Star Force: Origin Series Box Set (21-24)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  Every tentacle on the station glistened with reflected sunlight on the day side, then glowed bluish/purple on the night side. Despite the very squishy aesthetic Greg got the impression that the Bsidd were highly technological, which was confirmed three days later when the Humans were given access rights to the station…or part of it anyway. There were 5 different sections, each with their own environmental distinctions, of which the Humans were given access to the oxygen zone.

  When Greg and a party of three other Archons boarded the station they were taken aback by what they saw, feeling like they were walking into a movie scene. Dozens of different races were milling about, all of which were brand new to them, in what felt like a Mass Effect Citadel station. Half of them were floating around on anti-grav seats/sleds above the Humans’ heads while others were crawling along small tubes that lined the walls. The rest followed the footpaths, which Greg and company took as they began to explore the Bsidd station.

  Holograms were everywhere, all written in the trade language that the Hycre had supplied to the Humans and that they’d studied in detail both before they’d left Star Force space and during the weeks that it took them to travel here. Greg had picked up enough of the language that he could read most of the signs at first or second glance and headed in the direction an information sign indicated was the way to the main promenade.

  When they came to an up-ramp their feet suddenly stuck in place as an energy shield wrapped around them an inch above the floor and pulled them up as an invisible escalator. Greg’s feet came free at the top which he walked off from to allow others behind him to ascend, then he looked back down at the very shallow angle of the ramp, thinking the Bsidd were going out of the way for comfort’s sake.

  “Is it just me or does this feel like a videogame to anyone else?” Jen-475 asked.

  “Guess we really are the newbs out here,” Greg agreed. “And yeah, it does feel like a videogame.”

  “Oh I want to try that,” Aaron-622 said as they walked out onto the promenade ring that surrounded a huge lower level complex that was a mix of shops and entertainment facilities. Crisscrossing the plaza was a series of zero g energy tubes that shot an individual from one side of the promenade to the other, apparently keeping you confined inside with little more than energy shields being emitted by occasional floating pylons.

  “Easy,” Greg cautioned. “Everything around here seems extremely pedestrian. I don’t think they’d like us racing across.”

  “Killjoy,” Aaron teased as he brushed shoulders with a passing ape-like creature that bounced him to the side on impact. Both the Human and the larger alien exchanged glances but kept on walking in opposite directions. None of the Archons had their armor on, nor were they carrying any weapons, and Aaron got a good feel for the toughened skin on the monkey as his shoulder bounced off what felt like armored plates.

  “He’s lucky I’m on vacation,” Aaron said sarcastically.

  “I think that’s the embassy wing,” Clint-274 said, pointing to one of many outer exits on the promenade.

  “Gently cut across traffic,” Greg prompted, letting Jen lead the way as they crossed through the pedestrian flow, glancing up at the undersides of the hovering passersby as they played frogger to get across the circus-like mix of races…and these were only the oxygen breathers on the station.

  When they got to the entrance the traffic thinned, but they still had to part their four man formation to let what looked like a clear gelatinous blob float by on an anti-grav orb that it had somehow internalized. Greg didn’t know if it was surgically implanted, swallowed, or if the alien could take on varying shapes, but it was definitely one of the more bizarre races around.

  Clint exchanged glances with him and Greg microscopically shrugged beneath his white uniform. Half of the aliens in sight weren’t even wearing clothing, while a small portion were covered in fabric or concealed within armored hulks.

  Aaron whistled appreciatively as they passed one of the mostly nude species, the closest to Human form they’d seen. The alien glanced over at them in turn, but continued to walk out of the embassy wing as Aaron kept his eyes on ‘her’ mostly feminine form right down to her pair of uncovered breasts…yet her bluish/green skin was slightly ridged like soft armor, giving her a bristling, yet exotic look.

  “Might want to think twice about shore leave for the crew,” he noted, turning his head back in the direction they were walking. “I get the feeling if some of the guys hit on her she might eat them.”

  “Point taken,” Greg said as they saw another of the pseudo-females pass them by along with a hip height quadruped.

  The dog-like creature did a double take then turned around. “Taru, ven a Sta For?”

  Greg and the other Archons paused and did a double take. “Yes, we are,” he answered in the trade language, or as best as he could manage the pronunciation.

  “Thank you for coming. We have much to discuss,” it said, walking up alongside of them. “Our rooms are this way please.”

  Clint shot Aaron an eyebrow as he flicked on his earpiece, but the other Archon just shook his head. “This day is getting weirder by the minute.”

  Greg and the others followed the hairless dog down a series of wide halls until they came to an ornate set of doors that led into one of the embassy suites that acted as both a national and corporate headquarters on the station, facilitating both trade and diplomacy for members of the embassy’s race as well as interracial relations.

  “With so many newcomers to the summit, it’s an excellent opportunity to make new friends,” the alien dog said, its words being picked up and translated by the earpieces all of the Archons wore. “You come with the Hycre, yes?”

  “Yes,” Greg answered, having to actually speak the trade language, given that the earpieces only worked one way.

  “Tell me about your people, your planets, your customs. We wish to learn more about our galactic neighbors. I am Hartu of the Nevarsensta. Welcome to Oel, Star Force.”

  “Nevarsensta?” Greg asked, frowning. “We were supposed to be meeting with the Elorav.”

  The Nevarsensta clicked its muzzle teeth together three times in rapid succession. “Oh my, have I made a mistake? It seems I have. My sincere apologies. We have extended invitations to all new races at the summit. Did you not receive one…or did you not wish to meet with us?”

  “We did not receive,” Greg managed, having to think hard to come up with the word for ‘receive.’

  The Nevarsensta bowed his head and shook it side to side. “Shall we arrange a future meeting then? I do not wish to keep you from other appointments.”

  “I can stay,” Jen offered Greg in English so the alien couldn’t understand.

  “Alright,” Greg said. “Aaron, stay with her. Clint and I will go search out our other contact.”

  “Two of us will stay,” Jen told the Nevarsensta as Greg and Clint walked back out into the embassy corridor.

  “Excellent,” Hartu said, walking over to a pillow-like cushion on the floor and laying down. “Be seated,” he prompted, pointing a ‘paw’ at several similar cushions, “and tell me more about your race.”

  Two weeks later the summit officially began. The Humans had a small booth with two chairs in front of a glass wall that looked in on a shallow pit, around which there were other booths of varying sizes. Immediately to their right and visible through another glass wall were the Hycre. It was the first time Greg had ever seen one of them in person, floating about in their own environment. The wall between them was double thick, however, so that the excessive heat from the other side wouldn’t bleed through and cook the Humans.

  To their left was a race Greg and the others had never seen, but apparently they had been invited as a subsidiary of the Hycre as well as four others. Each of the five main races had lesser races with them, giving the total assembly a count of 27, most of which were visible from where Greg sat alongside Clint. Behind them Jen and Aaron stood and watched as a huge hologram filled the c
entral chamber in a star map that outlined the full extent of the lizards territory.

  “Shit,” Clint whispered.

  “That’s a lot more territory than the Hycre knew about,” Greg agreed, seeing that the rimward regions extended farther from the lizard homeworld than the coreward ones did. A lot farther, in fact, giving the enemy a huge realm that stretched from the top of the galactic plane down to the bottom in the form of tendrils with the main bulk of their territory in the center. The map was by far the most intricate the Archons had ever seen and made it clear just how powerful the lizards were in the region.

  “So they have been toying with us,” Jen commented as a voice in the trade language began to speak.

  “Know your enemy,” a Bsidd said from a compartment to Greg’s right about a third of the way around the arc of booths. The alien was insect-like and very ugly, with a wisp of a frame but standing half again as tall as the Archons. It had pointy appendages everywhere but was mostly biped…though those other parts might have been able to pass for extra legs.

  “They are larger and stronger than all those assembled here. Some of us have made small gains against them in recent years but that will soon be for naught. Some of you with territories on the rimward edge of the Cajdital’s domain know the truth, but for the rest of you I will show you the reason we are all still alive.”

  One of the Bsidd’s stick-like appendages pressed a switch in its booth and the star map updated with a host of green dots illuminating rimward of the lizards’ sea of yellow ones. Star Force territory, on the coreward side, as a mere handful of off-white dots while the other races’ star systems were equally colorless but with different shades to mark their territories.

  “What is left of the H’kar is shown before you now. They are the greatest threat to the Cajdital and have been fighting a war with them longer than most of us have lived. That war has tipped to the Cajdital’s favor, and they are now rolling through their star systems, destroying or annexing all they come across. These systems are what they have left,” the Bsidd said, gesturing to the green dots on the map. “When the Cajdital are finished with them they will divert the bulk of their military towards eradicating us.”

  “The only hope we stand is to coordinate our efforts, share technology, resources, transportation, and even some of our worlds. We must band together or the Cajdital will roll over us with ease, no matter how much success you’ve had against them in the past. All of us will perish, and the Cajdital will grow stronger on our carcasses. We must use our strengths against them, and armor over each other’s weaknesses. Here, today, we can forge an alliance, a true alliance that can turn back the tide of Cajdital aggression if we hit them now…before they are finished with the H’kar.”

  “Politics must be put aside and we must band together…we must! When the wave of Cajdital ships comes, our worlds will be cut apart from one another, so we must make preparations now, before the storm. Otherwise you may as well return to your homes and live out your remaining days as you choose, for when they come they will come in numbers that will blot out the stars and you will have no hope of surviving alone.”

  “To do this, we all must contribute, and the Bsidd are no exception. In order for this proposed alliance to function we must have adequate communication lines established, and no, I do not refer to courier ships. We are willing to share our interstellar communications technology with all who sign on to this alliance in order to establish a network of relays surrounding lizard territory and binding us all together.”

  “As we do so, we must also take action in multiple ways. We must reinforce our defenses, establish shared outposts on currently uninhabited worlds and empty systems, places where the Cajdital will not know to look for us. We must also establish evacuation routes for when our worlds do get hit, so that we may preserve as many lives as possible in our defeats. We must also have places for these refugees to go, not only to escape, but to contribute to the alliance in a productive manner.”

  “Simultaneously we must be on the offensive. We cannot let the Cajdital dictate every battlefield. We must choose some of our own, not just in defense, but to push the Cajdital back in key systems, denying them spacelanes and resources they need to expand with. We must keep them bottled up as we prepare, and we must keep them blind to our efforts. Their scouts cannot be permitted travel through your systems. You must seek out and destroy them when they try so that we can retain the element of surprise and unmonitored reinforcement.”

  “We can fight the Cajdital effectively, but it will take a combined effort. Not a sham. Not a stunt. Not a deception. But a true alliance the likes of which the Bsidd have never known, and as I assume most of your races have never known. Put aside your conflicts with one another and forge the bonds of a united front. We either stand together…or we fall one by one.”

  Augmentation

  1

  May 8, 2395

  Jartul System

  Daka

  Mark-084 looked down on the planet of Daka from orbit, seeing the dark browns of the continents mixing with the pale green pair of oceans snaking their way around them in long fingers, but he was unable to make out any signs of urbanization on the planet, new as it was to the Alliance. Somewhere down there was a city, constructed mostly underground to be able to survive orbital bombardment but not necessarily for secrecy. The planet and star system were uninhabited, located a third of the distance around the perimeter of lizard territory from Sol, and as such were expected not to draw the enemy’s attention.

  That was the reason why Alliance Command had chosen the system to establish their starfighter training center, where pilots from all the Alliance races could assemble, swap notes on the lizards, and start building better equipment and tactics to counter the enemy in the air and in space. It’d been operational for a couple of years now, but this was the first opportunity Star Force had to attend given the distances involved. More and more the Hycre were having to ferry them about to various Alliance bases given the limited capabilities of their gravity drives and this was no exception. It had taken two massive Hycre jumpships to carry over the 8 ships in Mark’s small taskforce that would be permanently setting up on the planet below.

  From the bridge of one of his cargo ships Mark spotted the orbital infrastructure where the spacebound fighters trained, but that was one area that Star Force had not delved into. All their pilots were aerial pilots, tasked with in-atmosphere combat, leaving orbital maneuvers to the navy with their bigger guns and attack drones. The idea of losing pilots in naval engagements was abhorrent, which was why Star Force didn’t used manned craft. On the surface the pilots stood a chance of survival if they got hit, and their aerial craft were equipped with armored cockpits to increase pilot survivability, much like the mechs were, so that a defeat didn’t necessarily result in a death.

  Other races weren’t so considerate and fielded large numbers of manned craft, sometimes little more than mobile weapon platforms. Putting armor or shields on a fighter slowed it down, as well as made it more expensive to produce, which was why some Alliance members had their starfighter forces comprised of largely disposable craft armed with powerful weapons…and treated the pilots to be just as dispensable as their craft.

  Those races often used hoard tactics, just as the lizards did, to overwhelm a target by sheer numbers but the Calavari did not, and they were the leading Alliance member when it came to starfighters. They’d been the first to suggest the construction of this facility to train up the other races’ inadequate pilots, as they’d put it, in order to present the lizards with a more skilled, united starfighter front.

  12 races were already here, with several more to come, making the Humans a latecomer to the scene. The Hycre had no starfighters at all, let alone pilots, so their presence in the system was purely as a defensive force in case the lizards did stumble across this system. Two of their destroyers remained on station permanently, while the jumpships that had just dropped off Star Force’s ships had left as soo
n as the unloading was complete.

  There were a few other warships in the system but Mark had elected not to bring any of their own, instead using all of the available cargo space the Hycre had allotted them to bring materiel and personnel sufficient to establish a Canderian seda in orbit. For now, at least, Mark and his pilots would be taking up residence in the Alliance base on the surface while his army of techs began establishing mining outposts at varied sites across the planet that would, months down the road, supply the raw materials to construct the seda in orbit.

  Of the 24 pilots Mark had assembled, including himself, 12 were Archons, 10 were Star Force regulars, and 2 were Canderians. Half of the Archons were from Mark’s own Clan Gunstar, with the others being highly skilled volunteers from the others. All together the trailblazer had assembled a good group of the best pilots Star Force had to offer…with the two Canderians thrown in as extra. Canderous had been begging Star Force to let them establish a starfighter wing of their military, but they’d been staunchly refused, and given that they had little in the way of surface operations they’d never had much need for aerofighters, so they’d made do with building armed assault shuttles for air support.

  Mark had brought them along so they could see for themselves how stupid manned starfighters were when going up against warships, but also to allow them to learn from the other races and see what type of ground support operations they might find a niche in, considering that it looked like Star Force’s primary area of contribution to the Alliance was going to be surface-related and Canderous was heavily space-based.

  Leaving his cargo fleet in orbit under the care of Baron Keller to begin setting up mining operations, Mark and his fellow pilots left for the surface in a dropship and traveled down to the northernmost continent and the tallest mount range on the planet…which was only several hundred meters high. Daka was covered in grasslands and extremely flat, with the Alliance base tucked into what little terrain the planet had.