Star Force: Origin Series Box Set (13-16)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  One of the other men cleared his throat to get Jules attention, then meekly floated another possibility. “It might not have been an inside job.”

  Jules’ eyes narrowed. “Is that possible?” he asked Greggory without looking at him.

  “Without a sensor tower we don’t have any way to track air traffic. If Bates heard something and went to check on it…”

  “The only people on the planet are Star Force, right?” Uriel asked the group.

  “As far as I know,” Jules said icily, turning to another woman in the group. “Get me a comm channel to the Sabers.”

  A little under four hours later, with the sun already having broken through into morning, a Mantis appeared over the lake and headed for the main landing pad. It settled down next to Jules’ dropships with a host of blue uniformed personnel spilling out immediately upon landing, half of which carried weapons. Leading them all was a quartet of Archons in their distinctive red-striped white uniforms, Harrison among them. He spotted Jules out of the waiting colonists and ran over to meet him while the others dispersed, already having been given deployment orders.

  “I checked every sensor log we have,” the Archon said without preamble. “None of them cover your colony directly, but there has been no unaccounted for traffic in or out of any Star Force possession, and our orbital satellites haven’t picked up any high atmosphere traffic. I don’t have an answer to who did this, which means we have a significant problem. I brought a security team with me and have four more on the way. If whoever did this is still around, we’re going to make things difficult for them.”

  “And if it’s one of our people you’ll be prepared as well?” Jules asked, following the other logic thread.

  “Your lost cargo suggests otherwise, but I’m not ruling anything out at this point. You’ve confirmed it isn’t an accounting error.”

  The way Harrison said it, Jules knew it wasn’t a recrimination, but rather a request to dismiss that possibility altogether.

  “18 crates confirmed missing.”

  “How much mass?”

  Jules hesitated, concocting a ballpark estimate. “400 metric tonnes each, give or take.”

  “And the only roads lead here?”

  “Here, the other mining site, and the docks. Our boat is still moored and site 2 has already been searched.”

  “Any other offshoots or paths along the roads?”

  “Nothing vehicle sized, no,” Jules said, having already been up and down the connections himself looking for any break in the foliage.

  “It had to be air then,” Harrison said with disgust. “Permission to examine the bodies?”

  “Granted,” Jules said, pointing off to the west side of the city. “We have a small morgue…up until now we hadn’t had cause to use it. Doctor Jennison couldn’t find any remains of the bullets for analysis.”

  “Show me,” Harrison insisted.

  “This is Bates, our head of security,” Jules explained as Jennison pulled back the plastic cover on the body, revealing a mess of what used to be his chest.

  “I counted four impact points,” the Doctor explained as Harrison and a Saber medic looked on. “The other has two, more distinct than this one,” he said, pulling back the plastic on Ilsa. “The points are separated enough to give a better impression of individual damage. Both men died of shock, coupled with severe loss of blood.”

  “There’s charring,” the Saber medic said, taking a close look at Manfred’s wounds.

  “My guess is they were attacked at point blank range, with the charring resulting from the power burn following the projectile.”

  “You said there were no projectiles?” the medic clarified.

  “None that I could locate, but as you can see,” Jennison said, flipping Manfred’s body over so they could see his back, “there’s a small exit wound here.”

  “It’s charred too,” Harrison said, exchanging a glance with the medic.

  Jennison shrugged. “Powder followed the bullet through, I’d guess.”

  “No,” the medic said casually. “This isn’t bullet damage. All of your weaponry is projectile?” he asked Jules.

  “Star Force wouldn’t sell us any of your stun weapons, so yes, they’re all projectile.”

  The medic dug his finger around the man’s chest wound, feeling charred, stiff bits of flesh where normally there would have been soft gore.

  “This is plasma,” he whispered to Harrison.

  “That’s not what I wanted to hear,” the Archon said, knowing that meant either Star Force security forces or the Canderians were responsible. The other Archons were beyond reproach, and nothing happened in their Clans without them knowing about it.

  “It’s worse than that,” the medic said, raising his voice back to normal tones. “This was a powerful weapon. There’s way too much tissue missing for our standard weaponry, and I don’t know of any that can leave an exit wound.”

  “I know a few,” Harrison admitted, turning to Jules. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but I promise you we’re going to find out. These are either some highly placed traitors within Star Force, or someone got access to weaponry they weren’t sanctioned for. My Clan will watch over the colony until this is over, so you don’t have to live in fear of a repeat incident.”

  “So you’re saying their deaths couldn’t have been at the hands of any of my own people?” Jules asked for clarification.

  “I highly doubt it.”

  “But you can’t rule it out entirely?”

  Harrison sighed. “It’s possible there was an insider, but if that was so then it was probably an informant. Whoever shot these men did so with a weapon your people don’t have. The idea that someone could come here and give it to one of your men to use is farfetched. The weapon probably went with the attacker along with your missing cargo.”

  “Any clues where they might have taken it to?”

  “To avoid our sensor beacons they’d have had to stay far outside any Star Force installation and remain low enough to the ground to keep our tracking satellites from picking them up. Those satellites aren’t equipped with visual scanners so we have no surface surveillance to work with, and whoever pulled this job probably knows it. I’d bet they’ve got a rogue base out there with at least one Mantis, probably more if they took all 18 crates.”

  “What can they do with the metals, other than sell them on the market, which you’d immediately know about?”

  “One can never predict stupidity,” Harrison said angrily. “There’s no way Star Force is going to let them get away with this, especially on a planet where we control everything. No one else is even close to constructing a jumpship, which means they’re stuck in the system. No one else has any ships in Epsilon Eridani, which means they’re stuck on planet or in near orbit. Unless they’re planning to build something with the metals they stole from you I have no idea what they intend to do with them.”

  “Do you have any suspicions?” Jules asked, being remarkably forgiving considering this appeared to be the work of Star Force personnel…but then again he knew it had to be rogue Star Force personnel, which meant Davis and his organization weren’t to blame any more than Corvati would have been if Bates’ and Ilsa’s murderer had been in their employ.

  “I know where we’re going to start looking,” Harrison said firmly, “and as soon as we can get enough birds in the air we’re going to start a perimeter search around Outlook and expand outwards until we find their hidden base. I’d also like to install a sensor tower here, with your permission?”

  “On the condition that you allow Corvati to purchase it from you. It’s an oversight on my part for not having one in the first place.”

  “If you wish, but the fault isn’t Corvati’s or yours. Star Force is responsible for planetary security. You’re supposed to be able to build here without worry.”

  “If this were your colony, yours personally, would you leave it blind and defenseless counting on Star Force for protection?”
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  “No,” Harrison was forced to admit.

  “An oversight on my part,” Jules reiterated. “Get that tower here ASAP…I’ll let you pay for the shipping.”

  “Deal,” the Archon relented. “Now get me out to the mining site.”

  6

  July 12, 2261

  Epsilon Eridani System

  Corneria

  The small Sparrow-class dropship hovered over the elevated landing platform just poking up over the tree line and descended down to the metallic deck plates, settling into place on landing skids and lowering the access ramp, disgorging the most recent shift change of Canderian workers. A quartet of armed security guards came with them, each wearing the distinctive, helmetless flexible body armor that would stop a knife or small caliber bullets while leaving them aptly mobile.

  As the new workers scurried off to the descending stairwell in the corner of the rectangular pad, the lone guard on duty met up with the others mid distance offering a quick, two-fingered salute against his chest plate.

  “Any activity?” Niles asked.

  “None yet, Centurion,” the Triarii answered formally, though the two men knew each other well.

  With a flick of his head Niles dispatched the other Triarii while he remained on the platform with Frank as the outgoing shift started to come up the stairs to board the dropship. He took a step closer to the lower ranking Canderian and kept his voice down.

  “Star Force has picked up a sensor ghost in their records. The Archons think we might be dealing with some sort of stealth craft, so we’re increasing the guard on our surface sites. If they’re bold enough to hit us, we’ll be ready to hit back.”

  “Are you taking command?”

  Niles shook his head. “Just came along for the ride. Spread the word around, quietly. They hit Corvati during the night, so make sure your people are wearing night vision glasses and assign a Venator for the forest.”

  Frank nodded. “We won’t be caught off guard.”

  Niles clapped his hand on the man’s armored shoulder. “I would hope not, but I know how boring these patrols can be.”

  “A chance for a bit of action will keep everyone on edge.”

  “One of the dead Corvati was their security chief,” Niles said as he stepped into line as the last of the outgoing shift workers passed by, underscoring the fact that these thieves should not be taken lightly. He boarded the dropship and traveled back up into low orbit to the tiny artificial moon that was their home.

  The spherical space station held 30,000 of his fellow Canderians with room for another 10,000 as their population grew. As per their code, the Canderians only lived in space. The surface site Niles had just visited was a resource collection base with a temporary encampment. The security guards he’d just sent down would live there for a week or so, then rotate back up to their ‘seda,’ the Canderian word for ‘home’ but which also meant their station of origin or allegiance.

  Nile’s current seda was the dark green sphere the dropship was quickly approaching, but he’d been born on one of the Jupiter stations. When the expansion allotment had come through he’d volunteered and, based on his proficiency scores, had been granted the posting. He’d lived in Cornerian orbit for the past 8 years, rising to the 4th level ranking of Centurion in the security forces. Given that all Canderians were combat trained, the security forces necessarily had to be a notch above the rest and were viewed in a slightly elevated social position versus the other divisions of Canderian society.

  He was one of 16 Centurions assigned to the K1 seda, currently the only branch of Canderous within the star system. All seda within the Solar System were given ‘A’ monikers, while those in the Proxima system had a ‘B,’ Alpha Centauri had a ‘C’ and so forth. Epsilon Eridani was the 11th star system by distance from Sol, and Canderous had at least 1 seda in each system, some of which were still being constructed. Sol had 34 seda last he checked, with the newer ones being progressively larger in size.

  K1’s highest security rank at present was 5th level, a Tribune, overseeing 6 Centurions, which oversaw 6 Evocati, which oversaw 6 Triarii, which oversaw 6 Munifex. There were 3 Tribunes at present, with Arc Tribune Raines overseeing seda security. The Epsilon Eridani System, being a new expansion to Canderous, did not have a full legion at present, so no Legat, the 6th rank, had been assigned. Raines also held default status as system commander in the absence of a Legat.

  This made Niles one of the highest ranking Canderians within the system, overseeing 258 men at maximum. Raines had given his ‘century’ the duty of overseeing the security of K1’s surface mining sites while the other Centurions dealt with matters inside the station. In some respects this made his century more respected, given that they had field duty…but it also meant they were isolated, something Canderians were not accustomed to, having lived in such close confines inside their seda.

  At present there were six Canderian mining sites on Corneria, isolated inside the deep forest and far away from any of the colonies. The materials they were harvesting from the planet’s crust were being used to increase K1’s stores and reduce the amount of material having to be shipped out to them from other seda in order to establish themselves in this system.

  Niles had one other surface site under his protection, though ‘mining’ didn’t quite describe it. It was a water collection station situated at one of Corneria’s many lakes and from it continual shipments of fresh, processed water were being shuttled up to the seda, gradually filling its internal reservoir. That gave him 7 sites to secure with his 258 men, of which he had to continually rotate back up to the seda for additional training and rest.

  This trip down was the first of the seven he was making, delivering a few additional men into the rotation along with a warning. Less than a day after the raid on the Corvati the Archons had arrived on the seda demanding answers, thinking that someone within Canderous was responsible. With a detailed analysis of their records they were able to rule out this possibility, after which the Archons revealed that the two Corvati men that had been killed had fallen to plasma-based weapons.

  As far as anyone knew, the only people with plasma weapons were the Archons, high ranking members of Star Force security, and Canderous. This left a very unpleasant mystery to solve, and the Archons left the seda upon giving orders that they tighten their security. They wanted these thieves discovered, and since Canderous also had surface mining sites it was speculated that they might also be targeted.

  Niles understood their dilemma. Canderous was the only other rogue organization within the star system aside from the Corvati colony. If neither of them had been responsible for the raids that left few others to blame. While it was possible that someone within Star Force had set this up, doing so was a short trip to a bad ending. The Archons obviously weren’t going to let this slide, and whoever was responsible could be tracked down easily enough given the sparse population within the system.

  Niles couldn’t understand how someone could be so stupid as to even think about pulling something like this…but so far whoever the idiot was had gotten away with it, but only by attacking the lone soft target on the planet. If they had the gall to hit a Canderian facility, they were going to have a very rude surprise waiting for them.

  Which was what made Niles wonder if the thieves really were Canderians. He didn’t want to consider that possibility, but with so few others it would have been irresponsible not to. Bottom line was they needed to figure out who the culprits were, and if they truly were Canderian they wouldn’t hit one of his sites without sufficient planning…which made reinforcing his security teams even more important.

  When the dropship arrived back on the seda it refueled and loaded up with another shift that Niles escorted back down to another mining site, along with yet more guards. He repeated the process with each site, giving personal orders to make sure everyone understood what was at stake and that they needed to pay extra attention to detail.

  Four days later Frank woke up for h
is night shift, reflexively rolling out of his bunk at the sound of his wristwatch alarm. He dressed in a casual uniform and caught a bit of ‘breakfast’ in the cafeteria, then headed over to the armory to get suited up.

  He arrived at about the same time as the other four members of his watch, each of which went straight to their lockers and began stripping out of their uniforms, which they neatly folded up and put onto a shelf in their oversized lockers for use when they finished their patrol. Frank, standing in nothing but a skintight set of briefs and socks, pulled out the various pieces of his armor and slipped them on one at a time.

  He started with the boots that extended up to above his knees, stepping into the right one and wiggling it on before doing the same with the left, snugging up the fit with a series of external dials hidden within the knobby pads. Once secured, he pulled out the belt piece that looked like an hourglass when flattened out. He wedged it between his legs and pulled it up around his pelvis, snapping the belt together on the left and right sides.

  With that in place, Niles grabbed his right leg gauntlet and wrapped it around his quadriceps. A few well practiced movements and the attachments at the knee and hip joint snapped into place, completing the nearly watertight seal. He repeated the process with the left gauntlet then pulled on his chest armor, which was open along the shoulders so he could slip it on over his head. It attached at the waist with an extra flexible piece, then Frank closed the shoulder flaps with hard, curved caps settling over the clasps.

  Lastly he pulled on the arm gauntlets, attaching them at the shoulders. His hands remained free of armor, as did his head. The Canderians had much more stiff, full body armor available, but they’d found that this flexible armor worked far better for surveillance given that they could move around quietly and keep their senses alert, not having their eyes, ears, and nose buffeted by a helmet.

  Once he double checked all his fasteners, Frank pulled a hip holster out of his locker and attached it to his upper right leg in a slot premade for it on the armor’s exterior. No belt was necessary, as there were dedicated latches on the belt piece and leg gauntlet for it to snap into place. Into the empty holster he slipped a fully loaded stinger pistol, flipping the charge switch on as he did so. That way it would be ready to fire in a split second if trouble arose…otherwise he’d have to wait several precious seconds for the first few rounds to soak up the stun charge.