Star Force: Ghostblade (SF67) (6 page)

“We have an opportunity now that we’ve never had
before, in that we have numbers. From general population all the way up to
Archons which are creeping near that million mark, and virtually all of them
have survived to this day. We’re gaining depth, but we’re not tooled for it. We
need to make adjustments, and we need to establish a top tier to Star Force in
all departments that you guys can play in with peers, more or less. The Clans
should become the sanctums of Star Force.”

“Oh, I’m liking this already,” Greg said, theatrically
rubbing his hands together.

“Good, then I’ll pause there,” Davis said, hopping
down off the edge and walking up the aisle towards the rear entrance. “Discuss
amongst yourselves for the next half hour, then I’ll be back to continue this
conversation…with donuts.”

The trailblazers watched him go without saying a word,
then when the door closed Jason glanced around at the others, seeing they were
thinking the same thing.

“Damn, he really has gone Archon.”

6

“Ok, Christmas lists people,” Davis said as he
finished off a donut as he sat on the edge of the stage again, this time next
to a stack of mostly empty boxes. “Oni, let’s start with you since you’ve
already got a head start on everyone else.”

“Our construction crews are good, but not good enough,”
she said immediately. “The lizards still build faster than we do, and that’s
become painfully obvious for my Clan. The Voku also build faster. I’ve looked
into some ways to make improvements but haven’t come up with anything big
enough to close that gap.”

Davis crossed his arms over his chest again. “To my
knowledge, they build round the clock with excessive manpower on well
prescribed tasks that are utilized everywhere. No customization, just
replicative redundancy.”

“They do, but when I’ve tried to have my crews do the
same thing we still don’t fully catch up. We’re building better infrastructure,
but that shouldn’t matter. We have better tools than them, yet we’re still
lagging behind.”

“We don’t have much
intel
on
their building process because we haven’t stuck around anywhere long enough to
monitor it,” Paul pointed out. “I’ve been through their internal procedures
that we captured previously, and there’s nothing there we haven’t already
explored and done better. What they’re doing current day to increase
productivity I can’t put my finger on either.”

“I can,” Randy said, tossing a crumpled wrapper at Paul’s
head. “The Clans use Human workers. Lizards are better.”

“They shouldn’t be,” Paul said, telekinetically
catching it and compressing it down into a tiny dot that he tossed off into one
of the open boxes.

“They’ve been genetically engineered for specific
tasks, Humans have not. Their standard variants aren’t designed as soldiers,
they’re designed to be workers. Toting guns around and firing them isn’t much
of a stretch, and the way they fight should tell you everything you need to
know.”

Roger raised an eyebrow. “Kiritas?”

“Bingo,” Randy confirmed. “They outwork our Human
techs by a mile because they’re good at completing one task and seamlessly
moving into another with nearly unlimited repetitions. When you’re doing the
same things over and over again you don’t have to troubleshoot, just get the
work done reliably and fast. Our techs are trained to be quick but cautious,
and our cities aren’t carbon copies of one another. We can build fast if we
want to, but the races that are naturally more industrious are going to have an
advantage.”

“They’re also using cheats,” Devan said. “They’re not
building their big structures that quick, they’re basically constructing
transitional infrastructure first to get their colonies established. If we took
the same approach I don’t think they’d have an advantage. We build ours to
last, they build theirs to function and function quickly to spur their snowball
effect.”

“Do you want the Clans to remain all
Human
?” Taryn asked Davis.

“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “Some of you have a
handful of non-Humans in your ranks already. Care to comment?”

“It’s not any different than the
Mainline
troops,” Rex answered. “They met Human standards so we let them in. No reason
not to.”

“Most of Star Force is now not
Human
,”
Morgan pointed out. “Granted, we have psionics and they don’t, but if you’re
wanting the Clans to be the upper tier we’ve got to have one for them as well,
otherwise we’re cutting the legs out of our own plans.”

“If the ultimate focus of the Clans is to be on the
V’kit’no’sat,” Jason added, “then we need to keep it all Human. Zen’zat are
what we’ll be fighting against, and we have to be used to engaging on that
level. I hate to say it, but every other race in Star Force will have their
asses handed to them if they go up against Zen’zat. If we’re serious about
building into anti-Vik, we have to stay separate.”

“The size of the Calavari and Bsidd are lost against
the
V’kit’no’sat’s
larger massed races,” Paul added.
“We can theoretically survive because of our nimbleness. If we went Bsidd
against even one Hjar’at they’d be slaughtered.”

“For now,” Larissa countered. “I think I can find ways
to get a few of them up to speed while negating the disadvantages. But you’re
also thinking just infantry. I don’t see any downside to mechwarriors so long
as they have the skill.”

“It’s all about the requirements,” Greg said, cutting
to the heart of the issue. “What makes a person Clan-eligible or not. And I
suggest we each write our own, taking what races we want, in what circumstances
we want. For the bulk of the races, and even the other Humans, there has to be
another tier just below the Clans for them to excel in. Actually, I think there
needs to be multiple tiers, which I think Davis was hinting at earlier.”

“Yes I was. I’m just not sure how to structure them.”

“Start at the bottom. What do you want the civilian
party zone to look like?”

“Preferably under 20% of the population, though I’m
not sure how doable that is, nor how soon it could be accomplished.”

“Hold up,” Tyr said, raising a hand to add emphasis.
“Are we going with Archon rules here? If you go soft you lose your placement,
or are these tier advancements permanent?”

“I want there to be considerable lag with a person
losing what they’ve obtained, but there has to be an active component. If
someone really quits trying they’ll eventually land back in the bottom tier.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Taryn interjected, “but
that’s not how you currently have the system structured, as far as quarter
allotments and stipends are concerned.”

“I know. I’m going to have to rework it. Within the
lower tier there will be some things kept for keeps after they earn them, but
those things won’t transition them up to the next tier. In fact, let’s just say
all advancement within the bottom tier…which we’ll just start calling the
‘civilian’ tier, will be permanent. The aspects that will allow a person to
advance to a higher tier will run parallel with them and be perishable, say
after a decade. That won’t put pressure on individuals who have setbacks, but it
will clear out the stagnant and not allow them to poison the water, so to
speak.”

“I’d suggest making the second tier a light tier,”
Liam said, thinking ahead. “Will these be in the same colonies or separate?”

“There has to be separation in order to make these
tiers distinctive. Not so much as in different planets, but the communal areas
have to be located in such a way that transit isn’t banned for the civilian
tier, but the most convenient places to eat and shop are separate.”

“How light?” Paul asked Liam.

“Those who are working for Star Force, even in a small
application, so long as it’s current.”

“Not enough,” Greg differed. “Everyone should start in
the civilian tier when they come out of the maturia, then have to work their
way up. We don’t want it to actually become a collection bin for only the
stagnant.”

“Greg is right,” Davis agreed, “but the Star Force
work angle needs to be present. Say 5 years in a minimal position gets the bump
up, faster if they land a higher caliber slot. Individuals will also be able to
buy their way in with credits, giving the business class access. That will mean
a disproportionate part of the people with credits to spend will be living in
the second tier, so let’s just call it the ‘economic’ tier. This pair will make
up the non-Star Force population, with the third tier reserved exclusively for experienced
in-house personnel.”

“Are these tiers going to extend to the other races?”
Megan asked.

“I’d suggest,” Sam said before Davis could answer,
“that all races and Axius operate with the same, but separate civilian tier.
Allow transfers in the economic tier, but keep all maturias with their
respective races then allow individuals to move where they like. If a Calavari
wants to live in a
Mainline
colony so be it, and if a
Bsidd wants to live with the Calavari, same thing. Most people will stay where
they began, but it will also reinforce that we’re all Star Force and that merit
is what matters, not origin point or race.”

“Transfers from colony to colony or between factions?”
Davis asked.

“Factions. If someone is born in Axius, they stay in
Axius unless they advance to the economic tier, but they can always request
relocation to another Axius colony or planet.”

“That won’t work for all races,” Jason warned. “We’re
still going to have size issues, let alone atmosphere. There are going to have
to be some blocks that can’t be breached. I don’t think an Irondel would be
safe living in a Bsidd colony.”

“Easy fix,” Randy offered. “Make tier 2 moveable
between the racial faction and Axius only. Tier 3 will have access to other
factions given that it will be work related. That way you don’t have to put any
blocks in place, because we’re not going to assign personnel to inappropriate
locations.”

“I like that,” Davis said with a nod of respect.

“Back to the Christmas list,” Mark-084 brought up.
“I’d like to see Mainline integrated with difference races where beneficial.
Calavari operating as pseudo-Knights works well enough that we should explore
implementing it regularly.”

“You tell me,” Davis said, deferring to the
trailblazers’ military expertise.

“We need both,” Paul said flatly. “Integrated units
where advantageous, not like Axius that uses a combined force out of need of
numbers.”

“That begs the question who pairs best with each
other,” Greg said, hinting at something more.

“Damn, you’re right.”

“What?” Davis asked, not picking up on the cues.

“There might be combos that don’t even involve
Humans,” Jason answered. “Aside from Archons.”

“That brings us back to the question of whether or not
Mainline is being geared towards fighting the V’kit’no’sat or others?” Taryn
reminded them. “If we’re invaded, do we use them? If we’re invaded, will the
V’kit’no’sat ignore them and only come after us? Or will they hunt down and
destroy all of Star Force?”

“If we lose,” Greg added.

“If
it’s
tomorrow, we lose,”
Taryn quipped. “I know we’ve all thought about this, but I’ve never heard a
strategy talked about. If we fully integrate then we’re pulling the others
directly into that fight, and without Ikrid blocks they’re sitting ducks for a
slaughter. Against the lizards it’ll work. Against the V’kit’no’sat it won’t.”

“What’s their mental range,” Davis asked, “in naval
engagements?”

“He’s got a point,” Liam said. “So long as they’re not
sitting on our jumpships’ hulls they’re not going to be able to use that
disadvantage against our naval crews, it’s the other four divisions of the
military. And since we’re not using Ikrid between ships, we can even conceal
the jumpships inside Ikrid blocking hull plates. We know that a fight with them
is going to be virtually all naval unless we lose, at which point having
non-Humans in a ground fight will be a slaughter.”

“And if we build a Calavari an Ikrid blocking helmet
like Magneto?” Ace wondered.

“The Dsevmat have psionic capability,” Roger pointed
out, “and there are probably other races out there. Are we going to hold back
all but our Human troops if we ever have to fight them?”

Ace nodded. “We have to upgrade them, through
equipment if not genetically. Or at least be able to if a sufficient threat
emerges. Right now it’s lizards, lizards, and more lizards. We need to use our
strengths to whack them down as fast as possible…while also building towards
greater threats. I think we need parts of Star Force working on everything so we
have options and flexibility if an unknown hits us.”

“Agreed,” Paul said, thinking ahead already to what
Clan Saber was about to become. “We need to maintain separate armies for each
race, where applicable. The Lacvamat aren’t going to be building aquatics and
the Elarioni aren’t going to be fielding commandos, but the races that can
field all 5 divisions need to do so and have independent units. We can, the
Calavari and Bsidd can, Scionate maybe.”

“No, their swimming skills suck horribly,” Lens
pointed out.

“I’m sure the Elarioni would say the same about us,”
Megan countered.

“We can debate that later,” Paul said, waving off that
discussion. “We may even want to elevate some of the wards that are physically
capable of all 5, but that’s not the point now. We need that redundancy so each
faction can operate independently of the rest of Star Force if disaster were to
befall part of it, like say Earth and all the Human colonies were wiped out.
That’s why we have separate economies, and the same should remain true for the
military, Archons aside. That said, I think we need another level of military
that integrates advantageous configurations.”

“We should expand Mainline,” Liam suggested. “Keep
some units Human only, then add additional ones with whatever combinations we
find useful.”

“That won’t be enough,” Steve differed. “There are far
more Bsidd troops now than Humans. Mainline is and always will be Human-led,
but we’re going to need combo units with few Humans involved, maybe even just
Archons only. Calavari pilots coupled with Bsidd/Scionate infantry teams is
just one example I can easily come up with. The key here is that this new
faction wouldn’t be tied to any territory. Mainline has held the responsibility
of going everywhere and doing everything for centuries, with the other races
helping out when and where they could. That’s not the case anymore, so I think
we do need a new format going forward.”

“On par with Mainline or above it?”

“I’d say on par, so far as
newbs
being able to join from the get go.”