Star Force: Sav (SF51) (3 page)

“Actually I haven’t used it much, like maybe four or
five times, and nothing recently.”

“Might want to swing by and check it out. I’ve been
doing so a lot and its sobering. We’re not behind them anymore but we’re still
going to get our asses kicked if they come back and throw
even
a
low level elite at us.”

“So what are you working on to fix that?”

“No magic bullet,” Paul said, dismissing the idea of
an easy fix, “but some potential reworking of our structure going forward.
We’ve got the battlemeld and they don’t, but we’re not using it much.”

“We’re not?”

Paul inclined his head in a ‘really’ gesture. “How
much training have you done with it recently?”

“None, but I’ve been out in Lothlorien for the past 6
years.”

“My point exactly.
We’re
still going out on solo missions, and while we can train pretty well doing
that, working the battlemeld requires another…and one at or near our level.”

“You think we should start pairing up for assignments?
Kind of a logistical waste.”

“Won’t matter if we get our asses kicked by the
V’kit’no’sat.”

“Always that…” Bo said, starting to feel a similar
frustration.

“Jason and I have been discussing this for several
years now, and we’ve been running it by some of the others when we’ve had a
chance to meet face to face. Morgan doesn’t see the need, but she likes doing
the lone ranger thing anyway.”

“Big shock there.”

“Yeah, well, we’ve been training pretty hard here with
the battlemeld, especially in groups of 3 or more. Takes on an entirely
different dynamic, especially when we use it for more than coordination. Those
are our strengths that the V’kit’no’sat hopefully haven’t discovered yet. We
need to really go all in there and we haven’t been.”

Bo considered that. “With the second gen not sucking
as much as they used to, we could pull back a bit from our current duties and
let them handle them…the straightforward ones I mean. We’d still have to
troubleshoot.”

“I don’t want to go that far,” Paul cautioned. “The
ADZ isn’t exactly buttoned up yet, but if we start deploying to some of the
frontiers in pairs it will give us a training partner for the battlemeld.”

“Not to mention a decent sparring partner.”

“Exactly.”

Bo looked at him closely. “Does this have something to
do with the brats?”

Paul sighed. “They’ve averaged 1.9 over the past
decade.”

“Holy crap,” Bo said, noting that was a faster rate of
advancement than most of them had had at that point in their training. It might
even have been faster than Morgan, come to think of it. Any Archon that managed
1 level per year was moving along considerably fast, but to go up 19 levels in
10 years was really cooking, especially for an acolyte.

“Yeah, I know they’re not that good, but they do
everything together and there has got to be some unseen advantage to that, twin
link aside.”

“And you want us back together to try and see if we
get our old mojo back?”

Paul smiled. “Well put.”

Bo stood up. “I’m game. A good night’s sleep and a
little quality time with the regenerator tomorrow morning and I’ll be good to
go. I don’t know why, after all these years, but playing multiplayer Halo still
wears me out.”

“Show me,” Paul said, staring at his chest.

Bo rolled up his shirt and showed him the mark on his
chest.

“How close was that to hitting your heart?”

“2.3 inches.”

“Oh, well that’s nothing then,” Paul scoffed.
“Just a beauty mark.”

“Still, it’ll be nice when we can start building our
own regenerators. Healing patches just don’t get the job done.”

“I’ll be sure to kick Stark in the butt next time I
see him.”

“Do that,” Bo said, walking off.
“Night.”

“Night,” Paul offered, spying the video games that
everyone else had abandoned. He grabbed an ambrosia cookie and headed over to
the couch, intending to get a little Mario Kart action in before bed.

3

June 25, 2546

Achkor System
(Skarron territory)

Zenniza

Morgan ran through the tall grasses in the night,
heading for a position marked on her battlemap and arriving a few minutes after
ducking down and wrapping her dark blue armor up in an impromptu blanket as a
trio of Skarron fighters passed overhead. Once they were gone she got to the
virtual marker and dug around through the grass until she found the tiny Star
Force hatch buried underneath, through which she climbed after carefully
pulling the grass back over top like a small hut to keep it from being visible
from above.

A few meters down and Morgan found herself in a one
person-wide walkway that she’d dug out on previous missions to
Zenniza
with the help of some robotic drones. The tunnel
had been reinforced by compressed dirt bricks they created, likewise eating up
the excess soil so it wouldn’t have to be discarded aboveground. Morgan kept
her elbows tucked in so she didn’t hit the walls and jogged down the long
tunnel, crossing underneath the barren strips of land that surrounded the
Skarron city and into the substructure.

She came out in one of the Hobbit zones, with the
entry hatch hidden behind a large, heavy crate. Morgan scanned the area with
her Ikrid and Pefbar, having to wait nearly half an hour before it was clear,
then
she opened the hatch, pulling the door inward and
putting her shoulder to the crate. With her own strength being what it was it
wasn’t hard to dislodge and soon she had a half meter gap that she slid out the
side from, leaving her in a maintenance/storage area too small for the Skarrons
to enter. She pushed the crate back in place then moved off on her recruiting
mission.

This facility was part of the Hobbit habitation zone,
meaning the Engineers rarely came here unless something broke down. There were,
however, thousands of the squat infantry in the area and she had to be careful
to move around undetected…with which Ikrid helped out immensely. Using several
Jedi mind tricks she walked past a number of Hobbits without them hearing or
seeing her, or more accurately not noticing that they did, allowing her some
limited freedom of movement around what had become her prime recruitment zone.

From information given to her by the Hobbit turncoats
she knew the layout and the politics of the Aronsic community on the planet, as
well as how to find those who didn’t hold to the Skarrons’ authority over them.
Threat of death for insubordination only worked so much, and there were always
dissenters making
themselves
known through tiny acts
of defiance. It was those acts that Morgan was looking for, so she could dive
into the minds of those committing them and
check
as
to their suitability for evac.

One of those defiant activities was disappearing for a
few minutes or hours when they were supposed to be contained to their barracks
during downtime. They weren’t allowed to roam around, but some did manage to do
so by going through sections of the facility
that were
dark to surveillance. Morgan had gotten a map of those areas and the routes
used to access them long ago, but by now had the area layout down to memory,
allowing her to make decent speed over to one of the secret hideouts.

When she got nearby she scanned ahead, finding four
minds…that were in the process of mating. Deciding not to interrupt that she
moved to another area, then another, and finally a third of the local hotspots
until she found what she wanted…a group airing complaints while snacking on
stolen rations.

Morgan had also learned that the food supply was strictly
maintained, with no excess allowed. Hobbits often scavenged food from their
conquests to sate their hunger, and these three had apparently managed to rip
off one of the local food stores…and that definitely qualified as defiance.

Morgan didn’t just walk in on them and introduce
herself,
rather she linked to their minds and monitored
their thoughts. Eventually she steered them and the conversation in the
direction she wanted, with them finally admitting to each other that they
didn’t want to be here anymore and wanted a way out.

The level 6 Mage froze them in place before she
entered, crawling in through a vent that barely fit her armor and coming out
amongst the three statues. She sat down next to them and gradually released
their senses and heads, allowing them to turn and look at her but otherwise not
move.

“
Calm yourself
,”
she said in the Skarron language. “
I’m
here to take you away. The Free Aronsic
welcome
you,
”
she said as she extended her hand out and produced a tiny holographic emitter.
It activated and played a message from an Aronsic that had already joined Star
Force, addressing many Hobbit issues and complaints, with Morgan sensing the
speech hitting home despite the fear surging through the three of them.

It went on for several minutes, and by the end of it
she knew that one of them was going to go with her.
The other
two not so much.
At least not yet.

“
If you go you
must go now. I will lead you to my ship and take you off this planet. If you
wish to remain there will be some chances for you to go later, but I cannot
promise when or where. I must operate in secret, and I do not know how long it
will be before I am discovered. Have you heard of others disappearing?
”

“
A few have. We
thought they’d been killed
,” one of the skeptical ones said timidly, for
Morgan was still telekinetically holding his chest in place.

“
We don’t kill
your kind unless you attack us
,” the trailblazer explained, sensing his
concern. “
I know this is a lot to take in
all at once, but we’re not your enemy. The Skarrons are invading our territory
and we will fight them, but we have no quarrel with you until you attack us. If
you do so we’ll treat you as the enemy, but many of your kind now live with us,
free of the Skarrons. I know it is a great deal to ask, but if you are to come
with me it must be now.
”

Morgan released her hold on them while intently
watching their thoughts. They didn’t move, but were relieved to be free of her
magical hold none the less.

“
Come or stay,
your choice
,” she said, backing up into the vent and crawling out.

The three Hobbits didn’t say anything for a moment,
then
began conversing amongst themselves into what became an
argument. Eventually one of them followed her, but only one.

“
There are
really others out there…free?
”

“
Yes
,”
Morgan confirmed as she looked down on him from her taller height in the access
corridor on the other side of the vent.

“
Then I will go
.”

“
Good
,”
Morgan said, freezing him in place while she crawled back inside and moved into
the hideout where the other two were chatting rapidly. The vent was the only
way in and out, so before they ran off to tell others or sound an alarm they
had to let her leave first.

Morgan froze both of them as well and finished
crawling back inside, pulling her left gauntlet off and exposing her fingertips
to the air…then she planted them on one of their heads and concentrated, having
to keep all three frozen while she worked on the one, which wasn’t easy to do.

This wasn’t the first time she’d had to wipe memories
though, so she quickly found what she wanted to erase and blurred it out of
existence before switching over to do the other one. She pulled a double check
on both, holding their bodies and minds in a frozen state so they wouldn’t know
what was going on, then crawled back out and stood up next to the other Hobbit
in approximately the same position she was when she froze it.

“
Follow me
,”
she said after releasing it.

The Hobbit blinked a couple of times, momentarily
disoriented, but it did as told and Morgan walked off with it in tow, holding
the others in check until she got to the limits of her Ikrid range. When she
released them they didn’t remember her or that their fellow Hobbit had crawled
into the hideout with them. After an awkward moment of silence they looked at
each other and picked up on their previous conversation, never knowing that one
of them was missing or how they’d had a chance to go with him.

Morgan kept a close watch on the thoughts of the one
with her, wandering if he was going to back out but to his credit he didn’t waver.
The recorded message from the other Aronsic had done the trick, and he stuck
very close to her dark blue armor the entire way through the facility, not
understanding just how they were sneaking past others that should have seen
them.

When they got back to the hidden tunnel Morgan pulled
the crate aside and pointed the Hobbit to go in. He hesitated a moment,
preferring to follow the Human.

“
I’ll be right
behind you
,” she promised, giving him a little telepathic nudge.

The Hobbit
trodded
up into
the gap and slid inside, with Morgan wedging herself behind the crate then
pulling it back as much as she could with her hands…but that still left a
noticeable gap. Concentrating hard she telekinetically grabbed it and pulled,
wiggling the heavy mass into place flush against the wall, but taking nearly a
full minute to do it, thanks to the amount of weight she was
having
to tug around.

Once it was back and in place and the chances of
someone discovering it back to nearly nothing she nudged the Hobbit on and took
him out through the tunnel, eventually coming up into the grasses just before
dawn. The night was still pitch black save for the star light, but there were a
handful of fighters on patrol that they had to be careful about.
 
Morgan led him through the grasses, following
the waypoints on the battlemap with the Hobbit not having a clue as to where
they were going. There was no path or trail to follow, so he just stayed on her
heals, fearing for his life if they were caught but desperately wanting to be
free of the Skarrons.

Morgan couldn’t move very fast with him, just like the
others she’d rescued countless times before, so she set a slow and steady pace
and reached their destination well into the morning, arriving at the
camouflaged infiltrator and bringing the Hobbit onboard, exhausted and hungry
but still able to stay on his feet.

As soon as he got inside he realized he wasn’t the
only one she’d pulled out, for there were four more Aronsic already there,
three of which were wearing their normal uniforms but one that was wearing what
he guessed was Human clothing.

Morgan let her assistant take over and headed out
again, running back to the tunnel entrance and recruiting another 6 Hobbits
over the following day before finally pulling out of their concealed niche and
stealthily heading back to orbit. The pilot she had with her got them out
through a hole in the orbital grid, bypassing the ships in orbit and on an
outbound vector to a jumpline that would take them past several planets in the
system to where her warship hid in waiting.

But before they got to that seldom-used jumpline a
wave of Skarron ships began jumping in on the stellar entry line. It was a
convoy, containing warships and transports, but it didn’t end for more than
half an hour. Thousands upon thousands of ships were coming into orbit, and by
the time the infiltrator reached its jumppoint they were still coming in, with
a sinking feeling manifesting in Morgan’s gut.

“This is…not usual?” the pilot asked in the cockpit as
Morgan was seated beside him and the Hobbits were off in the back out of
earshot.

“No,” she said, her armor now off and stowed in back.
The Mage crossed her arms over her chest as she continued to watch the waves of
ships coming in. “We didn’t expect the lull in attacks to last forever. It
looks like they’re finally gearing up for round 2.”

The pilot shook his head. “With as bad as the Nestafar
are getting hammered, how in the world do they have enough ships to hit us
simultaneously?”

“Their empire is huge, and there’s no telling what
their force dispersion and priorities are. We’ve got the Sentinels in place,
and they know they can’t take them out easily. They needed more ships to even
have a shot at it, and it looks like they’re rising to the challenge.”

“How long do you think we’ve got?”

Morgan shook her head. “I don’t know. This is their
forward operating base, but not the closest position. They may reinforce the
skirmishes going on first, or come straight for us or the Protovic…or maybe
even the Dvapp. There’s no way of telling without reconnaissance.”

“Stay and watch or make the jump now?” he asked.

“Stay a few minutes longer. I’m curious to how many
they’re bringing in…at the moment.”

“How many do they need?” he asked, watching the
computer tally the incoming numbers as it monitored on passive scans that were
picking up the Skarrons’ own reflected signals and beacons.

“A lot,” she said dismissively. “Depends on how they
plan to use them.”

“How many before we’re really in trouble?”

Morgan shook her head, but didn’t answer. Both Humans
watched and waited for more than 20 minutes, but the streams continued to come
in and the fleets formed up into groups that spread out around orbit…including
some that were coming in their direction. They didn’t appear to have noticed
them yet, but get close enough and their sensors would pick them up, stealth
ship or not.
Zenniza
orbit was getting cluttered,
which was going to make it difficult, if not impossible to head back down to
the surface to go hunting for more Hobbits.