Star Force: Evacuation (SF50) (6 page)

“If we are going to go to the effort necessary to pull
your people out, it’s not going to be so you can sit in the ADZ and watch the
rest of us fight. You will have to become invested in the defense as well…and
not just in an advisory role.”

“Agreed.”

“What are your combat capabilities?”

“Nothing that would be of use to you on land, but our
ships
are
superior to yours. Given time to build more
we will be able to defend any world you give us.”

“We’re not giving you a
world,
we’re offering to share one.”

“I misspoke. I apologize. I only mean to say that we
will not be a burden in the long term. What aid you give us now we will repay
down the road once we are free to build and grow.”

“By that do you mean other worlds?”

“Possibly, but I meant being free to build without
having an enemy sharing the same worlds. The Nestafar have restricted our
growth, though they also helped to hide our existence. We do not wish to make a
visible impact on galactic events, for it could draw our pursuers to us, but at
the moment we face a more imminent concern. We must step into the light whether
we wish to do so or not. I must ask, for Ariel mentioned it, that you too are
hunted by the V’kit’no’sat?”

“They do not know we exist, but if they did they would
hunt
us to extinction. Of that I have no doubts.”

“Yet you operate freely and obviously. Is that not
welcoming your enemy to you?”

“I hope not,” Paul said honestly. “But if we’re going
to have any chance of standing up to them in the long run we have to build and
grow now. It’s a bad situation all the way around, but if we’re going to die
we’d rather die trying than waiting and hiding.”

“Waiting and hiding have served the Elarioni well. We
are uncomfortable with what we must do, but we have no choice. I would ask that
our contributions to the Alliance be allowed to occur in less obvious
pursuits.”

“So long as that doesn’t mean you’ll shy away from a
fight, I think something can be worked out. In fact, I already have something
in mind.”

“And that is?”

Paul smiled beneath his breath mask, but the Elarioni
couldn’t see the gesture. “What is most obvious to outsiders is your
technology. They recognize ship hulls first off, so the answer is simple…don’t
use your own. Use ours instead.”

“Yours are inferior.”

Paul raised an eyebrow. “I’m not so sure about that.
But even if I grant you your point, keep your current technology for defense of
your new home, but use ours when battling elsewhere in and around the ADZ.”

“I hardly think you have ships to give away so
freely…or do you mean to teach us how to make yours?”

“Actually, I was thinking of a third option…some of
your people joining Star Force.”

6

May 27, 2537

Solar System

Inner Zone
(Warship Adamant)

Paul threw a handful of tiny thuds at Riona,
telekinetically guiding them into hovering orbits around her in an erratic
pattern before launching one in at her leg. It hit just above her skin and
bounced off, with him catching it and returning it to the halo. He repeated the
process with one coming down at her head from above, but the Archon blocked it
high with a projected shield rather than a ‘skin’ one. Next
came
a simultaneous pair, one coming at her gut and the other at her back with her
deflecting the one in front but missing the other and getting a little tap on
her spine.

Paul shook his head.
“Pay attention
to your surroundings, youngling.”

Riona rolled her eyes. “I suppose I deserve that,” she
said, resetting her mental composure.

“Yes you do,
“ Paul
said,
sending in another towards her face that she reached up and swatted out of the
way with a shield-covered palm.

“Better…” he added, sending in two again, this time
from left and right.

Riona closed her eyes as she manifested dual shields
both a few inches away from her body and only a hand’s length wide. Both
circular barriers went up in time to block the hits, but the left one was
weaker than it should have been and crumpled on contact, letting the thud drop
motionless to the floor while the other bounced off as it should have.

“Tolerable,” Paul noted. “You need to think of both
shields as two parts of the same projection. You’re favoring one over the other
and that’s a bad habit to get into.”

“I know. Hit me again.”

Paul did as asked, working with her for another 15
minutes with little progress, but each failure and mistake she made was
something Riona could use to calibrate, thus the experience, while
disheartening, was for a purpose and she understood that. She also knew that
Paul knew, meaning there was no ego involved. He was pressing her to force her
into a situation where she could learn from mistakes and kept the pressure on
so that she would keep making mistakes and challenging her current limits.

That was the sort of thing a friendly Archon did, but
if you didn’t have the right understanding in place beforehand it could be
misconstrued as hazing, for Paul sought out any and all opportunities to
exploit her weaknesses and really grind in the failure. Fortunately the two had
gotten used to each other quite fast, helped in no small part by the battlemeld
sessions, though for this workout that would have been counterproductive.

When he’d finished pummeling her they switched up,
with her pelting him and watching how he responded. Riona didn’t hold back
either, throwing three and four at him at a time and Paul having to block them
with small shield projections only…no all-encompassing shield that she knew he
was capable of summoning up. Still, she couldn’t get any through until she
added a Fornax blast and caught him off guard, bouncing two off his taught
chest.

He looked over at her with a wry smile.
“Cheater.”

She was about to say something when the intercom
activated with a repetitive tone. Both Archons glanced at each other as Paul
walked over to the side and hit the comm. “Yes?”

“They’re here,” the Admiral said pithily.

“On my way,” Paul said, turning the comm off and
walking out of the training room and eventually the sanctum onboard the warship
with Riona at his side. The two eventually made their way up to the bridge as
the main holo was depicting the arrival of several dozen massive ships, each
far larger than the
Adamant
and
bullet shaped, much like the old school Star Force jumpships had been, save
these were shiny chrome in color and looked not to have a single protrusion,
bump, or dent on their hulls.

“How are we set?” Paul asked.

“All fleets are on standby.”

“Have they made contact yet?”

“No.”

“Do so, and route it to the nexus,” Paul said, heading
over that way. Riona followed him and stood a respectful two meters back to
stay out of the holocomm when it activated, showing a small version of a Voku
with its pointy head and thick, muscular arms. Its skin was pitch black and it
had but one eye, that one a deep green and wide set like a visor, for it
appeared to be made of crystal rather than flesh. Riona didn’t know if that was
a natural growth or a mechanical implant, but regardless it made the Voku look
intimidating…despite the fact that they were the size of Knights and larger.

“Greetings, Warlord Paul.”

“Morning, Cal-com. Glad to see you could make it.”

“I have no greater mission of importance at the time.”

“Which group are you personally traveling with?”

“That which proves the greatest challenge.”

Paul smiled.
“Same here.
Our
ships are a bit slower than yours, especially some of the transports we’ve had
to scrounge up. Do you wish to jump with us or ahead of us?”

“We will not attack until you are there, so there is
no need to travel separately. We will escort you to the divergence point.”

“How soon before your full fleet arrives?”

“Only moments more.”

“Our two largest ships will bracket the convoy. The
Ultrix
will
lead,
I will bring up the rear in the
Adamant
.
Work your ships into the formation wherever you like.”

The Voku bowed his head slightly.
“As
you wish.
Jump when you like, we will follow your lead without further
communications being necessary.”

“What is your full ship count?”

“There will be 37 conglomerates arriving. We will not
reform prior to the last segment of our journey.”

“Very well,” Paul said, seeing that 32 Voku ‘ships’
had arrived. “I’ll signal the fleet to get underway.”

“May fortune favor us on this endeavor,” Cal-com said
before cutting the transmission, with his holo being replaced by the sensor
feeds as they came back from their miniaturized form on the left.

“Friendly,” Riona commented.

“I’ve met him before and we have an understanding.
They don’t talk much, so don’t take that as a negative.”

“Big ass ships though.”

“Their version of a jumpship…except that there is no jumpship.”

“I’m interested in seeing that.”

“Apparently you’ll have to wait a couple months.”

“Bugger.”

“Yeah, it is pretty impressive.”

Riona raised an eyebrow as Paul handed out mental
orders to the fleet through the nexus. “You’ve seen them transform?”

“Nothing that large, but yeah, when we had our meet
and greet they showed off a bit.”

“And?”

“Worth waiting for…and stealing, if
I can work out a way to do it.”

“What’s the holdup?”

“Their combat philosophy doesn’t match ours exactly,
and they’ve tailored their tech to match it. Still, the adjustable nature of
the transformations is immensely useful. I just have to find a way to do it
without sacrificing the advantages we already have.”

“Lesser applications?”

“Probably.
It’s a back burner
project I dabble with from time to time. Don’t expect Optimus Prime to show up
any time soon.”

“You mean for a mech?”

Paul’s head came up slightly and he turned back to
look at Riona. “Damn girl, I hadn’t even thought of that.”

“I see that spark in your eye and I like it. I’m
calling dibs on naming privileges for whatever you come up with.”

“Deal,” Paul said with a smile as he turned back to
look at the
holos
…which was unnecessary since he was
already mentally linked in, but he did so just in time to see the
Ultrix
begin repositioning around the
star to get to their outgoing jumpline with a handful of warships and a host of
cargo ships following.

It took a long time to get all of them into position,
with the Voku ships slipping into the gaps as groups would make jumps out together,
spaced with at least 1 or 2 seconds between each ship so they didn’t ram each
other on exit or entry to the next system on the
decel
end of the jump. Larger gaps of 30 seconds or so existed between groups,
allowing for the spacelanes
to clear
out on arrival
and each progressive group tagged with emerging from the jump in progressively
higher orbits, laying out the fleet in a long carpet each time it hit a new
system.

Then they’d all have to reposition to the new jumpline
again, stagger up and make similar jumps. That was the nature of interstellar
convoy travel, and over the next pair of months they continued to do exactly
that, leaving the Core Region, then the ADZ altogether and passing through what
had once been Calavari territory and was now partially Nestafar and partially
unclaimed wasteland.

When they got to a predetermined system within
Nestafar space but uninhabited by them, the Star Force/Voku armada split up
into 8 attack groups, each traveling to a system with Elarioni in it with the
intent on hitting them simultaneously so both their enemies wouldn’t have any
forewarning that they were coming. Paul, Riona, and the
Adamant
headed towards the most populous Nestafar world and the one
that should prove to be the hardest to get the evacuees out of. It was called
Vionsed and was part of a three planet Nestafar civilization, meaning they
would have to contend with the system defense fleet in addition to whatever
surprises they had in store around that particular world.

They weren’t going in completely blind though, given
the information the Elarioni had provided. What they didn’t know was that the
Skarrons had already invaded Vionsed. One other world in the system had already
been battling the Skarrons on the ground, but when the
Adamant
arrived a few minutes behind the leading warships Paul saw
their sensor data on the battlemap and the
Skarron
units already in play on the ground.

Not to mention a huge Nestafar fleet in orbit, with
Skarron ships elsewhere in the system, though primarily holding onto turf
around the other world that now seemed to be mostly under their control based
on orbit and surface readings being fed to them by Star Force scout ships
deployed there to assess ship numbers.

“Alright, time to get to work,” Paul said, mentally
triggering the TF to being the dislodgement procedure from the
Adamant
, which Riona was on. As he did
so the warships alongside began disgorging their drones and deploying them into
screens as the Nestafar fleet started to come their way…but like clockwork the
first of the Voku ships entered a slightly higher orbit and kept some of its
forward momentum, blowing by the Star Force ships as the huge chrome bullet
began to disintegrate, with smaller pieces falling off it looking like sand
prior to large chunks breaking off, all of which gave the appearance that it
was dying a quick death at the hands of some invisible Nestafar weapon.

But each of those chunks didn’t stay rugged. They
morphed into smaller chrome ships of various designs, all with smooth lines and
perfect hulls that shot off deeper towards the planet and engaged the Nestafar
head on, despite their superior numbers.

They were buying time for the
Adamant
to drop its invasion troops to a landmass on the edge of
the ocean where the transports would start setting down. They had to secure the
area then hold it for the duration of the evacuation, but to do that they first
had to get down there and there was no time to waste. Give the Skarron ground
forces time to redeploy and you’d be in a world of hurt…something that Kip had
impressed upon Paul prior to their breaking up and heading to different target
worlds.

Sending a signal to the Admiral and his bridge staff,
Paul ordered the
Adamant
lower into
the atmosphere and directly into the Nestafar fleet once the TF fully
separated. While the Voku made up the bulk of the firepower in this operation
he wasn’t going to sit back and let them take all the damage, especially
considering that their ships were all manned, tough as they were. To that end
the giant donut-shaped warship slid down into the Nestafar swarm and began
racking up ship kills as another Voku ship entered orbit and began
disintegrating into warship pieces that fell down into the growing melee.

By the time the 3rd arrived the Nestafar saw that they
were in a world of hurt and pulled back before their numbers could drop below
the 50% mark, for the Voku were tearing them to bits.

They began fleeing on separate vectors, clearing the
path that Star Force was hacking out down to the surface and moving off to
other orbits and seeing what their new enemy would do. Paul’s ships held
position, as did about two thirds of the Voku, but the rest of them pursued the
Nestafar who regrouped at various locations and continued the fight with better
odds.

Paul let them go, knowing that he couldn’t take the
Adamant
after them if they chose to
dance around orbit. Besides, killing the Nestafar wasn’t the point of this
mission…that was just a bonus. Getting the Elarioni out was the reason why they
were here and to do that he had to hang onto orbit and protect the transports
which would start jumping in from the star as soon as he signaled it was fairly
safe. Right now the Voku were guarding them there, and as much as Paul wanted
to head down to the surface and join in the fighting that was sure to come he
knew he had to stay right where he was and oversee the naval situation for the
duration of this operation.

Sometimes being the ‘Admiral’ was fun, other times it
just plain sucked.