Star Force: Bahamut (SF86) (Star Force Origin Series) (5 page)

“This fleet movement was fairly recent.”

“And it may be time sensitive as well. Go.”

“Going,” Riley said happily as he walked away enroute
to rallying a response fleet.

Davis let him go, shutting off the holograms save for
the subsurface scan. There was hardly anything to look at, just a hazy outline
around where the sensor
stealthing
was, but something
about it worried him. He didn’t know what it was, but the response of the Sety
alone in sending that many ships that he knew were needed elsewhere was
significant. No, not significant, panicked.

This was extremely important to them, and apparently a
lot of other very advanced races.

What the hell was this thing?

5

July 2, 3254

Unnamed System

Inner Zone

Riley’s command ship came out of its jump head of the
line to find stellar orbit empty. That was fine with him, for within a few
seconds another command ship slowed to a position several hundred kilometers
behind his. The
Excalibur
drew closer
as a continent of
Warship
-class
jumpships followed the two trailblazers into the system, with them claiming
control of stellar orbit without a confrontation and getting a look at the
condition of the planet in question as soon as they worked their way around the
star and got into line of sight with it.

They were all still there, sitting in planetary orbit
and safeguarding whatever it was that they were excavating. Riley and Paul both
stayed put near the star as their fleet continued to jump in one ship at a time
at a very high rate of sequence that had become second nature after so many
lizard invasions. Normally ships in convoy wouldn’t jump this close to one
another but now, for Star Force’s veteran ship captains, this felt normal and
any pilot that couldn’t handle such a maneuver was far from making it to a
position where they’d be able to fly a jumpship. The competition amongst pilots
was so high now they all had to be experts just to get a primary slot on even a
freighter.

“There they are,” Paul commented, popping up in holo
on Riley’s command nexus control board.

“Yeah, just sitting there and ignoring the star. For
someone who doesn’t want anyone here they’re not acting like it.”

“I get the feeling they’re used to getting what they
want just by frowning in someone’s direction. They want the planet secured, so
they’re not going to bother stopping transit through this star.”

“Agreed. They’ve got to be noticing us by now.”

“I don’t think they’re worried…yet,” Paul added. “When
the incoming ships don’t stop, they’re going to get nervous. The Sety have
enough data on our capabilities to know we mean business.”

“Think they’ll fight?”

“I think they’re paranoid about something, and
paranoid people can be unpredictable. I’m glad you brought this many ships.”

“If we can spook them into talking so much the better,
but if we have to throw down with The Nexus and friends, I want it to be a
lasting lesson. You want to chew them out?”

“Go ahead. I’ll take second seat on this.”

“Alright,” Riley said as more and more warships
continued to come out of the convoy jump behind them. He activated the
communications systems and set them for The Nexus’s protocols, knowing that at
least the Sety would be receiving the message, though he knew the others would
as well. Whether or not they had translation protocols for English was the
question.

“Attention, Interlopers,” Riley began, his voice deep
with sarcasm. “You’ve encroached on the rightful territory of Star Force that
we are currently in the process of stealing from the Li’vorkrachnika. If you
wished to help rid the galaxy of these vermin we’d welcome the help…yet they
seem to be sitting quite comfortably in orbit with you. Seeing as how there is
no weaponsfire being exchanged and their not being blown into
smitherines
, I have to assume they are here with your
permission. Well, they don’t have
our
permission to be here, and they have to go.”

“Furthermore, your ships fired upon one of ours that
was having a look around this system. We really don’t like that, and if you’re
looking for a fight we’ve brought you one that will offer a greater challenge.
If that’s what you want, we’ll be happy to oblige. If not, you’d better start
explaining things real fast. We’ll be in orbit shortly.”

Riley cut the
comm
channel,
knowing there would be a lag until the message got to the planet, but already
feeling the ticking clock counting down. This was going to come to a head very
fast, and he didn’t know how these guys were going to respond.

“Nicely done.”

“Thank you. Not too much sarcasm?”

“I’m not sure how much they’ll pick up anyway.”

“Sad to waste it on
unknowning
ears.”

“If they have ears,” Paul added, seeing the first
stirrings in their fleet formation coming in on the long range sensors. “I
think they’ve seen enough to realize they’re going to be outnumbered.”

“They don’t know how badly yet. I hope they squirm.”

“Where do you want to enter?”

“Backside, then circle around. They’re staying in
position over that surface location.”

“Give them a little more time to think it through?”

“Yeah.”

“We’ll need to make a detour.”

“That’ll give them a little more time too.”

“
Wanna
split?”

“Yeah, why not. Let’s enter at multiple spots. How
many jumplanes do we have?”

“Five easy ones,” Paul said, looking at their
navigational options if they bounced off nearby planets, “two more with a mild
delay.”

“Five is good. Let’s make as good of a show of this as
we can…and if they think to intercept one jumpline they’ll have four others to
worry about covering as well.”

When Riley’s command ship decelerated into planetary
orbit he brought with him a fifth of the combined fleet and had them stacked
into a 3x3 formation given the slow jump. That meant there were 8 jumpships
arrayed around the
Zeus
in a square,
then following them were additional squares packing the massive jumpships in
together very closely with only a handful of kilometers to spare in between
each.

When they arrived at their destination point the
jumpships fanned out and his command ship took center in what quickly became a
blockading wall. Each additional square formation that came in split up and
added to that wall until all of his 206 ships arrived. Likewise there were
other formations at four different points around the backside of the planet
from where the opposing fleet was stationed.

1031 Star Force jumpships for the 1031 ships in the
opposing fleet, not counting the lizards, which would pretty much pop like
confetti when hit. Some of the unknown vessels were larger than even the Star
Force jumpships, but most were far smaller and no matter what their
technological advantage might or might not be, they were single warships…not
carriers.

When Riley’s fleet got themselves arrayed to his liking,
the wall of jumpships slowly moved around the curve of the planet towards the
waiting fleet while still holding their drones in their berths, not having
released them yet, and each jumpship held between 50 and 100 of them…meaning
that despite some of their impressive tonnage, the Sety-led fleet was almost
comically outmatched.

He just hoped they thought so as well.

“We’re here,” he transmitted again, this time within
range of realtime communication. “Care to respond before we get within weapons
range and one of your ships does something really stupid?”

An image of a tree-like Sety appeared in holo before
him, with the computer handling the translation. “You are trespassing. Any
questions concerning this system should be directed to the representative we
have sent to your capitol.”

“I just came from there. He said he had no idea what
you were doing here, so we figured we’d come here and get some answers
directly.”

“This planet belongs to us. You have no claim on it.”

“I didn’t say whether I was laying a claim on it or
not. I said we’re here for information. Explain yourselves, starting with why
the Li’vorkrachnika are here.”

“They are here with our permission and are not
organizing against you.”

“That doesn’t answer why, and if you’re giving them
safe haven that does concern us.”

“Their business with us is private.”

“They’re supposed to be the enemy of The Nexus. What
business do you have with them other than fighting them?”

“That is our concern.”

“And who are you? You and your friends. They’re not
Nexus members, are they?”

“They are not. Our association with them is a private
matter.”

“Look here,
Treebeard
.
Either you tell me what I want to know or we’re going down to the planet to
have a look for ourselves.”

“You will not be permitted to do so. If you try to do
so you will be fired upon.”

“Have you counted how many ships we have?”

“It matters not. We are tasked with defending this
planet and that is what we will do, to the last, if need be. You are not
permitted here. Leave.”

“Make me,” Riley shot back. “You think you can shoot
at our ships when they’re alone. Try it now.”

“Your vessel was told to leave and did not. The fault
is its own.”

“Well now I’m telling you to leave. If you do not,
will the fault be yours?”

“This is our planet. You do not have the right to
order us to vacate it.”

“I have the guns to do so if necessary, but I’ll
settle for a really good explanation. If you don’t give me one, I have to
assume your presence here, in our invasion corridor, in association with our
enemy, is nefarious and deal with you accordingly. So start talking.”

“Any inquiries should be posted to the representative
we sent to your capitol.”

Riley looked at him with scorn on his face. “Do you
really think that by saying that you’re going to get me to turn around and
leave to go ask them again?”

“What you do is not my concern.”

“I’m making it your concern. Shall I tattoo that
message on the hull of your ship so that you can better contemplate it?”

“Be advised that the ships we possess are more
advanced than yours. You do not have a position of leverage here.”

“Oh really?” Riley asked, his tone light. “We got a
pretty good scan from our scout ship, and while we don’t know exactly what all
of them can do I think we guessed pretty
good
. Those
big boys there have a
dueron
cannon each, but that
won’t do much good against a fleet of our size. There are too many ships to
target, though it would do a hell of a lot of damage if it hit something big.
Too bad we didn’t bring anything that size. And your
pheeron
converters…they pack a punch, but you’ll find our shields have been calibrated
to resist that type of weaponry. I could go on, but suffice to say that we’re
aware of most of your tech even if we haven’t faced off with you before.”

He couldn’t read the
Sety’s
mind over a
comm
channel, but his demeanor shifted in
what Riley guessed was either surprise or dismay. After all, they didn’t know
Star Force had a galaxy’s worth of technical diagrams of every known piece of
technology that the V’kit’no’sat had come across to pull reference from.

“Be advised, that if you engage us here, you will reap
that betrayal elsewhere. All the races present will lay a vendetta upon you
that you will not survive.”

“The Li’vorkrachnika already have one on us, and we’re
surviving it just fine.”

“They are minor partners. Do not mistake our strength
as being as small as theirs.”

“Partners, huh? That’s odd. I thought you were
enemies. So, did you sell out the H’kar? Because we really like them, and if
you did, that’s just going to tick us off even more. Lying about it now will
only make things worse, so the best thing for you to do is answer honestly and
bluntly before this escalates even further.”

“And the best thing you can do is turn around and
leave before you start a war you cannot win. We are honor bound to defend this
planet at all costs, and that is exactly what we will do.”

“Then defend it by providing me the information I need
and there won’t be a fight…unless you really are our enemy, in which case
there’ll be a fight regardless. But if you’re not, just answer my damn question
and there won’t be any need for conflict. Which is more important, keeping your
secret or keeping that planet? Because if we do fight I’m taking it, and
believe me when I say that I have a lot more ships in the region to call on for
reinforcements to make sure we hold it long enough to do a thorough
investigation of everything happening on the surface…so are you going to make
me find out the hard way, or are you just going to tell me what’s going on?”

“We have our duty, and will carry it out.”

“If you’re really that dumb, then The Nexus is so
screwed that I can’t even…” Riley said, stopping as Paul’s mental voice entered
his head via the
intership
comm
systems.

Do you feel
that?

What?

On the planet.
Open your mind and screen out everything on your ship. Tell me what you sense.

Riley did as instructed, ignoring the Sety for a
moment while he pulled most of his mind out of the computer network and back
into his physical senses. It took a moment to find what Paul was referring to,
but once he did it stood out immediately. It was a low hum, a telepathic hum,
and it was coming from the planet.

Whatever that
is, it’s huge.

And coming from
the coordinates of the excavation. It just popped up once we hit line of sight,
but I was getting an uneasy feeling before that, so some of that telepathic
field must have been making it through the planet.

What has a mind
that powerful?

Pretty obvious
now, isn’t it? And that object is about the right size.

It’s too small
to be a Hadarak, and…
Riley cut off as it finally clicked.

Nefron didn’t
think they’d be easy to destroy
, Paul added, finishing the thought for him.

What the hell do
these guys want with it?

Let’s ask them.

Riley pulled his mind away from the monstrous hum that
now seemed hard to miss and turned his attention back on the Sety that hadn’t
bothered to speak when Riley cut off. “Are you the commander of this fleet?”