Star Force: Empire (SF58) (2 page)

Some 160 miles to the south was one of the temporary
habitats Star Force had set up some time ago to house the Lacvamat population
while the true cities were being built, and those temporary sites had been
constructed in order to move people out of the original Lacvamat structures,
which were now all decommissioned and in the last stages of recycling the
materials. The temporary habitats would stay up until all of the Lacvamat could
fit within the cities, then Larry and the others would begin expanding more
slowly to suit their growth needs. Right now, however, they were building as
fast as they could just to give everyone a place to live.

Which was why the maturias were slowing reproduction
rates to a steady trickle. The Lacvamat reproduced through eggs, giving Star
Force the ability to firmly control population rates as opposed to live births
because the eggs had to be externally fertilized. Originally, unsanctioned
reproduction had been a minor problem, but virtually all of those Lacvamat that
had been born through the maturias accepted Star Force’s mandates and didn’t
try to circumvent them. It was those that had lived prior to the annexation
that were showing defiance, and while there weren’t a lot of them left due to the
war and subsequent attrition there were always some problems with the dissenters,
but at least it seemed they’d given up on trying to breed off the grid.

Most of them just sat and rotted away in their
habitats, ironically cleansing the planet of the problem they represented. Some
had converted over, but most stubbornly refused to help their ‘conquerors’ and
were gradually fading away from the social consciousness. The planet and their
race were Star Force now, with that becoming more so every day and with every
subsequent generation being hatched and trained in maturia, but there was still
a lot of work to be done before the Lacvamat could take their place as peers
within Star Force, for right now without the Human Administrators and other
‘support staff’ the Lacvamat civilization would quickly fall into shambles.

They weren’t ready to be independent yet, not in any
way, shape, or form, but they were gradually making progress and most of those
Larry interacted with now could speak English, which was a blessing, for his
trade language was not in a comfortable sound range for his vocal chords. It
always was a chore to pronounce, but with the conversion taking place on the
planet and the Lacvamat becoming more and more Star Force, English began to
take over as well, allowing normal speech that he was grateful for.

The Lacvamat had their own dialect, of course, but it
was easy to get used to given that they’d learned it from Human trainers and
holo recordings. It was the non-maturia raised natives that spoke it with an
almost garbled tone, and that gave him some considerable difficulty in
understanding them, but he rarely dealt with those individuals anymore now that
he’d accumulated a moderately sized staff of Lacvamat that he could rely on to
do basic tasks. Over time that staff would grow in number and experience, but
it was going to be a long haul indeed.

He’d learned early on that he needed breaks to refresh
his Humanity, or more accurately to refresh his ‘Star Force.’ That wasn’t a
proper term but it was the only one he had, for when dealing with the Lacvamat
and trying to pull them into the massive organization he was likewise pulling
himself out of it a bit, being blended with their bad habits and tendencies as
he battled them.

So it was days like the next, when he met up with
Nadie
and the pair took the day off from duty, going far
away from the Lacvamat and retreating down into levels where they didn’t
typically go to get away from their charges and recharge their Star Force
batteries. As planned they hit up the entertainment facility, playing through
two rounds of simulated golf by smacking the real little projectile and having
the computer calculate its movements even as a force field caught it only a few
meters away.

After golf it was
damough
,
then tennis, followed up lastly by a lazy game of holographic cards in a
private hot tub as they soaked the alien influences out of them. Through it all
they exchanged information, plans and concerns, turning the ‘fun’ day also into
a business one, but that was just who they were. Administrator wasn’t a job you
did during the day and walked away from at night, it was a position with round
the clock responsibilities and while they might take time to blow off some steam
and recharge, they were always Administrators and when they chitchatted it
usually came back to the work at hand.

After quick, separate showers they had food brought in
for them and they spent the evening on a rooftop deck watching Larry’s city as
the twin suns slowly set over the far canyon wall and the nighttime lights
replaced them, twinkling as tiny Lacvamat would fly by in the dark and cause
the distant lights to blink in and out almost as if they were silent fireworks
going off.

The breeze felt good and the pair sat in silence,
taking one last break from the Lacvamat while still observing them, almost as
if in transition back into their world and out of the tiny bubble they’d
retreated into. Bringing a race into Star Force was no easy task, and if one
wasn’t careful they’d lose themselves in the process. This had been underscored
many times by the Archons and even Larry’s superiors. He hadn’t understood
initially, but now saw the wisdom in their warnings.

He had to stay Star Force in order to bring the
Lacvamat into it. It wasn’t a trade off or merger, they had to come fully in
with Larry not budging an inch. That was the only way they would truly become
part of the empire, and it was the only way to keep the Administrators and
other personnel on planet from being corrupted, for like it or not, those you
spent time with had an effect on you, and the weaker minds would often begin to
emulate their environment.

Larry’s mind wasn’t weak, but he also wasn’t an
Archon. That said, a little recharge like today was enough to keep him on track
and come tomorrow morning he’d be ready to go at it again and bring the
Lacvamat one more baby step closer to truly being a part of Star Force.

2

April 28, 2652

Sului
System (Beta
Region)

Favrrcor

Gam’len’wex ran through the small stream, kicking up
water as the Scionate bounded across in only eight footfalls, with the latter
two sinking into the mud on the bank and slowing him as he ran up the short
incline and back onto the trail he was following. The quadruped wore no armor
nor shoes, clothed only in a thin torso vest that had holes for his neck, legs,
and tail…the Scionate equivalent of a body suit.

Behind him others followed, staggered a few seconds
apart, with two on ahead of Gam’len’wex as the group crossed through the still
wild regions of the planet that Star Force was rebuilding for them. They owed
the great empire a debt they felt they could never repay, and had been working
hard the past 6 years to prove their worth after hearing the stories of how
their forbearers had so dishonored themselves.

Gam’len’wex had not been born at that time, but he’d
learned from others what had truly transpired. The records Star Force had
available to the maturias were incomplete, and it wasn’t until Gam’len’wex had
graduated and met others who had lived through that era that he’d learned the
truth.

The Scionate had never been a united people, with
constant dissention and battling amongst themselves over various matters. When
the war to fight the attack by the Lacvamat began they were united in the
obvious sentiment to defend themselves, but how they did so and the subsequent
counterattacks they made were not universally supported. By the end of the war
those frustrated and ignored Scionate that had argued for a saner course of
action had an opportunity presented to them when Star Force and the other major
powers punished the Scionate for their actions by taking a number of systems
from them.

The fools had fought back, which cost them further,
reducing the
Scionate’s
holdings down to only two
systems, each of which had a Star Force presence in it acting like a leash to
monitor the behavior of the dishonorable. The Lacvamat had lost all of their
systems due to their actions, but given that the Scionate acted mostly in
self-defense their autonomy was not stripped from them. They did, however, have
to relocate their populations from the confiscated worlds into those they
retained, with anyone staying behind falling under Star Force jurisdiction.

Many of the original bloodlines that did not need to
evacuate because they were based in the capitol system sought out Star Force
and asked to arrange a deal in which they would be allowed to come over to the
Star Force worlds regardless of how many Scionate decided to stay behind, for
they were sick of the way Scionate society operated and felt that, in addition
to a form of penance for the bad decisions their kin had made, their sense of
honor could be better satisfied as part of the Humans’ empire.

Ironically those bloodlines were one of the first
things to be disbanded by the Star Force conversion, with Gam’len’wex having
been born to parents that were unknown to him. He’d been raised in a maturia
and had no idea what former bloodline he belonged to, nor did he care, for the
new Scionate, the Star Force Scionate, did not think in such terms. They were a
united people who, regardless of whether they were new born or converted, were
committed to growing their small race into a military force capable of
assisting the rest of Star Force and earning their keep.

Gam’len’wex had also learned that the conversion of
the originals did not go smoothly, for Star Force had to break them of many bad
habits…but they had been willing to try, and that willingness had set them
apart from other races, they’d been told, with the Scionate taking to the Star
Force ways far more quickly than others once they got past the first few
transitional bumps. They were adapting so rapidly, it was said that they were
being fast tracked towards higher status within the empire, even more so than
the Scionate within Axius.

Therein lie part of their success, he was told, for
Scionate maturia already existed within Axius and did not have to be
constructed from scratch. The same was true of military equipment designed for
the Scionate, though they’d taken it up a notch as they designed modifications
along with the Star Force Archons and techs. Right now there were 3 large
Scionate units dispatched to field work, with a fourth being formed that
Gam’len’wex hoped to join.

Two of those units were holding defensive positions on
the border, freeing up other more veteran Star Force troops to move into actual
combat theatres, though if attacked the Scionate would have more than enough
action to sate them. They were not safe by any means, but they were holding
guard over valuable sites and facilities, something that Star Force hadn’t been
willing to trust to others. There were many races within Star Force that had
military capability, but most were not permitted placements on the front, even
those that had been in the empire for several hundred years.

That made the defensive placements quite an honor,
especially for a race so new to Star Force, but there was one unit, their most
elite, that was operating beyond the borders of the ADZ and assisting Star
Force in taking worlds from the lizards. That fascinated Gam’len’wex more than
anything, and he desperately hoped that in time he would be able to join that
unit or another, which was why he and the others were working so hard in the
advanced training group that was blessed with an Archon as trainer.

And his workouts did not disappoint, which heavily
focused on running…the one major advantage the Scionate had over the Humans,
for they were far faster than most of them. That was a basic fundamental of
quadruped motion, at least those with flexible joints. Even the small quadruped
races were faster than their bipedal counterparts, on average, and the Archon
wanted the ‘full sized’ Scionate to
amp
up their
speed as much as possible so they could be a new asset for Star Force to
utilize rather than just a redundant replication of other races’ capabilities.

That was why Gam’len’wex and the others were running
without armor, for this training exercise was all about speed and endurance
sustained over rough, unpredictable terrain. The trail was one he’d ran before,
but it was so long that there was no way he was going to be able to memorize it
after only a few runs, leaving nearly every twist and turn as a surprise, not
to mention changes in the forest that occurred naturally.

They were covering ground quickly, with his legs
already burning after just 20 kilometers. That was due to their pace and the
climbing they were forced to do. The trail took them up and over every little
hill there was to be found, almost as if it had been cut out in such a way to
maximize difficulty, but that hadn’t been the case. Rather it was a run from
one training base to another, with the lay of the geography running
perpendicular to the path, resulting in the up and down rollercoaster of a
trail run that Gam’len’wex found incredibly challenging.

But then again what wasn’t here? He’d been told
specifically that this group was designed to give the worthy few a short cut to
combat assignments, and that they’d have to endure a lot of stress in order to
prove their readiness whereas the normal progression path would be more
gradual, taking decades at minimum, with many Humans taking more than 100 years
before they got posted to the front.

There was a need for more troops, as many as they could
get, but Star Force wasn’t going to let anyone go who would be a liability,
forcing individuals and races to prove themselves time and again before they
would be trusted not to get themselves killed and give the enemy an opportunity
to poke its way into the ADZ. The fact that the Archons were even giving the
Scionate this opportunity for a fast track was a great honor, and Gam’len’wex had
quickly realized that great honor came with great responsibility within Star
Force, and this training group did not disappoint.

More than half of the original group that was here
when Gam’len’wex arrived had washed out, by their own choice, for they couldn’t
handle the intensity. None of them had quit, but rather went back to the
standard training programs and the ‘slow’ track. Those that remained were
supplemented with new recruits every now and then, but those weren’t put with
Gam’len’wex on his workouts. Those few Scionate with him now were half of the
most experienced ones, but even they were still several years away from the
benchmarks set down by the Archon.

Those called for running skills far beyond what
Gam’len’wex had now, and what blew his mind was that those numbers came from
the fastest of the Archons. The Scionate had to prove they were faster, amongst
other things, and there was no way he could ever see a biped moving as fast as
he was now, let alone faster.

Their Archon was fast enough, and had come with them
on some of their early runs when they were still slow, after which he’d teased
them about getting beat by a biped. That had aggravated Gam’len’wex more than
the others and he’d worked a little bit harder in response, but even today
there were still Humans out there faster than him, though not on this planet.

The Archon was monitoring their progress from afar, with
a tiny ear clip on each of the Scionate that doubled as an emergency
comm
device. It tracked their location for they were moving
across terrain where there was still hazardous wildlife and all types of
potential dangers from rocks and trees and who knew what else. This wasn’t a
typical training session in a controlled environment, this was a cross country
run, literally, so there needed to be some type of backup in case something bad
happened.

But that was just typical Star Force procedure,
looking out for the odd ball situation. Right now the only threat to the
Scionate was the physical fatigue they were suffering from as they came up to
their next check point.

It was little more than a tracking archway, but when
Gam’len’wex came up to it he saw the colored energy shield that he was meant to
run through shining a pale green almost to the point of being clear. That meant
he was just ahead of schedule, for the darker the green the bigger the lead he
had. If it shifted over to yellow then he would have been slightly behind pace,
with red indicating that he was slower than the minimum requirement, which
would end in a challenge fail if he didn’t speed up.

Pale green was a relief, for he wasn’t sure how much
he’d slowed over the past kilometer. He could judge his pace off the others,
but if the leader was slow then the rest would be and he hadn’t felt like
they’d been dragging him along as fast as they should. Tired as he was, he
realized he’d been doing better than he’d thought.

Just on the other side of the archway he saw
Hef’met’ka
standing beside the trail taking a breather. It
wouldn’t last long, for his turn keeping pace was over and now Gam’len’wex was
second in line.
Hef’met’ka
would wait to fall into
last position and just try to stay with the group while the new leader set and
tried to maintain the desired pace, allowing others to just focus on the moment
and the sound of the footfalls ahead of them.

It made a difference, not having to worry about how
fast you were going and just keeping with the guy ahead of you, but one more
kilometer up the trail and it would be
Gam’len’wex’s
turn to lead, and then he would have to worry, for there was no way to measure
speed other than by feel, and with the terrain being so erratic you had to make
constant adjustments, keeping the long, boring run anything but.

The Scionate never had the ability to just settle in
and relax, with the trail forcing them to be agile and evasive nonstop as they
made their way across the countryside, passing from one checkpoint to another
until they finally reached their destination and the forest ended, giving them
a sprint across level ground to the final archway set inside the training base.

All the Scionate grouped up within a few seconds and
hammered the last bit three wide, getting up to the final marker that was
showing yellow. Their time didn’t record until the last of them made it across,
but when he did the final result was tolerable and did count for points, though
they were only 22 seconds away from failure.

Gam’len’wex sagged heavily, wanting to lay down but
knowing he shouldn’t or he’d get an earful from one of the non-Archon trainers
who were waiting for them. His perseverance was rewarded with a light tap on
his right shoulder by one of the tall Humans, a small sign of respect as the muddy,
water-drenched cats walked their way indoors and to the equipment room where
they showered and got dressed in a fresh set of clothes, including the small
shoes that felt very good on his now raw foot pads.

But there was no time to rest, or at least sleep, for
after a quick stop by the cafeteria Gam’len’wex was sent into a study session,
allowing his body to rest while his mind had to soak up yet more data regarding
Star Force protocol and tactics, with today’s lesson covering aerial tactics.
The Scionate fought off the sleepiness and devoured everything they showed him,
knowing he needed to know how each part of the empire’s military forces worked
for when/if he would end up fighting alongside them in combat.

After an hour of rest/study he was sent to do some
light agility drills then sparring practice, first against the Humans then
against other Scionate on loan from Axius. The Humans were tricky, but he did
have some advantages he could use and managed to get the best of them a few
times, but the Axius Scionate he literally couldn’t touch. They were so fast
and experienced that they owned him each attempt unless they deliberately held
back to teach him something, which they did most of the time.