finally spoke through their helmet comms. “No walkers as of yet, but keep an eye out for the protomechs. They can move up and down these streets almost as easily as we can. Break up by Knights and follow Archons through, maintain moderate spacing once we’re engaged.”

  Bronsor huffed, glad to now have his operational orders. His team flashed on his HUD, identifying him to the Regulars that he was supposed to operate with. As they continued to run the short Humans shuffled about repositioning and Bronsor opened a comm line to his team.

  “Form a wedge behind me. I’m going through first.”

  Without any unnecessary chatter 11 Regulars fell back even with his shoulders and behind as a slew of Calavari came into view ahead. Most weren’t troops, but evacuees from elsewhere in the city that were clustering together around the entrances to several buildings that must have been being used as temporary barracks.

  Bronsor activated his external speakers and jacked them up to a high volume.

  “Move aside brothers!” he yelled in the Calavari language. “Make way! Let us get to the enemy!”

  Bronsor was in the middle of the Star Force pack, but some of the Calavari had seen them coming and started to move out of the way of those up front…though when he spoke all eyes turned to see the armored soldiers coming and the crowd quickly split, exposing the center of the white stone road to let them pass. When they did the first signs of battle were seen far ahead, as the Calavari soldiers were defending a key position behind several crude barricades with a mass of Nestafar flying in the air beyond them.

  When the crowd created the gap for them the two Archons immediately took off sprinting, moving faster than Bronsor could ever hope to. They ran straight up to the Calavari, firing a few blue plasma streaks on approach up into the enemy swarm, then they both leapt up and over the barricades, coming down into the grip of the enemy and drawing attention away from the Calavari and the approaching Star Force troops.

  Bronsor clapped both of his inner arms against his chest plate, appreciating the aggressive tactic, then reached down to his sides and pulled out the pair of plasma pistols he had hanging there as he simultaneously brought his pair of shields up in front of him and formed a wedge.

  The group in front of him came up to the barricades and the Knight there planted his single shield down on the ground extending the left cover as his Regulars fell in next to the Calavari in the gaps behind the barricades, where they began sniping the Nestafar with a flurry of plasma streaks.

  Bronsor didn’t head for the available cover on the right, instead he headed straight for the cluster of crates in the center and hopped up on top of the lowest of them. He didn’t hold there, but came over the far side into the firing lines of the ugly bugs and started taking a hoard of red plasma strikes on his shields as he barreled his way forward with t
he Regulars tucking in close behind him in a narrow triangle as they fired back.

  Bronsor moved up some 20 meters into the open area then claimed his position, coming to a halt and cracking his shields apart as he popped out his pistols and began firing at every flapping wing he saw.

  What he didn’t see were the Archons. Ahead of him was a building and a Y-split in the road, both sections of which were full of Nestafar, some of which were on the ground and advancing forward on foot. None of that mattered now, for Bronsor was committed, so he kept his shields close and his weapons hot, racking up as much of a kill count as he could while the Regulars around him mowed down the closest Nestafar while absorbing the few shots the enemy could land on them with their armor’s shields.

  Bronsor’s energy barriers had already gone down over his half-shields, but his body armor was still protected by half a charge despite the Nestafar landing a pair of head shots. That defensive barrier began to recharge as the weapons firing at him thinned considerably, and within 30 seconds the choke point had been secured with the other two Knight teams moving up the branches of the road, sniping the occasional Nestafar that flew into their firing lines.

  Bronsor got another waypoint move order, heading up the right branch, and sucked in a deep breath preparing for another stint of running. There was a planet full of Nestafar ahead of him, and with the way Star Force fought, always on the move, he needed to pace himself, for this is what he’d been training the past 3 years for, and now that he was here any doubts as to his leaving the fight earlier were officially squashed.

  He was far more of a threat to the Nestafar as a Star Force Knight than he had been as a Calavari soldier, and now was the time to put his skills to use in a war that had already been going on for 4 decades…longer than he’d been alive. Rushing into battle before one was ready was a quick road to defeat in a massive engagement such as this…which was another important lesson Star Force had taught him.