Star Force: Liberation (SF56) (8 page)

“Crawl,” she ordered, with the tiny Bsidd, scared out
of its mind, rushing into the light and getting free.

It took Larissa a moment to extract herself without
getting pinned, then she went to work directing another walker in pulling a few
large sections off another area. There they recovered a
very
mangled corpse of a gamma along with another that had three appendages smashed
and pinned underneath the rock. They got those chunks removed and rushed it
off, leaving Larissa and the other green miners to pull out the rest.

After they finished more than an hour later Larissa
pulled the vid records from the walkers and saw what had happened, taking the
visuals over to the miner in a nearby med bay as he was getting his broken arm
attended to.

“Not your fault,” she said, showing him the recording.
The mining walker was drilling into a wall segment near the shield pylon, then
for no apparent reason the machine veered left and dove straight into it,
tearing it apart and releasing the loose material above.

“I don’t understand why it did that,” the miner said,
with the guilt weighing heavily on him, for these Bsidd were under his guidance
and care.

“Look closer,” she said, tapping a small section of
screen that showed a cockpit view. As it replayed again they both saw the Bsidd
twitch suddenly, knocking several controls askew.

“What am I seeing?”

“Something rare in the Bsidd, the equivalent of a
seizure.”

“What caused it?”

“Allergies. We’ve identified 2 compounds to date that
have about a .03% chance of causing a reaction. We we’ve kept both out of this
colony. I’m guessing we may have stumbled on a third. Sucks that we had to find
it this way, but there was no way of knowing ahead of time. Just the bad luck
monkey punching us hard in the head.”

“What compound?”

Larissa shook her head. “Don’t know yet, but finding
it is top on my to-do list. We’ll put a hold on all mining activity until we
find it.”

“Poor guy,” the miner said. “He probably feels
terrible right now.”

“I’m on my way there now. I’ll explain it to him.”

“Thank you. It’ll be better coming from you, but he’s
still
gonna
hate himself.”

“Heal fast. I’m going to need you as soon as I get
this figured out.”

“I’ll be good to go tomorrow.”

Larissa nodded and left, leaving the medtechs to
continue wrapping his arm up in healing bandages that stoked his cellular
regeneration. The bone wouldn’t fully heal in a day, but the head miner didn’t
need his arm to give commands and direct the others. While he preferred to do
the delicate work himself, he’d hold back until his arm fully healed but
wouldn’t take time off. The Bsidd had so much to learn that he couldn’t go
awol
. They desperately needed him
to get back to work as soon as the trailblazer got this allergy figured out.
Sitting around and waiting was contagious for the Bsidd, and with them being so
young they didn’t need any bad examples to follow.

8

November 2, 2589

Hatten
System (Occupied
Scionate Territory)

Orril

Paul’s command ship braked into orbit above the mixed
fleet of Lacvamat,
Gnar
,
Nammet
,
and
Hesquid
that held possession over the planet with
colonies of their own growing on its surface. The nearby planet of
Rewqt
held a similar grouping of Lacvamat-allied races with
the
Temassi
and
Brofat
added to the mix of squatters claiming bits of the world as their own. There
were also others picking over pieces of the system that the Scionate had not
inhabited like a pack of rats scurrying over an uncovered plate of food, trying
to get their hands on Star Force-free territory while it was up for grabs.

The same was happening elsewhere, in both Scionate and
Lacvamat territory, with the bold enough races circumventing Star Force’s
edicts and waging a war of conquest that was occurring simultaneously with a
colonization boom. Those colonies had also become priority targets in the ever
escalating civil war, with many of the planets under assault never having been
inhabited by either the Scionate or the Lacvamat, but being technically under
their possession.

Today that was going to change.

As the fully functional
Excalibur
dropped into mid orbit a slew of Protovic warships with
their telltale X-shaped silhouettes came in its wake, followed by an equally
large group of Hycre, including a pair of their rare
battleships,
that
were escorting an even larger number of Calavari transports. The
combined fleet pushed their way down into low orbit with the transports
beginning to enter the atmosphere as a previously recorded message was sent out
to the entire system, instructing the various races’ warships that they had
exactly 3 hours to either leave the system or enter low stellar orbit to await
a jumpship. Refusal to do so would mean the forcible confiscation of their
ships.

A similar edict was sent to the surface colonies,
instructing them that they were to being packing up and leaving and that the
Calavari were coming down to help them do it, starting on
Orril
and then moving on to every other bit of infrastructure in the system. With the
Calavari transports coming down into the atmosphere over several races’ colonies
there was a hesitation in response and even the raising of some defenses until
the Hycre ships began descending into the atmosphere along with them and
pumping a few warning shots into the erected defense shields.

It took some considerable intimation on the part of
the Big 3 but eventually the colonies on
Orril
reluctantly surrendered, seeing that they had no alternative. The ‘too busy to
intervene’ status quo was apparently over, and though there wasn’t a huge
amount of warships and transports arrayed against them, the tech and experience
advantage was far more than the combined Lacvamat-allied force could hold out
against if it actually came to a fight…plus the repercussions down the road if
they dared to face off with the big boys were too chilling to chance.

The slew of whining chatter and diplomatic outrage
that followed was not disappointing, but it didn’t matter in the least. The
Hycre, Protovic, and Star Force were unified in their course of action and were
sending a firm signal to the rest of those involved in the stupid war that it
was time to either run or get the hammer dropped on your head.

But they weren’t going to get off easy for complying
with the order to evacuate. Now that there were some available ships and troops
that weren’t devoted to defending the fronts it was time to start dealing with
inhouse
affairs and clean up the ADZ. The
Hatten
System was the first of what would eventually be
many systems reclaimed from the squatters, but it would not be returned to the
Scionate. Rather Star Force was going to take possession of the formerly
‘independent’ system and create a slew of new Alliance Worlds with the regions
going to races that had not been involved in the civil war.

That process would take years, with the Big 3 not
getting to the second system on their list for another 4. Meanwhile the civil
war continued at an increasing pace, not to colonize, which they’d more or less
given up on, but to strike at their rivals and kill as many of them as they
could. Some races sought to hold onto what they’d taken, even announcing they
were finished fighting and only taking on defensive roles, but it didn’t matter
to the Big 3. Slowly, system by system they reclaimed the worlds that had been
taken from both the Scionate and Lacvamat.

But Star Force didn’t stop there. For the races that
had thrown in and aided both sides there were stiff penalties, each tailored to
the actions of the individual races, many of which involved losing regions on
Alliance Worlds. Star Force took possession of their colonies, allowing all who
wished to evacuate to do so, with those populations that stayed behind becoming
Star Force wards and adding even more varied races to their growing empire. As
they’d done numerous times before, most notably on Earth, they restructured the
acquired colonies according to Star Force protocol, both in terms of
infrastructure and society.

When it eventually came time to deal with the Scionate
the Big 3 brought an overwhelming
warfleet
into their
territory and forced them to abandon all but three systems, each of which would
contain at least 1 Star Force or Alliance World, with them retaining their
freedom but not without being watched. The Scionate did not relent easily and
called the bluff, forcing a short lived conflict that involved the easy
disabling of their defensive fleet. For the resistance they put up and the few
Scionate lives that were lost in the brief fight, one of the three systems was
forfeited, reducing Scionate territory down to only 2.

Like the other races the denizens had a
choice…evacuate to the Scionate worlds or stay and live under Star Force rule.
With their pride running high most of the Scionate eventually chose to leave,
despite the overcrowding that was going to occur on their remaining worlds.
That said, a few of the dissentious bloodlines made a separate pact with Star
Force, evacuating all of their holdings and moving to what would be the new
Star Force Scionate worlds.

The only reason the other Scionate were allowed to
retain their independence was because they had been the defenders in the
conflict. For the Lacvamat the penalties were much harsher and also enforced by
Star Force, the Protovic, and the Hycre.

They lost all of their worlds and their independence.
It was a stretch for Star Force to assimilate them all, but the Protovic helped
out with transitional personnel and resources and the Hycre provided naval
oversight at all times to ensure there were no further dissentions after the
short war they had to fight to subdue the Lacvamat capitol. Both the Hycre and
Protovic knew how far Star Force was attempting to stretch to digest the
populations they were taking responsibility for, and they both helped cover up
that fact and assist where they could to prevent dissentions should people
realize how tenuous Star Force’s hold was.

Quietly the Protovic began taking on more and more
responsibility on the Skarron front as Star Force’s resources, while still
building up their fleet, were heavily devoted to the ADZ reorganization. Meanwhile
the Hycre kept a close watch on the growing war between the lizards and the
Skarrons as more and more systems became battlefields. The Skarrons had
eventually won out to claim the Nestafar capitol, but the lizards were winning
twice as many smaller systems with both races apparently being evenly matched.

Even as they battled the lizards probed the ADZ
constantly, with skirmishes and full blown battles occurring in the neutral
zone around Alpha, Zeta, and Delta Regions that Star Force maintained. The
Skarrons were less ambitious, preferring to maintain their holdings rather than
continually butt heads with the superior Voku when the bulk of their
reinforcements were heading towards the lizard front.

It was a tense first decade, with the Big 3 gambling
that they could pull off the ADZ seizure and maintain the front long enough for
Star Force to catch its breath, but as the years passed thereafter the
situational tension lessoned and Star Force’s grip on their new holdings
increased. The new order had mixed reactions from the other races, some
supporting, others condemning, while most were happy that their rivals were now
out of the picture…but very unhappy that Star Force’s empire was continually
expanding along with their powerbase, with many vocally wondering how long it
would be before they were annexed as well.

When the Bsidd saw the actions the Big 3 were taking
they were highly alarmed, not only because they had not been including in the
decision making, but because it was being made crystal clear that all those
races within the ADZ were answerable to them. The original Alliance had been a
group of peers and their subjugates, now it was a restricted zone where
individual races no long had sovereignty to conduct their own affairs. The
races fighting each other had not attacked the Big 3, but none the less they
were punished for their actions. That and the revocation of their independence
was a clear sign that the Bsidd could no longer stay in the ADZ, with the
queens beginning to look for places to relocate.

Using the network of contacts within the ADZ and the
trade relations with those races outside it, the Bsidd began making inquiries
and studying communal star charts outside of Epsilon and Gamma Regions,
focusing on the areas opposite from the Cajdital threat and exerting their
technological superiority to create relationships with lesser races, ironically
offering up some of their tech as Star Force had suggested in exchange for
resources and concessions. In a process that took better than 20 years the
Bsidd eventually secured a planet in a two system race that needed a powerful
benefactor to help protect it from rivals in the area.

The handful of warships the Bsidd possessed were more
than sufficient for the task and the queens established a new colony there,
growing it and securing their foothold as they continued to increase their
population within the ADZ. Now with a distant second home they began funneling
more and more of their people out beyond Epsilon Region and Star Force’s reach.
They maintained their single region within the ADZ as a cover and didn’t make
their final pullout until they were firmly established on their new homeworld.

When the time came they made no announcements, nor
gave any forewarnings to their neighbors or business associates. One day they
were there and the next they were packed up in their ships and gone, leaving a
ghost town of structures behind that had been stripped of any sensitive tech.

Star Force knew where they had gone, giving that they
monitored most traffic in the ADZ, but their leaving had been a surprise…and a
blessing. They were one more thorn removed from the slowly settling ADZ
community, though it was far from stable. The threat of outright war between
rivals was now gone, squashed by the lesson the Scionate and Lacvamat had
taught the others, so they resorted to other means of conflict that were not so
obvious.

But the
spacelanes
were more
or less secure, and that gave the ADZ another false sense of security. The
ongoing war between the lizards and Skarrons was made public with reports going
out as to the various changes in ownership of the worlds that had once belonged
to
many of them, but a lot of the factions saw it as a
distant and unimportant backdrop to the inner workings of the ADZ. The Big 3
had proved they could keep the lizards and Skarrons beyond the fronts, leaving
the ‘important’ internal power struggle as the main social impetus that drove
events.

Star Force was seen as the ‘sheriff’ of the ADZ and
not a major player by most of the races that knew they would only come down on
you for violating terms of colonization, with many of them crafting their
silent wars around those terms so as not to invoke their wrath. Even with the
annexations that Star Force had made in the wake of the civil war they still
held a small minority of the overall ADZ population, both in terms of
individuals and worlds, so while they were a major overshadowing force, they
weren’t seen as ‘competition’ from most of the races.

The Hycre and Protovic were likewise disconnected,
with both having independent systems and their own empires to run. Neither were
interested in expanding their powerbase in the ADZ, for if they wanted they
could conquer systems on the fronts and expand their borders that way, which was
happening occasionally as the fighting to establish and maintain neutral zones
was ongoing. Some few ADZ races still had contacts outside the ‘safe’ zone with
worlds that hadn’t yet been targeted by either the Skarrons or lizards, but
most now kept to the interior and away from the fronts, consumed with the now
sheltered community that was growing by leaps and bounds.

That growth was being fueled in two parts, one being
the protection from invasion, whether external or internal, and the available
resource base that the Star Force markets offered. As the populations grew and
new Alliance regions were made available there was always a contest to gain
influence and power, with a big advantage going to those races who were savvy
businessmen, prolific industrialists, and had a high reproduction rate.

It also helped that Star Force usually had a place for
the races’ excess population to go, virtually eliminating the problem of
overpopulation because people would flee it through the transit grid before it
became overly problematic. That put the burden on Star Force to continue
expanding Axius and other branches of its empire and essentially giving the
various races a set of ‘training wheels’ and allowing their empires to grow
larger and stronger than they could have done on their own.