Star Force: Scruples (SF37)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  That didn’t sit well with Paul, and a message from Jason that had come along with the data packet through their own interstellar relay link out to Namek had suggested as much. He’d told Paul what he thought of the assault, in exquisite detail, as had several other trailblazers in forwarded comments, but rather than skip ahead Paul had decided to work through the year-long invasion chronologically and was only now coming to the civilian slaughter.

  The Bsidd’s battle tactics were bad enough, wasting personnel when they had the technology to adopt either the Kvash’s or Star Force’s approach, but laying waste to the Nestafar homeworld was going too far. The Alliance hadn’t been fighting to defend themselves or to neutralize the enemy, they’d gone there to kill them. And while Paul was pleased to see the Nestafar get kicked in the proverbial nuts, this was not a battle plan that he ever would have signed onto, and he was disappointed and disturbed that the Hycre had.

  The Kvash had also participated in the bombardment, not of Nestarraffa, but of the other worlds…though Paul hadn’t gotten that far yet. Jason’s notes had indicated they were just as methodical about wiping out the Nestafar as the Bsidd were, showing their true colors as well. From the beginning Star Force had known little about most of the races in the Alliance, but from reading their available histories something had always been amiss with those two, and now it was clear that neither race could be trusted.

  Star Force had little contact with either of them, given their territories were on the other side of the Alliance, with both the Hycre and Calavari between them…and it was going to stay that way, for the unanimous assessment amongst the trailblazers that had chimed in on the data packet and the subsequent message updates coming through the relay grid about it, which Paul would be adding to shortly, was that the Bsidd and Kvash were now on their own against the lizards. Star Force wasn’t going to come to the aid of such a dishonorable race, so while in appearance they were both part of the Alliance, the trailblazers were no longer considering them to be allies.

  If the Kvash and Bsidd could do what they did to the Nestafar, then they could do it to anyone else they considered an enemy, for they had no honor. Killing the enemy because you had no choice was altogether different from having their lives in the palm of your hand and choosing to crush them when you were in full control. There was a great difference between defeating a civilization and annihilating one, and what the Alliance had just done had been the latter.

  Paul unclenched his jaw and sat back, watching the bombs fall from orbit and obliterate swaths of the holographic planet’s surface on a scale that no nuke could ever touch. Not even Star Force could make warheads of that caliber, and even as Paul watched the horror of it all he wondered if the Bsidd had a tactical missile version that could be used against, say, a Kvash starbase if they wished. He mentally cataloged the possibility, in case Star Force and the Bsidd ever found themselves at odds, but given the distances between their respective territories he doubted that would ever happen.

  The lizards would probably wipe them out first.

  Paul watched through the conclusion of the bombardment of the Nestafar homeworld, then left the room to get some air. He eventually ended up down on Balboa Lane with a handful of other Archons and summoned up a punching bag target off to the side in the huge chamber so as not to interfere with those running obstacle courses.

  He proceeded to lightly pound the target with punches and kicks, slowly escalating up to more powerful hits as he bled off his anger, allowing his mind to process more smoothly. This wasn’t the Alliance he’d thought they’d joined, nor was it an Alliance they were going to remain part of, for they certainly weren’t going to participate or condone any such barbarism, but it made him wonder just how many of the other races would.

  He doubted the Calavari would, but the fact that the Hycre had sat by and watched as the Bsidd and Kvash obliterated non-military targets now had him questioning all of their allies, some of which they’d gained considerable influence with. At last count there were 32 races that made up the Alliance, with all of the Nestafar’s allies having been abandoned by their betrayal and staying with the overall group, such as the Protovic. A few new races had been added since the summit where the Alliance had officially been forged, but the main players were still the same…the Calavari, Kvash, Hycre, and Bsidd.

  Star Force’s stature had grown, but they still weren’t first tier within the Alliance. Paul knew that many races would now follow the Bsidd’s and Kvash’s lead, emulating their slaughter. Even the more sensible races, put under the strains of war, could cave to the barbarism being displayed unless there remained a beacon of honor present to show them that there was another way. The Calavari had held that position within the Alliance, but now as their civilization was shrinking and their military might weakening they clearly didn’t hold the influence they once had, otherwise the Bsidd, Kvash, and Hycre would have included them in the assault on Orica…even if it was just on a symbolic level.

  The Alliance was already fracturing, and Paul feared it would devolve into a barbaric fight for survival rather than stand as a united front against barbarism. Most people, he knew, would trade their principles for survival, and Humans right up there among the other races. Star Force wouldn’t, because the Archons and Davis wouldn’t…or at least the trailblazers wouldn’t, and now that Paul thought about it he couldn’t say the same for all the Archons, especially the younger ones. They mimicked those that had come ahead of them, following their lead just as he feared the other races would follow the Bsidd and Kvash’s example.

  Take the trailblazers and the other experienced Archons out of the equation and what would Star Force be? Take Davis out and what would it become? Paul knew that he’d never turn to barbarism in order to survive, and trusted the other trailblazers were the same. He knew they were the same, but they were only 100 out of trillions of individuals across Alliance territory. Unfortunately most people’s true colors were not golden. They were either blank slates that could go either way based on those around them or they were selfish, greedy, unscrupulous bastards just waiting for an opportunity to stab you in the back to advance themselves.

  Then again, he wondered how many more individuals out there were like him. His true colors had always been golden, but before he’d joined Star Force he didn’t understand much of anything. It was only after learning and growing did his true colors fully manifest themselves, before which he’d been in sort of a protective cocoon, going along with the flow of society until he figured out who he really was and began customizing his own life accordingly.

  If there wasn’t a beacon of hope, a shining light for other younglings out there to see, how many good people would stay in their cocoons, prisoners of their own societies for the simple, inescapable reason that they’d never seen anything different on which to pattern themselves on…or those like Paul that had just needed a wakeup call to ignite his own core nature. He’d seen firsthand how Earth had changed due to Star Force over the past 400 years, and while there were still bad elements there, the masses had shifted to a more enlightened state…but take away Star Force and he knew it wouldn’t sustain. It’d devolve back towards barbarism and tyranny.

  Which was why he couldn’t let this pass.

  Paul spent the next four hours in Balboa Lane, punching and kicking his way to a conclusion…along with scuffed knuckles. When he sent the target back into its wall niche he left the sanctum and boarded a dropship, taking him up to orbit where he commandeered one of the warships and jumped out of the system a few hours later enroute to the nearest Hycre colony in the expansion zone.

  Three weeks later…

  When the Star Force warship decelerated against the yellow/orange star of the Cadathi System it entered a system that contained only two planets, both of them gas giants that had a total of 56 moons between them. All were rocky with little to no atmosphere, but they did make plotting jumps more hazardous. Fortunately Star Force had already been to this system and updated their e
ver growing galactic map, so that they knew the orbital placements of each of the gravity wells before making their microjump out to the larger of the two gas giants…after using their gravity drives’ acquisition programing to verify that there was gravity pulling from where it was supposed to.

  Without any navigational hiccups the warship jumped into high orbit around the gas giant, which was so massive it would have become a star were it not for the fact that it didn’t contain much hydrogen. The core of the planet was solid, in fact, probably a collection of a few moons that had fallen into the nitrogen/sulfur dioxide sphere. Around it was a hardened layer of the ‘gas’ itself, having been compressed into solid form. Further out from it was a liquid ocean, also due to the pressures involved, but beyond that tiny core the rest of the massive planet was gas…very, very hot gas.

  Which was how the Hycre liked it. Paul knew they had habitats down inside the planet’s faded yellow clouds, but the ship’s telaris sensors could only detect the uppermost few. Bright white bands of clouds stretched across the upper atmosphere like claw marks on the otherwise monotone planet that was entirely unsuitable for Humans, but was a garden spot for the Hycre who didn’t even need environmental suits to move about in the atmosphere.

  To do that the winds needed to be low, which they were according to the planetary data he had available, but only at certain altitudes. The white streaks were evidence of higher velocities and currents, making the gaseous planet a geographical maze in that it had to be viewed in 3D as opposed to a flat map.

  That didn’t matter to Paul, for there was nowhere down in the clouds for him or the warship to go. The sulfuric acid alone would eat the paint off the hull if the shields weren’t raised, and Paul found it odd that the Hycre’s bloated bodies didn’t respond to it in a negative fashion. To them it was no more harmful than a cloud of fog or a rain shower, making the world below Paul’s warship truly an alien environment.

  The Hycre were also a truly alien race, but they’d found common ground with the Humans in several areas of commerce and warfare, all starting with the navally dominant race coming to Star Force’s aid on Corneria centuries ago. Their willingness to help an unknown neighbor had spoken well about them and their intentions, but now Paul was wondering if he’d misread their alien nature and truly wished he could get within a few meters of one so he could poke around inside its head, but given their varied life support necessities that wasn’t going to happen here.

  So he was going to have to get his answers the old fashioned way, using guile, intelligence, and diplomacy…the first step of which was not to make immediate contact upon arrival. Instead he had the warship maneuver down into low orbit, beneath the myriad of moons into a clean orbital track that gave them a good sensor view of the spacebound Hycre infrastructure.

  There were a dozen different stations in planetary orbit, plus many more circling individual moons. The rocky planetoids were being mined by the Hycre in their awkward fashion, though Paul noted that two of the mining colonies were using Star Force equipment. He recognized the largely automated drilling machines from the catalog of products that the megacorporation offered to buyers from other races, but this was the first such use he’d seen the Hycre make of them and wondered just how much better they were performing than the other sites.

  Amongst the stations and mining colonies there were 100 or so ships moving about planetary orbit, and he guessed there was at least half again that amount around the other gas giant. Both planets were habitable by Hycre standards, but the one below him now was the more desirable one and had been the first to be colonized some 120 years ago, which is why Paul had chosen to come here.

  He let his warship sit in orbit, watching as two Hycre cruisers and a scattering of corvettes traced their lazy orbits around the planet at various locations, none of which moved to intercept the Human ship. They were longtime allies and friends, with a level of comfortability between the races given the fact that they shared a few star systems, and even though this wasn’t one of them there was no animosity on either side resulting from their arrival.

  Paul held position in orbit for several hours before the Hycre finally made contact with them, asking their purpose here and offering any assistance should they require it. In response Paul politely demanded that he speak with the senior-most Hycre in the system, of which contained some 3 billion of them, though Star Force had never been able to confirm those numbers. When his comm channel got switched over to a mid-level administrator he refused to discuss anything with them, holding out with his original demand.

  It wasn’t until he identified himself as the Star Force naval Supreme Commander did he get the response he wanted, though that title was more for their benefit. The Hycre had never quite understood the Humans’ lack of hierarchy within their military, so Paul had found it best at times to translate his standing into terms they could understand…though Roger and Liam would have raised an eyebrow at that particular title.

  Shortly thereafter a holographic transmission came through, as opposed to the standard audial comm that had to be computer translated into English. As Paul stood up from his command chair on the bridge a large hologram of the mohawked gas bag appeared before him in actual size, which was akin to a small car.

  SPEAK SUPREME COMMANDER.

  Paul stared back at the eyeless creature, knowing that it perceived the world around it through its skin, including some level of visual information, giving it its own spherical sight.

  “Tell me what you know of what transpired in the Orica System.”

  5

  “Unacceptable,” Paul said firmly, though that firmness was probably lost in the translation program so he focused solely on the words he was using. “If we are fighting the Cajdital because they are barbaric and unable to be negotiated with, then we cannot be the same.”

  THEY BEGAN THIS WAR. SO DID THE NESTAFAR. WE ARE NOT THE SAME.

  “We are if we do not have a code of conduct.”

  SUCH A CODE IS A LUXURY IN WAR. SOMETIMES IT MUST BE ABANDONED TO DO WHAT IS NECESSARY FOR SURVIVAL. WE ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS. YOU ALSO PURGE THE CAJDITAL.

  “We have taken both Cajdital and Nestafar prisoner. The Cajdital kill themselves when they are taken captive and cannot find a way to further harm us. The Nestafar do not. Despite this fact we still offer the option of surrender to the Cajdital. The Alliance never made an offer in Orica, not even once, on one world. What you, the Bsidd, and the Kvash did was outright slaughter them. That is not something Star Force can condone.”

  WHAT IS DONE IS ALREADY DONE. YOUR APPROVAL IS NOT REQUIRED.

  “True,” Paul admitted. “The events at Orica are fixed, but Star Force’s future relations with the Alliance and the Hycre are not.”

  WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU ASKING OF US?

  “We cannot let ourselves become butchers, no matter what the circumstances. That goes for Human, Hycre, and every other race in the Alliance.”

  BUT THAT IS PRECISELY WHAT YOU HAVE BECOME WITH THE CAJDITAL. THEY GIVE YOU NO CHOICE BUT TO SLAUGHTER THEM, AND WISELY YOU DO.

  “There is a difference between neutralizing threats and killing those who cannot fight back. Every lizard settlement we’ve razed from orbit had the capability to grow to the point where it could produce warships and weapons that could be turned against us. If we left it alone it would come back to hurt us later. The Cajdital have no civilians. They have no children. They are genetically engineered and grown on demand with inborn knowledge of who and what they are expected to be. Their individuality has been suppressed to the point they’re practically zom…they’re living weapons.”

  “We have been trying to find a way to negotiate with them, but with very little success. Every individual we’ve encountered has been fully committed to their race’s goals and our destruction, but we haven’t let that change us and the way we fight. We kill them when we have to, but their overall destruction is not one of our goals. Neutralizing the threat they pose is.”

  BY YOUR OWN ADMIS
SION NEUTRALIZING THE THREAT WILL REQUIRE WIDESPREAD SLAUGHTER BECAUSE THEY WILL NOT ALLOW ANOTHER OPTION.

  “Possibly, but we haven’t given up looking for alternatives…and I didn’t come here because of your battles with the Cajdital. The Nestafar are the matter at hand. You had options with them, and you chose slaughter. That is the problem.”

  IF YOU HAVE SEEN THE BATTLE DATA THEN YOU KNOW THE ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT WAS NOT UNDERTAKEN BY THE HYCRE.

  “No it wasn’t, but you had to know the battle plan before the invasion began, which meant you were ok with it.”

  NEITHER I NOR ANY OTHER IN THIS SYSTEM WAS PRIVY TO THOSE PLANS. WE CANNOT ANSWER THAT QUESTION FOR YOU.

  “I didn’t think you could, but you’re the closest Hycre I have to talk to.”

  WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO ACHIEVE WITH THIS CONVERSATION?

  “An understanding,” Paul stated flatly. “Star Force holds to a code of conduct, and we expect our allies to do the same, otherwise they’re not worth being allies. To date I’ve not been disappointed by the Hycre, but now I am and I’ve begun to wonder if this was an isolated incident or a part of Hycre methodology that I was previously unaware of. You should be able to address that.”

  YOU SEEK COMMON GROUND NOW WHERE YOU HAD PREVIOUSLY ASSUMED THERE TO BE?

  “Yes. I seek confirmation or clarification.”

  A REASONABLE REQUEST. ASK YOUR QUESTIONS.

  “Do the Hycre seek to eradicate the Nestafar for their betrayal of the Alliance?”

  WE SEEK PUNISHMENT, NOT ERADICATION.

  “What is your idea of punishment?”

  THERE ARE MANY OPTIONS. FORFEITURE OF TERRITORY AND TECHNOLOGY IS STANDARD.