Star Force: Nexus (SF57) (10 page)

He didn’t need a rabbit to chase, for his motivation
was internal…something that most people in the galaxy lacked. Star Force was
designed to offer incentives everywhere, and it worked, but at the end of the
day you were either a badass or you weren’t, and a badass didn’t need incentive
to do workouts.

Vlad also preferred the empty sanctum, for while he
got along with the Calavari well they were not up to his level, in any way, and
he preferred the isolation so he didn’t have anything else to compare with.
When with the Calavari he felt totally superior, which he was, but here, in the
sanctum, it was just him and himself…and for the first time since his last
visit did he realize just how rusty his body had gotten.

A rusty Archon could still kick a
Calavari’s
ass, but take away that dominance and Vlad was just left with a body that was
desperately in need of workouts. He kept his narrow perspective focused on
himself and got three days’ worth of exhausting workouts in, so much so that he
woke up the last day wobbly legged, but knowing that his duties down on the
planet would offer up plenty of time to rest.

When he boarded the dropship and began the descent he
pulled out a datapad and got up to date on what had been occurring the past 3
days, for he hadn’t been monitoring anything during his training, keeping his
focus squarely where it should be. Now that he was back he was totally invested
in the fighting and the Calavari…plus the Protovic where he could help them
out. In fact they were prepping for an attack on another subsurface lizard
facility, which he knew they’d need an Archon for.

Once he got back to the command center he contacted
them and walked them through the various traps the lizards had in their most
recent fight, then volunteered himself to take point more than a week later.
Before that happened, though, he launched another attack on the remains of a
lizard surface colony, which included subsurface sections, with the Calavari.
After cleaning it out he transitioned back to base for a few hours then headed
over to the Protovic to assist them.

And so it went on, with Vlad bouncing from one fight
to another, knowing that his psionics were badly needed to counter the lizards’
traps. Even though they were beaten, the enemy was going to strike out at the
Calavari and Protovic at every opportunity until they were all dead, meaning
that up until the planet was cleared of them Vlad was going to be needed
constantly, for he didn’t intend to lose any of his people by getting sloppy.

To that end he took point whenever he could, resolving
himself to catch up on his training afterwards, for while his body could
recover lost fitness he couldn’t bring back the dead.

10

September 3, 2643

Epsilon Eridani
System

Corneria

Kerrie sat in a waiting lounge at the spaceport as her
dropship was finishing loading when a ‘click, click, click’ series of footsteps
approached from behind her. Without needing to look or even use her psionics
she knew it was
Mavrel
, their H’kar ambassador of
sorts.

“Yes?” she asked without turning from the observation
window where she had her feet propped up on the rim.

“You are hard to sneak up on,”
Mavrel
said in heavily accented English.

“You should try putting some sound dampening nubs on
your…contact points,” she said, not sure what to call his ‘feet’ because they
were little more than hardened points…all four of them. “Your exoskeleton is
noisy on our hard floors.”

“That is why H’kar have soft floors,” he said, walking
around the long sofa and into the trailblazer’s view. “You are about to
depart?”

“Yes I am. I thought you had already gone.”

“Our fleet will not leave until yours does, so there
is no rush. I wanted to speak with you again.”

“Concerning what?”

“I am still not convinced this plan will work.”

“I thought the Nexus and your leadership approved of
it?”

“They have given their approval, but I do not see the
wisdom in it. I was hoping you could kill those concerns.”

“What is there that we haven’t already discussed?”

“I do not see how we can do enough damage to matter.”

Kerrie sighed. “Someone a long time ago once said that
before you can stop a moving ship you must first slow it down. We aren’t
planning on defeating the Li’vorkrachnika, just diminishing their ability to
spread.”

“And we can do that, but I fail to see how it will
lead to an eventuality that is favorable to us.”

“The Li’vorkrachnika are used to being on the
offensive, hitting where and when they like. We’ve evened that out around the
ADZ and they’re not so tough when we get to pick the battlefield and the amount
of forces we bring to the fight. If we get too defensive we give them the
advantage.”

“Yet our numbers are so few compared to theirs.”

“Our combined tech level is far superior. We should be
able to make ship kills without losing our own.”

“I fail to see how that is possible, though I know you
have a history of doing so.”

“That’s why the Nexus wanted to learn from us,” Kerrie
said pithily.

“Which is why I think they authorized our presence
here. They want to learn more, but I see no chance of doing effective damage to
the enemy.”

“You think this is just a training exercise rather
than real battle?”

“The combat will be real, but the campaign will not.
We have no objective to attain.”

“Kill a lot of the enemy.”

“To what end?”
Mavrel
said,
clicking his mandibles together over his mouth with a triple tap.

Kerrie stared at him and probed into his mind, trying
to get a feel for what he was getting at. Inside the hard carapace that covered
his awkward body was a sense of hopelessness, minor at this point given that
his race was protected by the Nexus, but he had no hope of ever defeating the
lizards.

“Some people,” Kerrie began to explain, “only know how
to fight when they can see all the options and know they’re going to win
beforehand. Then there are others who don’t assume to predict the outcome and
only focus on what they need to do in the moment. The first type cannot fight a
superior opponent, the second can and potentially win. A great deal of combat
is based in denying your enemy the fight he wants and making him operate less
efficiently than normal. Over time we can wear them down, but there are no
guarantees. There are never guarantees. That is something you have to get used
to.”

“In my experience, if you go into a fight you are not
confident that you will win you end up wasting troops and resources.”

“For many that would be true, but a real warrior knows
how to probe and disengage. Only fools fully commit blindly.”

“Yet we are taught that once battle begins we must
forcefully apply our full strength or risk defeat through indecisiveness.”

“I would call that reckless. Things can change in
battle in only a few seconds. You have to be able to adapt in the moment.”

“Which is something your empire does well, but it is
not how H’kar fight.”

“Anyone can learn, given enough time. And you’ll have
my fleet and the
Voku’s
with you to carry the load
until you do learn.”

“Yet ours will be far larger.”

“In the beginning, yes. But that’s also why I’m going.
So I can adapt for you.”

“And we are grateful for your inclusion. I just do not
feel that this endeavor will come to a beneficial conclusion.”

“You never know how a fight will go down before you
start, and anyone who says otherwise is asking the bad luck monkey for an
upset.”

“Mon…
kie
?”

“A metaphor we use. It’s a fictitious person who
exists to sabotage you with bad luck at every opportunity.”

“You have many metaphors in your language. It has been
difficult to learn.”

“You’ve done well.”

“It was necessary, for we have no means of other
communication.”

“That’s a problem we’ve had to face here as well. So
many different languages end up hindering communication. We operate with two,
one for our empire and the more common one that most races in this region use.
It’s a commerce language but we’re trying to replace it with English over
time.”

“Then it is good that I have learned most of it.”

“How many do the Nexus have?”

“Many, but one that binds us all. I have learned 6 in
total over my years.”

“I can read 14 and speak 5, though I’ve had a lot more
years to learn than you have.”

Mavrel
stepped forward and
turned around, sitting down on the couch with his spindly legs sticking forward
like spears…and just as deadly if someone tripped and fell into them.

“I keep forgetting your longevity. Most H’kar do not
live half as long.”

“Why haven’t you attained self-sufficiency?”

“I have learned that word, but there is no
translation. Our lifespans are default. We cannot train as you do. Our bodies
are not built for it.”

“Bullshit,” Kerrie said, staring at him during a brief
pause. “Are you familiar with that term?”

“No.”

“It means what you just said isn’t true in any way,
shape, or form and is reserved for extreme cases of stupidity. You can train,
you just don’t know how.”

“You do not know as much of us as you think you do.”

“We currently have 273 different races in Star Force,
most are wards that we care for, but a lot of them have said basically the same
thing. It took some time and modification on the part of our trainers, but we
found a way for all of them to reach self-sufficiency. It’s just a question of
whether the individual is willing to work to attain it, and then maintain it.
Sadly most are too lazy to do either.”

“We are not lazy. Our energy reserves are low. We have
long, sustained effort at minimal levels or short bursts of intense action, but
we do not have the stamina for your type of training.”

“Humans don’t either, in the beginning. You have to
develop it. Look at me, I wasn’t anywhere near this powerful when I first
joined Star Force. I was a pathetic weakling…still better than the other
pathetic weaklings…but I was so squishy I have trouble even remembering what it
was like. You can’t expect instant results. And now suddenly I think I understand
your problem.”

“What problem?”

“Your concerns about this upcoming campaign. You can’t
handle facing the unknown. You need some tangible results to work towards. You
can’t get your mind set to fight simply to fight…or train simply to train. Tell
me, have none of the H’kar achieved self-sufficiency?”

“We have not.”

“They call me a trailblazer because I will push into
the unknown and learn new things that I can then teach to others, either
directly or by example. I’m starting to think that once you guys start spending
a lot of time with us you’ll advance rather quick.”

“I do not understand.”

“You need a battle plan to follow. Without one you’re
totally lost. You can’t see a way to beat the Li’vorkrachnika and you can’t see
a way to train so you don’t try. If you watch us you’ll see us doing it and
then you’ll have something to pattern off of.”

“Even if you are correct about the battles we will
jointly fight, we will not be witnessing any of your training. We will be on
our own ships.”

“I wouldn’t mind a side project.”

The H’kar shook his pointy head. “I do not wish this.”

“If any of the others do, please tell me.”

“Agreed, but we cannot eat your food,”
Mavrel
said with some hilarity.

“We’ve made food for countless races, I think we can
manage a few new items.”

“I will pass the offer along, but I do not think you
will receive a response.”

“Don’t your infantry train?”

“Yes.”

“Why haven’t they attained self-sufficiency?”

“Our bodies are not suited for it.”

“Bullshit,” Kerrie said softly.

“It is a fact of our race.”

“I’m never going to accept that.”

“You do not have to.”

Kerrie sighed. “I always enjoy our conversations.
You’re so optimistic.”

“After a long history of lost wars, optimism is not
something the H’kar have much of.”

“Time to change that.”

Mavrel
flexed his binary
arm, which was more of a claw, and tapped his leg with both sharp points making
loud clicks. “How you have survived I do not understand.”

“Watch and learn,” Kerrie said as her earpiece
activated and she slid her feet off the window trim and back to the floor. “My
dropship is ready to go. I guess we’ll be talking via hologram from now on.”

“Yes,” he said, and Kerrie sensed a gratitude in that
sentiment.

“I stink?” she said suddenly, picking up on his
thoughts.

“Apparently this is not the first time you have been
told so. I was not going to say anything, but Human scent is quite foul.”

Kerrie reflexively tilted her head and sniffed near
her armpit…smelling nothing. “I don’t smell anything.”

“Perhaps you are used to your own scent.”

Kerrie frowned at him. “Do other races stink to you,
or just Humans?”

“Some do. Most do not. I believe it is your sweat
glands.”

Kerrie looked at his hard carapace. “Which you have
none of.”

“Of course not. We regulate temperature internally.”

“Well, this stinky Human is going to head to her ship.
Remember to pass along that training offer. I’ll write up workouts you can do
on your own ships if you want.”

“I will tell the others.”

“Alright,” Kerrie said, standing up and walking around
the couch on the opposite side from
Mavrel
, heading
for the door and taking another whiff of her armpit. She walked out of earshot
then whispered, “I don’t stink.”

18 hours later Kerrie was aboard the
Majestic Dolphin
, a
Melee
-class command ship, as her crew went through final fleet
checks. She had 22
Warship
-class
jumpships with her, full of the latest model naval drones and some of the best
remote pilots Star Force had. There were no ground troops aboard the
Majestic Dolphin
, which had been packed
full of cargo in their place, for this first hunting mission into lizard
territory was to be naval only. They could bombard planets if they chose, but
they were after ships, and not the big ones.

They’d take them if they ran across them, but the task
force was primarily interested in hunting cruisers and jumpships. Those are
what the lizards had in legion, and those are the kills Kerrie was going to be
going after…and the more the better.

But she wasn’t going alone. Sitting in high orbit
around Corneria were two Voku conglomerates, but both the number of ‘ships’
they could split into and the drones that Kerrie had paled in comparison to the
H’kar fleet sitting mid orbit. There were six of their ‘Hive’ carriers along
with thousands of their mainline warships of various models. All were upgraded with
low level Nexus tech that gave them a significant advantage over the lizards,
it was their battle tactics that were in question.

Kerrie had learned that they were sluggers, and their
ships were built for just that purpose.
Well armed
and armored, but they didn’t know how to retreat or use navigation to their
advantage. They just wanted to walk up to a target and blast away…and against
the lizards that wasn’t going to work. They were devious bastards and turned
the
H’kar’s
up front combat philosophy against them,
but not without a cost. The lizards had to fight them at close range sooner or
later, which cost them a lot of ships in the process.

Now that the H’kar had Nexus upgrades the lizards
couldn’t beat them short of spamming them with ships…but then again they didn’t
have to. They just hit the other worlds around them, grabbing up the easy
territory and growing, always growing. Then fielding the spam-level ship
numbers wouldn’t be such a hard thing to do.

But this H’kar fleet was going to take its lead from
Star Force. The Voku were involved because, well, their ships were superior to
both of the others and if you were going on a hunting expedition you wanted as
much firepower and speed as you could get. Kerrie expected them to move as a
single fleet most of the time, perhaps splitting up occasionally but hitting
their targets with overwhelming numbers that would make it difficult for the
lizards to flee. The Voku had already volunteered for stellar ward duty, which
left Kerrie and the H’kar with the job of hitting their planets and tearing
them apart.