Star Force: Headstrong (SF72) (2 page)

She had her answer some forty seconds later when the
lizards suddenly went vertical, dropping down into what had to be underground
unless there was a deep ravine that she wasn’t seeing. When she got to their
approximate descent point she found a sealed hatch that was buried in the dirt
and covered with overhanging leaves, almost impossible to find. Apparently the
lizards had been here for some time, long enough anyways to have dug out
subsurface bunkers by hand.

“You guys find a way in yet?”

“Negative. The arc is vast and we are still searching
the perimeter.”

“The twerps have infrastructure in place, subsurface.
Keep looking for a way in, but if you find none break up into teams of 2 and
patrol the perimeter. Hunt down any lizards that make their way out. I’m going
down and cleaning out whatever mess they’ve made. I’ll contact you when I’m
done or find a way to shut the shield down.”

With that Morgan telekinetically latched onto the
flimsy hatch and pulled it off its hinges, then hopped into the opening and fell
straight down into the crude lizard labyrinth.

7 hours later Morgan stepped off a dropship onto the
hangar deck of her command ship in orbit. It was the only one in the Ninja
Monkey fleet and was her mobile base of operations wherever she went while most
of her troops were stationed in the pair of surface colonies and a few
firebases that had been set up nearer to the lizard drop regions. She could
have slept there, but she needed to squeeze in at least a short workout before
heading back out again and the colonies didn’t have a full sanctum, in that
there was no elite section to it.

Her command ship did, but first thing she did when she
got back was shower and eat, then on her way to bed for what would be a six
hour stint she sat down at her terminal and ran through the system status
reports. They detailed everything that was happening in Mastodon and included
some lizard ship movements elsewhere, but none had come in to reinforce this
planet, for she owned orbit and none could stay long enough to stake out a
foothold. They’d run troops down into drop position, or maybe send some cargo
down, but that was all they could do…and they’d been spamming that tactic ever
since they’d figured out they could get away with it.

Had Morgan more drones that wouldn’t be possible, but
she could only build so fast. Her other captured worlds were doing well to
start snowballing their industry, but it would take a lot of time to build up
the necessary material and, while they were certainly winning here, the losses
of equipment that they were suffering in Mastodon were eating into whatever
reinforcements she was getting.

Fully conquering this system was going to take several
more years at least, and the other ones she was eyeing going forward were
getting more heavily fortified as time went by. The lizards knew she was coming
for them eventually, and since they seemed to think it would only be the Ninja
Monkeys attacking they were putting more resources into beefing them up than
other systems…which was going to make this a very long, arduous campaign.

Part of Morgan didn’t like that, seeing that the
lizards had found a way to use their coreward border against them, but another
part of her appreciated the challenge. It was her Clan against the lizards and
they weren’t going to play defense against her. They might be getting their
asses kicked elsewhere and trying to minimize the losses while they gained more
and more systems on other fronts, but here they were making a play at it and
calling Star Force out.

Morgan would meet them head on and fight this, with
her Clan essentially engaged in an even fight while Star Force rolled over
systems towards the rim and the lizards were expanding quickly coreward. It was
an odd little microcosm in the war, but it seemed fitting none the less. She
wanted her Clan to be on the front lines getting battle experience, and it
seemed the lizards were going to oblige and give her all the fight she could
handle…and maybe more if these drops and new tactics were just the scouting
probe for a larger, more typical swarm rush to come.

Only time would tell, but this was her fight and her
border to lock down…and with every day that went by she secured her holdings
tighter as well. No matter what happened, both sides were amping up their
defenses and setting up their strategy for the long term, with this looking
like a major brawl in its infancy.

If Clan Ninja Monkey was going to survive this they’d
have to do it by becoming far stronger than they were now, and Morgan relished
that make or break necessity. As much as she liked training, she felt she
belonged on the battlefield where the outcome mattered to more than your stats.
Winning and losing here affected people’s lives and the balance of power in
this swath of space, and Morgan intended to stake out her little piece of the
border so those systems on the other side could develop in peace and contribute
to other fronts while Clan Ninja Monkey took the heat here.

So far the rest of the coreward border was quiet, with
Morgan having succeeded in drawing the lizards’ attention to her little piece,
for that’s where the extra resources and troops were going. In that way she was
protecting a far larger border than just her handful of systems could cover. It
was a taunt that was getting more of a response than she’d imagined, as well as
having the bonus effect of being able to fight the lizards when they were
trying to win. She feared everyone else was getting soft in their expectations
on the fronts they were winning on, for the lizards didn’t truly expect to hold
those.

Here it seemed they thought they could and were
actually trying, and potentially succeeding if Morgan couldn’t beat them. That
meant this combat would give her troops far more experience than any other
front, and that fit right into her plans. She just hoped the lizards didn’t
come so hard at her so fast that she’d have to retreat and pull back to a
couple of systems. If they were playing the probing game then she had time, and
that was what she expected to get. A few systems here or there didn’t mean a
damn to the lizards. They were focusing here for other reasons, and she
expected them to give her just enough resistance to see how much her Clan could
and couldn’t do.

Keeping her hand concealed so they couldn’t push her
past that limit was the trick, and the longer that time went on the harder it
would be to do that.

Morgan went through all the recent reports then shut
down her terminal and slid into bed. This wasn’t a game, and it certainly
wasn’t a walk in the park. She knew she was going to have more difficulty here
than on any other front…which meant this was exactly where she was supposed to
be.

Twelve hours from now she’d be back down on the planet
hunting more lizards being dropped from orbit, but for right now she let
herself disconnect from everything and just rest. This was going to be a long
war, with her ability to sustain herself and her Clan being the key to victory.
Get wore down, even a little, and it would snowball into defeat.

Rest was a weapon, and one Morgan had learned to make
full use of a long time ago.

After seven minutes of pillow time she slipped into
sleep, her mind quiet and her body numbing to the regenerative process. When
she woke the next morning she’d snap back into action, with that polarity being
a skill that most Archons never fully mastered.

2

February 2, 2848

Anivia
System (Delta
Region)

Frostbite

Busy?
Taryn’s mental voice asked.

Come in
,
Ginsi answered a moment before the trailblazer walked through her quarters’
door, though she remained at her
comm
terminal
reading.

“What are you working on?”

“Nothing,” the newly minted padawan said as Taryn
walked up behind her chair and scoped out the
flatscreen
display. “Just reading a message from Mina.”

“You two still keep in contact?”

Ginsi nodded. “She’s a friend and I’m feeding her
workouts. You’d be surprised what kind of nonsense is floating around out there
despite people having grown up in a maturia.”

“You have no idea,” Taryn said patiently while Ginsi
finished up. Her apprentice typed back a short reply and sent it off, then spun
around and looked up at her.

“What’s up?”

“Something big.”

“I like big.”

“The reason we came here for training wasn’t for the
view,” Taryn said, referencing the frozen wasteland that was Frostbite. “We’ve
been given a long term assignment, and I’m going to want as much input from you
as possible. You’re not just here to tag along.”

“What is it?” Ginsi said with a frown. The ‘long term’
part threw her.

“We’re going to uplift a ward.”

The
padawan’s
eyebrows
raised. “A ward?”

“The Hepcha, actually. They’ve been climbing in status
for a long while and we felt it was time to bring them fully into the fold.”

“Do we need to? I mean with the Protovic we’ve already
got a huge upgrade to our lineup underway.”

“We can multitask. The Hepcha have earned this, and
it’s up to us to incorporate them as best we can.”

“What’s there to do? They already have a Star Force
society.”

“We have to make them independent and combat capable.”

“They’re avian, right?”

“Yes.”

“How many of them are there?”

“Right now there are only 1.2 billion, but we’ve been
keeping their population low by choice. They’re egg layers so it’s not an
issue, save for now we’ll be boosting those numbers considerably.”

“Aren’t there other races better suited to ground
combat that we could incorporate? The Lacvamat haven’t exactly been all that
helpful.”

Taryn tapped Ginsi on the forehead with her finger.
“You’ve got your head stuck in hand to hand combat. Avian is different, and
while there are a lot of weaknesses they do have advantages. We’ve got to
tailor the Hepcha to make them effective.”

Ginsi shrugged. “If you say so.”

“Not overly thrilled, are you?”

“You know I prefer combat.”

“But you’re my apprentice, and I’m taking this
assignment…therefore you are as well. There’s more to being an Archon than just
fighting, though if that’s your aim there will be plenty of opportunity for
that to come. Look at this as a peak into an area that you’ll probably never
otherwise see. And if it helps your mental outlook, consider what we’re going to
be doing as crafting living weapons. The Calavari weren’t that good on the
ground before we got through training them. Don’t count the Hepcha out just
yet.”

“If you say so. They’re one of the wards in this
system, aren’t they?”

“Yep.”

“So we’ll be living with them?”

“No, they’ll be living with us. There’s a generic
colony that’s been built on Preen for our purposes. We’ll expand and
reconfigure it as necessary, but it’ll be built for both Human and Hepcha by
the time we’re done with it.”

“What’s it built for now?”

“Axius design so we could be flexible from the get
go.”

“An extra they had or specifically for us?”

“Axius built it…for us.”

“Ok then, where do we start?”

“After morning workouts we’re transferring over there
along with a team I’ve been assembling. Work like this has no roadmap, despite
others having done similar things with other races. Each one is unique and we
have to troubleshoot our way through it.”

“Don’t you mean
trailblaze
?”

“Or that.”

“Who oversaw the Lacvamat elevation?”

“Connor. I’ve read through all his notes and I’d
suggest you do so as well, I’ve already given you access, but don’t make the
mistake of assuming all avians are the same. Hepcha have four wings and
feathers. The Lacvamat have two and are flesh. That right there is going to
make their movement capability different.”

Ginsi held up her hands. “Alright, alright. I hear
you. What exactly do you want me to do?”

“Think outside the box and find a way for these guys
to kick ass.”

Ginsi’s
frown turned into a
smirk. “You do know how to press my buttons, don’t you?”

“Perception isn’t about lies, but rather the best way
to approach a situation. You see them as they are, I see them as for what they
will become.”

“Honestly I don’t know crap about them other than what
I read through in the maturia a long time ago.”

“No rush. This is going to take a long time. First
things first, though. Our training doesn’t end, we just cram it into a long
morning session and extend our days out to 36 hours. That’ll give us plenty of
sleep and the necessary hours to tinker with the Hepcha civilization.”

“That’s still a cutback.”

“If you’re measuring by volume, yes. But it’s a far
less cutback than we’d see if we were out fighting the lizards.”

“You have a point there.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll still have a chance to soar up
through the ranks.”

“Only if you teach me the psionics I need. Without
them I’m capped.”

“Academically. No one is physically capped.”

“You know what I mean, and…”

“No, I’m not giving you all of them first year. One at
time, youngling.”

Ginsi growled. “Yes,
master
.”

Taryn pointed a warning finger down at her. “Don’t
call me ‘master’ or I’ll go Vader on you. Get dressed and meet me in the
sanctum. We’ve got a lot of work to do here and I’m going to make you pay for
that comment.”

“I like more workouts,” Ginsi countered as she stood
up and walked over to her quarter’s closet and began taking off her casual
uniform to replace it with more appropriate workout attire.

“I didn’t say more workouts, I’m just not going to
hold back as much as normal. Be prepared for a few bruises,” Taryn said as she
walked out.

“You’re all heart, mast…” Ginsi whispered until her
throat suddenly tightened up from a telekinetic chokehold.

Not funny
,
she told Taryn who was still walking away in the hallway outside her quarters.
The titan held her until she got out of range, then the invisible grip
disappeared and she could breathe normally again.

“Prick,” she said as she pulled out a jog bra and put
it on. And to think she’d been thrilled when a trailblazer had taken her on as
an apprentice. Right now that didn’t seem like a good idea, for there were days
when she really wanted to kick Taryn’s ass…but she was far too strong for her
to do that, and the titan didn’t mind flaunting that fact from time to time.

“One day,” she said, pulling on her running shoes and
snugging them up before heading out and down to the sanctum in the Axius colony
where they were staying…and soon to be leaving.

Ginsi sat down in the command center they’d just
claimed and put her feet up on a station as Taryn took center stage amidst
several dozen support personnel that she’d chosen to head the Hepcha ‘uplift’
process. The padawan had ultimately decided just to play the support banana on
this one and learn what she could in the process, because it really wasn’t
something she was interested in. Her focus was on her skills and her skills
alone for that day in the hopefully distant future when Star Force went up
against the V’kit’no’sat…and
she
intended to be the one fighting them, not an army of Hepcha.

“The work that has been done with the Hepcha thus
far,” Taryn began as she pulled up a hologram of the race that floated larger
than life midair above her head, “has been commendable, but it’s been based
around the fact that Star Force would provide them everything they needed
rather than them providing for themselves. This is necessary in wards, as well
as a way to help them detox from whatever life they lived previously…which is
usually a pretty bad one if we’re taking them on as wards.”

“There’s word floating around that there are a few
other wards that are teetering on reaching elevation status, but none have
accomplished as much as the Hepcha have. They are eager to join our ranks and
that is why we’re here. We’re not forcing this, so let’s just guide the flow
and let them find out how far they can climb. Biggest drawback we have is their
lightweight frame,” Taryn said, pointing above her.

“Good for flying, but little else. The feathers are
also problematic. Lacvamat just use conical capture to achieve flight, but the
Hepcha filter it through their wings on the upbeat. Armor won’t allow for that.
We can armor their midsection and put extra strong shielding over their wings,
but it looks like an anti-
grav
component will need to
be added instead. That won’t leave much armor volume, so we’ve got a challenge
to solve there.”

“They’re smaller than the Lacvamat and barely bigger
than a cat, but experiments with growth enhancements derived from the drugs
that the Knights use have enlarged a segment of them to about 2/3rds Lacvamat
size. I intend to keep this binary divide in their society and make use of both
advantages. The smaller Hepcha will have combat uses, we just have to figure
out what those are. They will probably be support oriented, but you never know.
Axius has some very clever ways to make the smaller races combat viable, and
it’s our job to copy, steal, or invent our own for these guys.”

“Neural interface is going to be key, because they
have very little button pressing capability, which essentially comes down to
their talons…which they have to stand on…and their beak. We’re going to look to
Scionate designs for inspiration there, given that they also use a lot of
backup mouth controls. We need manual backups, of course, but we also need
manual interfaces for civilian applications. Save the neural links for combat.
Some work in this has already been done under the ward system, but I’ve looked
through what they’re living with and it’s too damn inefficient. Way better than
what they used to have, but not good enough for me.”

“One thing that we are creating new is glide
corridors, and I’ve already got the techs working in a section of the city on
prototypes. Due to their small size we should be able to carve out tunnels
above the Human walkways for them to move through. Since they need to be small,
we’re going to have repulsor buffers in them so they can just dive in and
coast. They won’t hit the walls or have to flap their wings, just ride it
through like a one-way waterslide.”

Ginsi raised a hand to get Taryn’s attention. “Is
there such a thing as a 2-way waterslide?”

Rather than getting mad the trailblazer considered
that. “I don’t think so, but now that you’ve mentioned it I think we have to
build one…but not here. Water is a no go around these guys. Wet their feathers
and their flight capability gets chopped. They can manage it, but it’s like
putting a heavy backpack on before you go running. That said, aquatics is still
a go because they won’t ever be swimming without gear. Some of the preliminary
tests that Lens ran indicate they have good aptitude for maneuvering in
currents and at high speeds, which is probably pathetically slow to what
they’re used to doing in the atmosphere. We are developing an aquatics division
for the Hepcha, and there are currently zero people in it right now, so we’ll
have to build it from scratch.”

“What they do have is a significant aerial division,
piloting skeets, Valeries, and a few other craft. Nothing original to them, so
that’s going to have to change. They also have a handful of individuals
fighting with Axius on the ground, and we want to look through those combat
records very carefully. They have no naval or mech divisions, and the first
thing we want to look into is getting them a cargo fleet. I’m going to bring in
some Kiritak to help with that and run what we set up so they can get some
experience without the entire operation being a
newbfest
.”

“But first priority is this colony and the
infrastructure. We’ll tolerate it as is, but we need to come up with firm
designs before we start building elsewhere. That means theorizing, creating
prototypes here, and testing them with the population we start to pull over
from the wards. We are doing nothing on theory, and everything from practical
experience. Clear?” she asked, getting a few confirmation nods.

“These guys are looking to us for guidance and we’re going
to give it to them. Don’t make guesses, and bring anything unclear to me. I’d
rather not give them something than give them something faulty that we then
have to replace. Every step they take is one forward, we’re not having them go
backwards. Trust is a commodity that you can’t replace, so don’t squander it.
Route everything through me except where I say otherwise. I’m the face of this
transformation so feed into that. You’re just my little minions working behind
the scenes…save for the big minion over there that is my mini-me.”

“Mini?” Ginsi asked, for she was almost exactly the
same height and weight as Taryn.

“You and I will be on the same page, so you’ll be able
to speak for me to the Hepcha. We’re a team, but the rest of you will be
disconnected from them as far as image holds. You’ll be integrated with them on
projects and living side by side, but you’re the hired help. I’m the one that
has to get this done. Don’t take that as an insult, because it’s not. You guys
can come and go as needed. You can be reassigned to another system or leave the
project entirely. I cannot. I’m in this for the long haul. So we’re going to
structure their social understanding of the conversion down to me and my
padawan. We’re the figureheads…and actual ones…leading this. The rest of you
have your work, but you’ll be nameless and interchangeable. Focus on your tasks
and I’ll take the hero worship. I’m told that it happens with all the races
that we uplift and I don’t want you getting involved in it.”