Star Force: Internecine (SF55) (5 page)

Some of those in orbit were able to flee, but many who
tried were tracked down by the Gnar and destroyed along with all the troops
they contained…something that would have been incredibly difficult to do on the
ground, but was pathetically easy when they were all boxed up onboard mostly
defenseless ships, for the Scionate escort fleet was fighting for its life and
unable to protect them.

After several hours of battle the Lacvamat fleet was
left decimated. It had been the sacrificial lure to attract and pin the
Scionate, with the
Gnar
and
Nammet
fleets being the hammer to spring the trap and kill the Scionate…and that they
did, but at a cost. They lost nearly half their ships but succeeded in
destroying some 94% of the Scionate armada, including 72% of their loaded troop
ships, with the rest being on the surface of the planet.

Those troops were already deployed or deploying, but
were now greatly outnumbered by the Lacvamat on the planet, then to add insult
to injury the
Nammet
brought in a number of their own
troop ships to assist in the slaughter of the Scionate. The Gnar, not being
well suited to the atmosphere, kept their assistance to warships alone, but
continued to safeguard orbit and make sure any Scionate transport trying to
flee the surface wouldn’t make it out alive.

It would take more than 2 months before the tenacious
Scionate ground troops were completely eliminated, for backed into the corner
that they were, unable to flee and having no hope of rescue, they admirably
committed themselves to doing as much damage to the enemy as they could and
made good on that goal, but in the end they were wiped out and the Lacvamat
capitol remained more or less intact, now with a much stronger defense fleet
that the Scionate couldn’t hope to counter as more and more
Gnar
and
Nammet
ships arrived. With word having gone out
about the ambush and the new alliance between the three races they were going
all in, sensing an opportunity to stick it to the Scionate and depose them from
their dominant position within the ADZ…as well as to get back at them for past
grievances.

What had gone from being a pointless war on the part
of the Lacvamat, given the superior military of the Scionate, had now shifted
into one that had the dominant race on its heels, and given the Scionate’s
penchant for getting even with those who attack them, the Lacvamat,
Gnar
, and
Nammet
knew they had to
go all the way and annihilate the cats or potentially suffer for it in the long
run. It was a gamble, but given the opportunities it presented they’d decided
to make their play and made it well, for by destroying the Scionate armada at
Keeson
they’d eliminated a huge portion of their military,
with the Scionate now in a position to choose between defending their own
worlds and stripping them down in order to make counter assaults.

When news of the events spread throughout the ADZ the
backroom deals started occurring at a frantic pace, with both the Lacvamat and
the Scionate bargaining hard for allies to bring into the fold and many races
sensing opportunity to be had or just the opportunity to fight their
adversaries where Star Force, the Protovic, and the
Hycre
had been preventing it before…but now with the floodgates open and the
peacekeepers otherwise occupied they had their chance and weren’t going to pass
it up, regardless of the long term implications it would have on the ADZ and
their mutual defense against the Skarrons and lizards.

Right now that didn’t seem to matter, only the old bad
blood coming back up to the surface and the ‘injustices’ happening to both the
Lacvamat and Scionate, for both were victims and in the right according to
their point of view, with few people interested in the truth and siding with
those they previously favored while using events to seemingly justify their
actions.

It was mostly subterfuge and propaganda. The truth was
these races
wanted
to fight each
other and now they had an excuse, with their bloodlust and greed overriding
their better judgement and Lacvamat and Scionate territory being the playground
on which they were going to settle old scores.

5

Donn sat crosslegged on a table in the holding cell
opposite the blue-tinted force field separating the Archon and security
officers from
Veen
, who was now outside her
envirosuit given that the other side of the cell had been reconfigured to the
atmosphere necessary for her race. Her previously plump form was no longer
present, having been mostly mechanical necessity to store the ammonia needed
for long duration excursions.

Breathing both oxygen and ammonia, some Gnar opted for
less than full suits outside their own facilities, but most preferred the total
coverings that concealed a very muscular, yet short physique. This Gnar was no
exception, save for her musculature was more lengthy than bulk, due to the fact
that she was a sedentary creature rather than a fighter.

Donn sat with eyes closed, making it look like he was
napping as the two Star Force security officers questioned
Veen
at length, with no results. The Gnar was adamant that she had nothing to do
with the bioweapon attack and was holding to her story, thinking that there was
no possible proof to backtrack to her, and already demanding an official
inquiry and that her people be informed of her imprisonment.

The Archon didn’t care about any of that, for he was
already inside her mind and ferreting out the answers he needed, many of which
were prompted by the questions being asked, with the true answer flashing in
her mind so she could quickly avoid it, giving him plenty of threads to work
with. It had been only 40 minutes since they’d begun questioning her, and only
a few hours since he’d plucked her out of the
Javvi
region and brought her to one of the Star Force cities on the boundary strips,
but already he had solved the riddle as to who was responsible for the
attack…with him gathering up additional names and data as he made a thorough
assessment of the intricate web these medtechs had woven.

Veen
was one of a group of
16 from numerous races that had chosen to band together in the name of profit
and, ostensibly, creating bioweapons to use in the defense of the ADZ. They’d
conducted small scale attacks on individuals, assassinations and such to fuel
their research, with this being the first large scale attack and pulled off in
such a way to broadcast to all the shadow lurkers out there that they were in
business and capable of delivering.

The Lacvamat had been chosen as a test in order to
secure a contract with a wealthy, independent buyer who wanted an assortment of
weapons created for him. The Critel apparently had a long running grievance
with the avians and wanted them hurt, badly and publically, and
Veen’s
little syndicate had come through in that regard.
Currently they were working on three new bioweapons for the buyer, as well as
making subtle contacts with others through a network of shadow brokers, all the
while keeping their identities a strict secret.

They hadn’t expected the Scionate to be fingered, or
any wars to break out. They’d thought the attack would be untraceable and
subsequently tolerated for lack of an enemy to strike back at. With the
Lacvamat and Scionate now fighting an all-out war against one another
Veen
was worried about the future of their now blossoming
profession, given that it appeared that Star Force didn’t have the manpower to
curtail the fighting…but recent inquires by a number of new parties suggested
that the fighting might actually spur a new clientele that wanted bioweapons
with more immediate, battlefield applications.

Donn got the sense from her that such things were
years off, and that it had taken her and their little group more than 15 years
to develop the toxin-producing bacteria they’d used on the Lacvamat, with
Veen
being responsible for modifying them to specifically
target their physiology. They didn’t have an arsenal of lethal weapons capable
of ravaging populations, but they did have some very select and nasty little
assassination weapons that they’d been using for some time now and Donn needed
to identify what they were and where they were being produced/held…and that was
taking him longer than he’d expected, for the
Gnar’s
mind was a touch more resistant than most.

Occasionally Donn would telepathically feed the
security officers new questions, with
Veen
starting
to get worried as they were getting more and more specific, wondering how
exactly they knew what to ask and if one of the others had been compromised…but
she kept to her plea of innocence like a champ, completely unaware of the
Archons’ mind reading abilities.

When he finished with her there were no further
inquiries made, nor statements made to the public or notifications sent to her
government. She was simply sent off to a prison facility and kept there under
secrecy until Donn said otherwise. He and his team now had a laundry list of
people to round up and facilities to hit, and he wasn’t about to give them a
heads up that they were coming.

Once they cleaned this up they’d make public their
findings and deal with that mess, but right now the hammer needed to drop and
drop fast, with the travel lags going to be problematic. To that end he decided
to split up his team into three groups, each which would head to different
systems to round up the various individuals using ships commandeered for the
occasion from what was in orbit. It took a couple of jumpships off their normal
routes, one being a cargo ship and the other an ADZ transit ship, but he
couldn’t wait and used his Archon authority, which was essentially limitless,
to get his teams moving, with him taking the rover and heading to the furthest
site on his hit list with
Galia
and two of the Kiritas.

Essentially isolated from the rest of the ADZ, the
Hycre
world in the
Gavchi
System
contained some 18 billion inhabitants in what was a relatively underdeveloped
world. There was little infrastructure in place to accommodate that many
evacuees from the handpicked worlds in their original territory that had been abandoned,
but since the
Hycre
preferred the atmospheric
conditions on the more or less pristine world they were comfortably getting by
with living in the open while additional facilities were slowing being built
across the gas giant.

Orbit traffic was virtually nonexistent save for
material shipments from mining sites elsewhere in the system and the occasional
interstellar transports. The other races had no business to conduct here and
Gavchi
wasn’t on any of the current trade routes, making it
an out of the way system in Gamma Region and well away from both fronts. There
were some other threats in the area that existed below the Humans’ core region,
but they were minor in comparison and didn’t require much of a defense fleet to
keep subdued.

So it was with some surprise when a Scionate
jumpship
arrived insystem, with it quickly making contact
with the planet and asking for the senior military and diplomatic officers.

WHAT DO YOU
REQUIRE?
the
diplomatic officer on station
replied, not bothering to contact the others unless this inquiry was deemed
worthy.

“
We have come to
discuss the current war
,” the Scionate answered in his native language,
knowing that the computers were going to have to process it into the
Hycre’s
own, intelligible language.

WHICH ONE DO
YOU REFER TO? THERE ARE THREE
.

“
I’m referring
to the Lacvamat assault on our worlds, which the
Gnar
and
Nammet
have joined in.
”

I AM TOLD THAT
THE HAMMIDS HAVE DECIDED TO ASSIST YOU, AGAINST THE WARNINGS STAR FORCE HAS
ISSUED
.

“
They have, and
we do not take orders from Star Force
.”

WE AGREE AND
SUPPORT STAR FORCE’S EDICTS. YOU JEOPARDIZE ALL RACES WITH YOUR INTERNECINE.
THE LARGER THIS CONFLICT GROWS THE WEAKER THE ADZ BECOMES
.

“
We only defend
ourselves against the Lacvamat. They were the ones who began this war
.”

ACCORDING TO
THEM YOU STRUCK FIRST WITH THE BIOWEAPON ATTACK
.

“
A lie
.”

WE DO NOT KNOW
EITHER WAY. REGARDLESS YOU AND THE OTHERS ARE WASTING LIVES AND SHIPS THAT
COULD BE PUT TO USE SECURING THE BORDERS. IF THEY FALL THE ADZ IS ALL BUT LOST.
ONLY THE HUMAN CORE, OUR WORLDS, AND PROTOVIC TERRITORY WILL SURVIVE. THE REST
OF THE ADZ IS WEAK AND VULNERABLE. YOU SHOULD BE CONCENTRATING YOUR RESOURCES
ON STENGTHENING IT. INSTEAD YOU DESTROY
.

“
We cannot help
that now, save for ending this war quickly. For that we ask for your assistance
.”

WE WILL NOT
TAKE SIDES IN THIS CONFLICT. OUR FLEET IS CURRENTLY FIGHTING NECESSARY BATTLES
.

“
Securing the
ADZ is necessary. As I said, we did not start this fight, the Lacvamat did.
Then they recruited other races to join them in their push for our destruction.
We were fighting on the front before they attacked us, they were not. We would
like to return to fighting our true enemy, but cannot while our worlds are at
risk
.”

ARE YOU WILLING
TO COME TO TERMS IF WE NEGOTIATE?

“
It is not us
that are the issue, it is the Lacvamat and others. I do not believe they are
interested in a settlement
.”

BUT ARE THE
SCIONATE WILLING TO ACCEPT ONE?

“
This war must
end, and if a settlement is feasible that is preferable, and acceptable so long
as the terms punish the Lacvamat accordingly. We will not accept a simple
desist. We have lost too many lives for that
.”

AND YOU WISH TO
LOSE MORE IN COMPENSATION?

“
We wish to
decisively end this. We would have accomplished this on our own had the
Gnar
and
Nammet
not intervened.
We have been betrayed twice, first when we were attacked while the bulk of our
troops were fighting on the front, then again when we struck their vulnerable
capitol and their secret allies ambushed us. They destroyed enough of our fleet
and troops that we will not be able to quickly defeat them, even with the
Hammids’ help. We require someone with greater strength that can force a
surrender through either negotiation or military force
.”

IF WE DO NOT
KNOW WHO IS AT FAULT WE CANNOT FORCE AS SURRENDER, ONLY A CECESSATION OF
HOSTILITIES
.

“
That will not
be enough. Two Scionate systems are currently in Lacvamat hands. They must be
returned.
”

WITHOUT KNOWING
THE SOURCE OF THE BIOWEAPON WE CANNOT GIVE JUDGEMENT OTHER THAN TO CONDEMN THIS
WASTE OF RESOURCES
.

“
For the sake of
the ADZ this has to end and end quickly. The Lacvamat are intractable. The only
way to end this is to overwhelm them and force a surrender. The Humans will not
intervene and the
Calavari
are now on their leash.
The Protovic are defending their own territory, as are we, and we will not ask
them to pull ships away from their own worlds to save ours. The
Hycre
are in a different situation, and we ask you to
involve yourselves so that we can put an end to this
.”

DO YOU KNOW THE
SOURCE OF THE BIOWEAPON?

“
We do not
.”

IF YOU WERE
STRUCK BY IT AND BELIEVED THE LACVAMAT WERE RESPONSIBLE, HOW WOULD YOU REACT?

“
That’s
irrelevant now. They had no proof it was us and they attacked anyway. The
bioweapon is past history, with the current conflict made of long held
grievances
.”

WE CONCUR WITH
THE SECOND POINT, BUT THE BIOWEAPON ATTACK IS OF IMPORTANCE. HAVE YOUR PEOPLE
LEARNED NOTHING OF ITS SOURCE?

“
We have had
other concerns and no access to the attack site. We know nothing more than the
Lacvamat do. Our concern is with events going forward
.”

HAD YOUR WORLD
BEEN THE ONE ATTACKED YOU WOULD LIKEWISE BE OUT FOR BLOOD. A NEGOTIATED END TO
THIS WAR WILL NOT BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE OF THE BIOWEAPON SOURCE.

“
Then a military
victory is the only viable solution. Your assistance will make it much more
bloodless and preserve more of the ADZ’s resources. Without you the conflict
will grind on for years, perhaps decades. The Scionate will not yield, but our
enemies are stacked against us and this looks to be a very long conflict. The
sooner it ends the sooner our forces can return to the Skarron front. For this
reason alone we ask you to intervene
.”

AND WHAT IF WE
INTERVENE ON THE SIDE OF THE LACVAMAT? WILL YOU SUBMIT?

The Scionate’s hologram scowled. “
We are not in the wrong
.”

IRRELEVANT.
WILL YOU SUBMIT?

“
We will not
submit when we are in the right
.”

THEN WHY DO YOU
EXPECT THE LACVAMAT TO DO OTHERWISE? THEY WERE FIRST ATTACKED WITH THE
BIOWEAPON. FROM THEIR POINT OF VIEW THEY ARE IN THE RIGHT. WERE YOUR SITUATIONS
REVERSED YOU WOULD DO THE SAME
.

“
Then we are at
an impasse and fated to destroy one another
.”

SO IT WOULD
SEEM
.

“
Is there
nothing you can do? We are willing and able to contribute to the front, the
Lacvamat are able but not willing. They conserved their fleet while we expended
ours for the benefit of all. This does not make us equals, yet you regard us as
such
.”

YOUR PAST
CONTRIBUTIONS ARE NOT OVERLOOKED
.

“
Then I ask,
what would you suggest we do?
”

STOP FIGHTING
.