by Aer-ki Jyr
“About half a millennia. It’s got better than 40 billion Bsidd squeezed in, but we’re not increasing the population any further until we get the necessary infrastructure. The main problem is solari, and we haven’t got the funding yet for a Star Forge. Even when we do, the pair of suns returned a lack luster survey, so we’re still going to have to trade for the rest and we don’t have anything that’s standout here to work with. Hence our development has been slow.”
“How long have you been here?”
“73 years. This is my second assignment. I spent 12 years on Vitticor, which makes this place look small in comparison, but we’ve got plenty to do. In addition to builder work, we get a fair amount of pass through traffic this close to the Hula Hoop and the defense fleet has to ward off poachers. We’re the weakest link on three different trade routes, and when they get bold the scumbags try to ambush the civilian transports here.”
“But they don’t bother the planet?”
“Nope. Nobody comes down here, because we don’t have a public market. Everything is self-contained.”
“Is that permanent?”
“To be a stronghold you have to be self-sufficient, so we’re not encouraging public trade. Most of the civilians here operate local functions, and if they want to engage in interstellar trade they relocate to another system.”
“What’s the civilian breakdown?”
“Less than 2%. If you’re not here to build the planet, then there’s not much of a place for you. Those civilians are almost all lazy asses. Businessmen are non-existent, and we have a few artists.”
“All Bsidd?”
“The entire planet is Bsidd. Even the defense fleet. We four are the only non-Bsidd in the system.”
“Why Archons and not Bsidd Mavericks?”
“Beats me. I just go where they tell me.”
“And?” Leon pressed.
“I’m guessing its part of our training. We have to learn to deal with non-Humans while we still have other Archons to work with, maintaining the foundation we’ve already built.”
“Boring?”
“Not at all. Everything here functions like a bee hive, and we have to choose how much to micromanage and what not to. We’re here to enhance the planet, not run it. The Administrators can do that decent enough, but it’s ours to make improvements to wherever we can.”
“To get to the higher benchmarks?”
“Exactly,” Brie said as they left the spaceport and walked into the heavy sunlight from the binary stars in the system. The air was also dry, seeming to suck the moisture out of Leon’s mouth, but it wasn’t quite what he’d call a desert. Not with all the tall, blue/purple building spires surrounding them looking like flutes stuck into the ground or maybe giant grass stalks. “Over here.”
Leon followed her to a nearby mongoose, similar to what Leon had used in the Trials, but this one was larger and built for at least three people. The bench looked like you could squeeze four on it, plus a couple of footholds that would allow flankers to ride with one foot supporting them on the sides. Brie stepped on one of those, then leaned over and hit a switch causing the rear half of the seat to transform into a small cargo compartment.
“Put your duffle in there. We’ve got a ways to go and you don’t want to hold it.”
Leon slid it inside then closed the lid before hopping onto the pommel seat behind Brie a few inches, finding a pair of hand holds that he gripped tightly as she accelerated them down the fairly busy street on the four big tires that whined slightly when they got up to speed.
“You ever seen Bsidd before?” she asked as a force field popped up over top the mongoose to keep the air from hitting them in the face and making it hard to talk.
“Seen yes. Talked to, no.”
“They have a slight accent that takes some time to get used to, and their body movements will freak you out more than a snake until you get a lot of experience with them, but after that they’re not hard to predict. They give a lot of cues in their joint bends.”
“Security?”
“Not much is needed, but occasionally they will fight each other. Especially the younger ones.”
“About what?”
“Adherence to the rules. The Bsidd are born expecting no individuality, so as they gain it the others react badly to them going off the reservation. Once they grow up there isn’t a problem, but that takes a couple centuries.”
“Do they kill each other?”
“No, they just beat them up until they comply. The hive mind doesn’t let them kill unless they kill first. I’m told it’s a lot better than it used to be, but there are still some negatives in their genome that can’t be fixed without causing other problems. Same way Humans fight over mating rights.”
“Is that what they’re calling it now?”
“Who’s they?”
“Good point,” Leon said, remembering that there had only been 3 Humans on the entire planet before he’d arrived. “Who do we report to?”
“We’re Archons. We don’t report to anyone. We’re an independent planet as far as military assignments go, so we’re all Warcoren has got.”
“Why?”
“We’re sent here to take care of it. If we need superiors then we’re not Archons. If we had heavy combat to deal with it would be different, but there’s nothing here we can’t handle, so we’re on our own. We work with the Count on various things, but since this is a classified as a stronghold we’ve pretty much got the run of the place.”
“Is that normal?”
“On the smaller worlds, yeah. The higher ranking Archons have bigger stuff to do, so they leave the little ones to us. Kind of funny isn’t it? This entire planet is considered ‘little’ as far as Star Force is concerned.”
“Yeah,” Leon agreed, impressed with the size and complexity of the Bsidd city they were ripping through at decent speed. Forge had a lot of people on it, but they were all spaced out in different locations with a lot of raw planet in between where the Archons held training sessions. Here it was all city, with the insect-like Bsidd scurrying around at slightly better than pedestrian speeds.
It did feel like a bee hive, and it took more than half an hour before they got out of it at the edge of the city where the road ended at a gate. The Bsidd security guards passed the Archons through at a glance, then the mongoose crossed a half mile of paved surface before hitting the rough and very dry dirt beyond, bouncing him on his seat as they didn’t slow down at all…in fact, Brie was accelerating them now that they were out of the city traffic.
In the distance he could see more cities, looking like clumps of grass here and there with no direction being immune. They weren’t touching each other, but there were cities everywhere with a few major links between them that appeared to be clear tubes slightly elevated off the ground and some 400 meters or more wide, through which streets and trains traveled.
But not for the Archons. They were now outside the network and headed where he couldn’t see.
“Exactly where are we going?” he asked.
“Our little retreat from the Bsidd. It’s a couple miles ahead.”
Leon looked, but couldn’t see anything other than a few low hills and small rocks sporadically thrown around the landscape.
“I don’t see anything.”
“You shouldn’t. Just wait.”
Leon held onto the handles as they were continually hitting bumps, but he appreciated the rough ride as opposed to just flying. The wheeled vehicle was much more power efficient than flying, but Leon liked the mongooses because of the wild way they handled, requiring some piloting skill whereas flying transports were basically just point and click.
“Here we go,” Brie said, with Leon still seeing nothing. A moment later an energy field hit him in the face, and suddenly a small tower appeared right in front of him.
“A cloak?”
“We like our privacy.”
“What about the wheel trail in the dirt?”
“Nobody
comes out here, so we’re not paranoid about it,” Brie said, slowing them down as a hangar door at the base of the tower began to rise up at her command. “Pretty cool though, right?”
“Yeah,” he answered as they slid underneath the meter wide door and curved to the right, stopping next to a few other mongooses in addition to a lot of other ships parked around the rather large hangar. Some were starships, others were aerial craft, and a couple looked like diggers.
“Welcome home. We don’t stay here much, but this is where we eventually return to when we have downtime. There’s a full Archon Sanctum here, so that’s where you’ll be doing your training. We leave the Bsidd facilities alone, for the most part.”
“You don’t spar against them?” Leon asked, pulling out his duffle and slinging it over his shoulder.
“Not anymore. Once you figure out how to not let them get within grapple range, there isn’t much to work on. You can’t fight them hand to hand without more psionics. Too many limbs.”
“I can imagine,” he said, following her through a nearby doorway and into architecture that was definitely not Bsidd. In fact, it was almost identical to what was on Forge. Squarish hallways with rounded corners, a lot of white accents and a clean, precise look as opposed to the purple/blue ovoids that seemed to dominate everything Bsidd.
“Are there Essence chambers here?”
“No. None of us is close to reaching that level, so we didn’t build any. Why? Were you going to try?” Brie asked with a smirk.
“Why not?”
“If you can’t touch your Essence yet, you can’t train with it.”
“Do you know what it is?”
“Not any more than you do. We have the blueprints available to us, but honestly it’s not our place to meddle with stuff we’re not ready for.”
“But we could if we wanted to?” he asked.
“That’s part of being an Archon. Nobody is looking over your shoulder, so we can do what we want. But you’re the newb, so I’m looking over your shoulder until you get your field legs. Being out here is a lot different than the Trials.”
“I already got that impression.”
“Drop your gear there,” she said, pointing to the floor outside a door that she opened. “Time to get you your new armor.”
“Good. I didn’t like traveling without it.”
“Not that training crap,” Brie said with disgust as they walked into a very impressive mechanical room. “This is real armor.”
Leon’s eyes widened as he saw the array of fabrication equipment and the various statue-like armor suits arrayed for display.
“Spares,” she noted. “Some are standard, but one of each is for us in case we need a quick swap-out. Can you tell which one is mine?”
“That one,” Leon said, pointing to the one on the left. “Unless Fred and Darren have boobs.”
“Don’t use mine unless you have to, but in case there are no others you can trigger all of them to return to defaults and they will adapt to your shape. However, customization adds more power because we can arrange all the critical components around your body position. Step onto that pedestal and hold still.”
“Do I need to strip?” Leon asked while doing as told and hopping up on the circular silver platform 10 inches higher than the floor and set into a corner of the hexagonal room.
“The sensors can see through your clothes,” she said, working a nearby console. “What kind do you want?”
“What options are there?”
“All of them.”
“Am I stuck with just one?”
“No. You can build as many as you like and try them out. Where do you want to start?”
“Braxis.”
“Standby,” she said, selecting the armor option that had full flight capability and enhanced shields, designed for high agility but lower defense rating. Braxis was for dodgers and rovers, not heavy hitting, which made it a decent choice for a world where heavy fights were most likely not going to occur.
The machine scanned him for several moments, shifting through millions of various microscopic alignments until it found the best ones suited for Leon, then the machinery began to come alive with a flurry of sounds and lights.
“You can step down now,” Brie said. “This will take a few minutes.”
“What’s my first assignment going to be?”
“Hanging out with me until you get adjusted. After that you’ll pick your own assignments. Basically look for problems or ways to make improvements and be ready to respond to alerts. But don’t work so much you neglect your training. You gotta balance it out.”
“Do we train together?”
“Most of the time no, but when we need to spar we do. The machines are good and will kick your ass with ease, but they lack the personal touch and get predictable over time. It’s their reaction speed that you need to test yourself against, not their creativity.”
“So you’re saying I just went from highly regulated schedules to pick my own?”
“Pretty much. It’s time for you to grow up.”
“I thought I already had.”
“So did I until I got out here. Then you realize there is so much road ahead and so little behind…and that’s when you really grow up. When you realize you’re still a newb, and yet you know more than almost everyone else out there. Take us. Four Archons for a planet of 40 billion, and yet we’re still younglings compared to the Mages…let alone the Saiyans, Neos, or Borg. It’s here where you realize that we’re the tip of the spear. No one outranks us, no one is there to turn to when we can’t handle something. We have to lead, we have to find a way, and it’s here where you look out into the void of the galaxy and realize how lonely it is at the top. Just be glad there are four of us here. Some planets only get one Archon, if any.”
“There are some with none?”
“Yeah there are. Usually in systems where there are multiple planets. But there are some systems with no Archons at all because of special circumstances.”
“That’s not wise.”
“No it’s not, but there are only so many of us and when you have more worlds than Archons, that’s what happens. Then you have Archons out patrolling non-Star Force worlds and spacelanes, etc. We’re a rare commodity, even with the Mavericks added in,” she said, for the Mavericks even used the same numbering system with the Archons, despite not being trained together.
“So if this system gets hit, we’re it?”
“We can always call for help. That’s what an empire is for. But until the help gets here, yep, we’re it. Kind of scary, isn’t it?”
“It’s what I became an Archon for. I’m just surprised it’s thrown at us all at once.”
“Sink or swim, bro. No training wheels for Archons,” she said as the fabrication machine finished and a pair of silver gauntlets floated out of a wall slot with a little residual steam rising off them until they landed on the central pedestal that connected to the ceiling in a light shaft.
“Are they hot?”
“A little. All it takes is a few seconds to normalize. You can touch them now.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yep. Go ahead.”
Leon reached out and touched one with his finger experimentally, finding it remarkably lukewarm. He then grabbed it and slid it on over his hand, fastening the simple clasp that triggered it to melt into a single piece covering the first half of his forearm only, as opposed to Brie’s that traveled all the way up to her shoulder. He put the second one on, then held them out in front of him so he could get a good look.
“They fit like a glove,” he noted, mentally signaling them to activate. The two gauntlets quickly melted and covered him head to toe in silver armor that had various portions thicker than others, but all of it was tailored for mobility and flexibility, with the joints and other crunch points reforming as he moved to keep the solid nature of the armor intact without hindering him.
“Change the color,” Brie told him.
“Um, rig
ht,” he said, sifting through the myriad of controls until he found the color setting and selected ‘Ranger,’ which caused the silver to disappear and become replaced with the appropriate green.
“Alright, now you’re official. Stuff your gear in your quarters then we’ll get to work on the southern continent.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that. Learn as you go, newb.”
“And I’m the newb until someone else gets assigned here?”
“You’re the newb until I can stop answering questions.”
“Fair enough. Where are my quarters?”
37,309 lightyears away…
“We have no choice,” the Chixzon noted calmly. “This is the only way. Star Force will not crumble from within.”
“I concur, but once started this cannot be undone.”
“That we know of,” a third Chixzon added.
“Is there any other recourse possible?”
“We have exhausted all options. It is this or we cede control of the galaxy to them and the V’kit’no’sat. We have been gone too long, and this is the repercussion of it.”
“It is not a matter of time. Star Force is an unusually formidable enemy, the V’kit’no’sat are not. It is their unity that is their strongest asset, and that is not a function of time. We have never had a worthy opponent before, and if we are to best this one we must use whatever methods are available, and there is but one. We can continue our search for more, or act now. I choose to act.”
“We are all in agreement. Send the ship...”
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