Star Force: Persistent Ravage (Wayward Trilogy Book 3)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  The seda they boarded was huge and beyond anything Esna had ever dreamed of. Its name was Seda JOR, but the three letters were nothing more than a way of numbering the Canderian mobile battle stations/homes. It was the 6,466th seda constructed and already hundreds of years old, with all the Canderous sedas being remodeled rather than scrapped when technology upgrades were made, for the most part. Some of the oldest ones that couldn’t jump between stars had been repurposed for other uses, but now all sedas were built to last forever and Esna had no doubt that was possible when looking at the artificial planet they were landing on…or rather in, for there was no atmosphere surrounding it.

  A hard layer of armor protected the exterior and they were allowed through an opening into a hangar bay that they landed in as if it was a planet, meaning they had to come in belly first and pass through an atmospheric containment shield and down into a huge landing field with all variety of craft, some of which made their dropship seem tiny in comparison. From there they had worked their way down into the planet/seda that was level after level of city. They found a lift and it carried them throughout the interior to where they needed to go with Tyrenk telling her all kinds of crazy things about what she saw around her and would see later.

  Esna listened intently, her excitement and trepidation growing with every second. This seda made the base on Tauntaun look like nothing, and the weaponry covering its surface was so extensive even the V’kit’no’sat would think twice before trying to attack it…and even if they did the seda was so huge that it could take massive external damage while the interior levels wouldn’t be touched. The scale of it all blew Esna’s mind…as well as all of the Humans she saw walking around in almost all black uniforms that looked Star Force, but the coloration was odd. Mixed in with the black was bits of dark green that matched the color of the seda, and that deep green was seen everywhere inside in small amounts as if it were their signature color but one that they weren’t going to overuse.

  The uniforms were trim and came in several varieties, but the armor that a few of them wore was even more impressive. It was almost like Commando armor, but styled differently. The helmet was the biggest difference, with the visor rectangle being extended down the middle so that it formed a ‘T’ rather than a bar. The armor was black as well with several dark green stripes, making all the personnel stand out against the light greys and whites that made up most of the walls, floor, and ceilings along with crisp white lighting that made everything feel very bright and almost sanitized.

  The air was crisp as well, heavily processed so not to give the stagnant feel that inside air could suffer from, and there was almost a buzz inherent in everything that made Esna’s energy level increase just by being here…but it was the sight of so many Humans that made her jaw drop. She’d gone from only knowing her brother and memories of her father on a planet full of aliens to seeing scattered Humans mixed in with a varied Star Force population, and that had been quite a shock, but here everyone was Human and for some reason that was hard for her mind to process.

  Esna got lost in the spectacle of it all and didn’t realize how far they’d come by the time they’d arrived at the most secure levels just outside the core of the seda that held the massive gravity drives and other essential equipment. That meant they were so deep now that enemy weaponsfire would have to dig for hours to get to them, and it also meant they were in a place where most Canderians couldn’t even go.

  Before Esna knew it they were walking into a room with a single occupant and numerous holograms surrounding him. The Human stood up from the workstation he’d been sitting at and walked forward, extending a hand to the Archon before he looked down at Esna. He wore the same black with green trim uniform everyone else did, but he had small tattoos on the left side of his forehead that she hadn’t seen on anyone else. In addition to that, the man felt so powerful that it rattled Esna, though she couldn’t put her finger on why she was getting that sensation. After all, she was traveling with an Archon and who was more powerful than them?

  “So this is the one?” he said with a measured and smooth voice.

  “Her name is Esna Donovan and she was recovered from the Devastation Zone. She has almost no training, and what she has was gained on the fly running from the V’kit’no’sat. She’s seen battle with them in a limited sense and wants to learn how to truly fight.”

  “I think we can handle that,” Sen Legat Artu said, staring down at her slightly. He wasn’t a huge man, barely two inches taller than her, but his arms were thick like Tyrenk’s without being bulky. He outmassed Esna, but after spending so much time with a Calavari she would have said he was small if not for the vibe she was getting off of him. “We’re always interested in bringing in those wayward few with the will to become Canderians…and your history makes you not only insanely lucky but a thorn in the V’kit’no’sat’s side. A rogue Human right under their noses that got away from them not once, but twice? Yes, you’re definitely welcome here.”

  “Three times, actually,” Tyrenk added with a smile. “We ran into trouble on the way out of Tauntaun and lost a lot of people in ground combat after crash landing. Only myself, Esna, and a Kiritas tech made it out alive.”

  “Crash landed?” Artu asked with a frown.

  “A Kaeper caught us. We barely made it to atmosphere in time.”

  “They ran down an evac ship?”

  “Yes, and there was something special about this one. We recovered the debris and the techs are looking into it, but it wasn’t standard.”

  “Debris? You took it down with you?”

  “Rammed it.”

  Artu smiled, then looked back at Esna. “Never count an Archon out. They have a nasty habit of finding ways to beat you even when they appear to be defeated. Canderous has learned much from them, but there’s still something they possess that we lack. Annoying, I’ll admit, but also fortunate that they’re on our side. We function as a team, and if you’re ready we’ll start incorporating you into our part of it immediately.”

  Tyrenk raised a finger. “I held something back in my message.”

  “Oh?”

  “She’s a newb, but something happened to her after the crash…or maybe before, it’s impossible to know for sure.”

  “Some type of injury?” Artu wondered, frowning at the thought of what a regenerator couldn’t cure.

  Tyrenk glanced at Esna. “Show him.”

  Her eyes went wide. “Really?”

  “Yeah. Go ahead,” he said, holding back a smirk.

  “Ok,” Esna said uncomfortably, then reached into her mind to the place she’d successfully locked down over the past weeks and found the button for her Fornax, releasing a burst that made Tyrenk stumble, but the Archon stayed on his feet. The Sen Legat did not, losing all bodily control and falling to the ground in a twitching pile of limbs until Esna stopped her energy release. The amount she could emit had increased a decent amount, and she could have held the effect for 6 seconds if she’d wanted, but had cut it off after 2. That twitching fall the Sen Legat took didn’t look comfortable at all and she didn’t want to make him any madder than he was going to be.

  When she released the field his bodily control returned and he got an elbow underneath him, prying his torso off the ground but stayed sitting there looking up at her in surprise as a smile worked its way onto his face.

  “Spontaneously development?”

  “Yes,” Tyrenk answered. “This is the part where you’re grateful, Legat.”

  “Very,” Artu said, hopping to his feet and locking eyes with Esna. “You are most welcome here, youngling.”

  “You’re not mad?” she asked hesitantly.

  “For knocking me down? Didn’t you tell her anything about us, Archon?”

  “A little.”

  “We have no psionics,” he told Esna. “Only the Archons do, and to a lesser extent the Protovic. They haven’t seen fit to share even the simplest of abilities with Canderous or the other factions…a point of ongoing co
ntention,” he said, glancing at Tyrenk before returning his eyes to Esna, “but there are a handful of individual Humans who attain psionics without becoming Archons. They are rarer than rare, and Canderous has only been able to recruit two, both of who possess Ikrid. We’ve never had someone with Fornax, and if you’re willing we’ll teach you to make the most of it. The Archon said you wished to fight…why is that?”

  “The V’kit’no’sat have to be stopped,” Esna said simply. “I want to be able to do that someday.”

  “They are extremely dangerous, which is why the Archons don’t let Canderous engage them very often in ground combat. Most of our encounters are naval engagements, and even when we do go up against Zen’zat they have an advantage against us. Even with your psionic, you would be outmatched. We have to fight in teams to be effective, which we can teach you, but most of Canderous’s work occurs on the Rim where the V’kit’no’sat aren’t. There you could become very valuable,” Artu emphasized.

  “What’s out there?”

  The Sen Legat shook his head at Tyrenk. “He’s told you next to nothing, hasn’t he?”

  “There’s a lot to catch up on,” the Archon countered. “And most of our discussions have revolved around the V’kit’no’sat.”

  “Understandable. What he hasn’t told you is that Star Force is engaged in more than one war. There are smaller threats on our rimward border, and Canderous is playing a sizeable part in the fighting there. Those enemies do not have psionics, and with time and training you could become a nightmare for them.”

  “So I wouldn’t be fighting the V’kit’no’sat?” she said, suddenly unsure about this.

  Tyrenk put a hand on her shoulder. “Let me explain something. The V’kit’no’sat empire is so huge there is no way we can defeat them. If they massed all their ships and came after us we couldn’t defend ourselves. They have other enemies they fight too, so we don’t get their full attention. Even then, they destroy so many of our ships that we have to replace them fast or get overrun. How we replace them involves what is going on out on the rim. It is feeding us the resources we need to slow the V’kit’no’sat’s advance and hopefully stop their progression. Right now we’ve slowed it to almost a stop, but you saw firsthand on Tauntaun that they haven’t given up and are looking for weaknesses to exploit. We have to keep the supplies coming, and the rim is the key to that.”

  “What are you doing out there?” Esna asked.

  “Too much to explain, but the fighting there is more widespread and there’s more of it than we currently have against the V’kit’no’sat. Tauntaun wasn’t supposed to get hit, and my assignment there had me doing other things besides fighting. If it’s fighting you want, the V’kit’no’sat border is not where you want to go. If we’re lucky we can stall them there, which would mean no fighting. If we’re not, it means they overrun us and we have more lopsided fights like Tauntaun where we’re just running and gunning enough to try and survive. If you want fights that are winnable and that you can contribute to without having to wait through 500 years of training, then the rim is where you need to eventually go, and Canderous will get you there quicker than any other faction.”

  “You can count on that,” Artu promised.

  “The key to fighting the V’kit’no’sat is winning on the rim,” Tyrenk emphasized. “Our most elite troops are keeping the V’kit’no’sat busy, delaying them as long as we can, but the real work being done is on the rim. If we fail there, Star Force will crumble under the constant attrition of V’kit’no’sat attacks. We have to grow the empire on the rim as we lose worlds here, and if we can manage it, we need to grow faster than we’re losing. That way they can’t defeat us so long as we can contain their damage to a few areas.”

  “Why don’t they come out to the rim?”

  “They do occasionally, but we have roaming fleets to hammer them if they do. If they have to move through our territory we can cut off their supply lines and do a lot of other tricky things to make their lives hell.”

  “Plus they don’t like the idea of us holding onto any systems,” Artu added. “It insults their ego.”

  “Which is why they’re grinding us back system by system and expanding the Devastation Zone. We have to keep expanding the other direction, and to do that we have to fight new enemies that get in our way while making allies when we can. If you want to help me and others fight the V’kit’no’sat here, help us by expanding the empire and giving us more ships to fight with.”

  “And if you go to fight there,” Esna added, beginning to understand, “it makes the front weaker and the V’kit’no’sat can break through.”

  “Quite right,” Artu confirmed. “Though it’s mostly about naval forces, and to produce them we need planets with resources and an army of workers to harvest, process, and build…and those workers have to be protected while we procure more planets. The V’kit’no’sat aren’t the only bad guys in the galaxy, they’re just the toughest, and if you want to see field work sooner rather than later, help us fight them.”

  “And in the long run? Do I come back to the front?”

  “Zen’zat have Ikrid blocks, but most do not possess the rare psionic to diminish Fornax,” Artu said reverently. “When you become powerful enough, you’ll be the best equipped Canderian to fight them. But that type of growth doesn’t happen fast. You can accomplish it in perpetual training or a mix of training and combat. Which would you prefer?”

  “I want to do something of value and will train as long as necessary for that, but I want to be out there fighting. I want to be a Commando for real, not just in training. If you need me on the rim, then that’s where I’ll go until I’m strong enough to fight the V’kit’no’sat.”

  “Good,” Tyrenk said with a nod. “Then my job is done here.”

  Esna blinked in surprise, but a firm hand on her shoulder from the Archon helped to steady her.

  “Dive in head first and learn to swim. Rammak started you off on the path, now you have to pursue it in your own way and on your own will power. Me sticking around will only interfere with that.”

  “I guess you’re right,” Esna said, suddenly feeling empty again.

  Tyrenk put a finger under her chin and raised it slightly.

  “See you next century,” he said, kissing her lightly then walking out of the room without another word. He’d really meant what he said, meaning Esna was on her own now and had to figure out her path forward with the Canderians on her own. No more mentors. She had to do this.

  “Well that was unexpected,” Artu said after Tyrenk left. “I didn’t think Archons kissed.”

  “He does,” Esna said, taking a deep breath and blowing it out slowly. “Tell me what I need to do.”

  “The first step is making you part of Canderous. That means conversion training. You have to learn everything you didn’t get in a maturia, but given your age and experience that will not take as long as others. We have a special maturia program for people like you on this seda and others. You’ll join them and progress as fast or slow as necessary. Typically maturias operate with a class of peers, but because conversions happen in a variety of ways your progress will be individual in nature. As long as you put forth an honest effort, our trainers will get you to where you need to be eventually. Right now all you need to worry about is following orders. We’ll handle the rest.”

  “When can I start?”

  “Today,” the Sen Legat said firmly, gesturing to the door that Tyrenk had just walked out. “Come with me and I’ll see to it personally. Your psionic is a very valuable asset for Canderous to develop. Take your time and learn, don’t rush it. I know you’re eager, and that’s a good thing, but the conversion training is more about transformation than passing a test. This is about you becoming Canderian and becoming one of us. That won’t happen overnight,” he said as they walked out into the corridor, with Tyrenk nowhere in sight.

  “I’m not entirely sure what that means.”

  “Nor should you. That’s
what you will learn…along with a great many other things.”

  15

  November 23, 4812

  Tarric 3 System

  Seda JOR

  Esna barely made it out of the shower, dropping onto the bed in her new quarters after doing an easy 2 mile run this morning, totally exhausted. The remainder of today was a rest day and Esna badly needed it as she curled up on top of her bed and transitioned into a crash nap. It had been 10 days of straight training and she had thought after the first day that they were going easy on her. Nothing they had her do was hard, and a lot of it was pathetically easy. Running and agility drills, hand to hand form practice, basic mathematics that were nothing more than she’d taught herself on Forso in order to better understand the technology she and Teren had been salvaging and rebuilding…

  Then there was a lot of smaller stuff, protocols and other things that required focus and attention but no physical effort. The second day had been no different, without anything that she could have considered to be hard, but now she understood what Tyrenk had meant. Canderous didn’t hammer you into the ground with impossible tasks…they hammered you into the ground with the sheer number of easy and medium tasks assigned to you. Day in and day out she was busy nonstop training, with her only down time being used to sleep. When she woke it was into physical workouts, usually running first thing, then a long string of activities that she was herded through by trainers that didn’t give her two minutes of break in between.

  It was a continuous grind of easy tasks that had taken their toll over the past 10 days and she was very grateful for a rest period. The trainers refused to tell her what their training schedule was, citing that she had to learn to focus on the here and now and the task before her, meaning she couldn’t plan out ahead of time how much energy she was going to use. With Rammak and their running she’d gotten an idea of what was involved when he told her how long or far they were going and she could set her mind to the task and pace…but not here. They were keeping her blind, and right now all she cared to think about was sleep.