Star Force: Bloodlust (SF54) (3 page)

The Archon got some 150 meters down before he could go
no further, not because of geography but because of too many eyes being nearby.
He stopped and tried to knock a few of them asleep, but those standing wouldn’t
go down so easily, and the third one that he tried shook off the effect just
enough to stumble and fall over a small cliff, landing two meters down and
drawing the attention of the others.

When that happened the two that were asleep looked to
be dead at a glance and an alarm went up, prompting Donn to get moving before
they could figure out where he and the others were. Jumping out of cover he
ran, slide/hopping across two large boulders up to the nearest Hobbit and
punched him down into the ground, knocking him out with a single hit then
jumping another one before the first white orb lit up the dark cavern as he was
spotted.

Blue plasma streaks tracked the source of the orb and
killed that Hobbit, with many more popping up like fireflies as Donn ran about
gunning down the few easy targets he had before probing a little deeper and
eating up some of his shield energy, knowing that his battlemap would continue
to update until he eventually got too much attention and had to fall
back…fighting his way through more of the Hobbits that were seeming to come out
of the rocks from every angle.

A second blue plasma lance shot by him, followed by
three yellow beams that reminded him of the sentinels from Halo. They burned
into their targets for what seemed like an overly long period of time, but took
them down in single hits save for the Skarron that came charging down through
the widest gap in the rocks…and extremely angry from the brief emotional surge
Donn picked up from it when he pulled a location trace on the nearby minds.

As soon as the striker got back behind cover his
attention went directly to his battlemap, with the section from the other
acolyte not yet having been added…then suddenly it was, all at once as the
Archon popped up on the map some distance away but at higher elevation, giving
the signals line of sight, as well as his comm.

“Found another entrance with a group assembling.
Small enough for us to take if you’re not too busy.”

In the distance the other direction Donn felt a swell
of minds pop up on his Ikrid radar, making for a waterfall of enemies churning
down the chasm towards them.

“Might as well, we can’t go the other way,” the
striker said, switching to his exterior comm after telepathically telling the
other acolyte to get moving. “
Get moving
,”
he told the Dvapp. “
I’ll bring up the
rear
.”

3

Donn fired two plasma lances back into a pack of
Hobbits that were chasing him aboveground, with many more spilling out behind
them as he ran looking backwards but with his Pefbar on so he could see where
he was going without tripping over or running into rocks. The scout group had
managed to slaughter all the Hobbits in the assembly area, but that only seemed
to tick the rest off even more and they were pursuing them heavily as the group
came up out of the surface entrance and began fleeing across the complicated
terrain.

The other two Archons were on point, clearing any
Hobbit scouts in the way while leading the Dvapp out. All six were still with
them, but their physical size had shrunken after taking lots of body hits. The
tiny portions of their crystalline structure that had been vaporized by the
enemy plasma had been left behind as the rest of them reformed into whatever
shape they needed, but Donn knew they couldn’t keep getting whittled down
forever so he’d volunteered himself to play rear guard and harass their
pursuers long enough for the Dvapp to get away.

That was easier said than done given that he was
almost out of ammo, but he did have psionics to use. Right now he was just
trying to get some distance on the Hobbits, but a few dozen meters ahead he
came to a blind spot and disappeared from their view.

When the Hobbits got to that spot and turned the
corner he was gone…then suddenly they fell to the ground twitching as they got
hit by some invisible weapon. Two of their own plasma rifles flew up into the
air and into the Archon’s hands as he reappeared, with the Hobbits unable to do
anything as he shot them dead with their own weapons.

More enemies kept coming so Donn had to stay on the
move as his team made progress further to the east to where the Dvapp had a
forward firebase. It was little more than a camp, but it had some defensive
weapons and barricades that served the troops there. It was 4 kilometers off,
and with the damage the Dvapp had taken they weren’t traveling over ground as
fast as they had been on arrival so Donn needed to buy them as much time as
possible.

He thought about leading the Hobbits off another
direction, but nixed that idea with the thought of them splitting up and
catching up to the Dvapp from behind. Speed-wise that shouldn’t happen, for the
Dvapp were still faster, but with such an irregular terrain he wasn’t going to
risk them getting ambushed from behind and decided to keep fighting a rear
guard action while he monitored their progress via Ikrid.

Back and forth he ran, engaging a few then getting
some distance from the others only to come at them from another angle. Twice he
nearly got in over his head and took armor damage, but he succeeded in buying enough
time for the others to get a decent head start,
then
ran to catch up with them before they finally made it to the outpost.

Once there the task wasn’t done, for the Hobbits were
still following and appeared to be going to mount a full assault on the wide
ravine where the camp was. Donn grabbed some ammo from a small stash of Star
Force supplies there and headed back out, climbing up a small ridge and taking
a sniper position, more to see from than shoot, and plotted out his next
ambush.

Six hours later the camp was overrun and the survivors
were forced to retreat on a Dvapp cargo ship that came in to pick them up, but
overall more than 2,500 Hobbits lay dead throughout the ravine along with a few
dozen Dvapp, though their bodies literally melted away upon death, leaving only
a puddle of pure liquid goo behind.

When the transport brought the three Archons and some
211 Dvapp back to a city that hadn’t yet come under attack, Donn was flagged
down by a newly arrived detachment of some 22 commandos and the ranger that had
come with them. The striker jogged over to his fellow Archon who exchanged a
wrist clap, which had both men shaking hands by grabbing one another’s wrists
in a firm binary grip.

“Nice work out there,” the ranger commented. “Saw the
results on the way in.”

“Glad to have some more help,” Donn added, releasing
the Archon’s hand.

“Actually we’re your relief. Paul needs you in orbit
ASAP.”

Donn frowned. “What’s up?”

“He didn’t say, but knew you wouldn’t want to leave
the Dvapp
on their own
so he sent us to replace
you…immediately.”

Donn had mixed feelings about that. The region was
still far from secure, and no matter how many Hobbits they killed there always
seemed to be more to replace them.

“We’ve found a series of subsurface caverns that the
Skarrons are moving through. I wouldn’t recommend going down there again, but
we haven’t fully mapped out their tunnels. They’re using them to pop up where
we aren’t expecting them.”

“Peachy.”

“Any chance of air support?”

“Not yet, but we’ll do what we can to hold down the
fort.”

“Alright,” Donn said, having a bad feeling about
leaving. Ranger or not,
Donn’s
higher level psionics
were going to be missed in the swap out. “Good luck.”

“Likewise,” the Archon said, with the pair parting and
Donn heading for the nearby dropship that had brought the commandos in along
with a good pile of supplies.

He ran up the ramp and into the hold,
then
found the pilot conversing with a couple of
crewmembers.

“I take it you’re my ride?”

“As soon as we get the rest of the
cargo off, yes.
We’re supposed to take you directly to a ship waiting in
orbit.”

“What ship?”

“A transport.”

Donn frowned again. “Can you get me a comm to the
Excalibur
?”

“Just a minute,” the pilot stalled, finishing up his
conversion with the crew before they moved off to help unload crates, then he
moved into the cockpit and got a link to the command ship in orbit.

“There you go,” he said, giving Donn his seat.

A brief conversation via audio with the bridge crew
quickly brought about a small hologram of Paul’s torso appearing above the
cockpit control board.

“Sorry for the pullout,” the trailblazer apologized.

“What’s going on?” Donn asked, pulling his helmet off
and swiping at the sweat on his forehead with his armored fingertips.

“Not my idea,” Paul floated, “but Davis needs you.
There’s a situation brewing with the Lacvamat and with all his special teams
deployed to the front he wants you to come back to head up the investigation.”

“Me or all of Crimson Team?”

“Just you, as far as I know.”

“I trust this can’t wait?” Donn wondered aloud.

“53 million dead with the count rising by the day,”
Paul said flatly.

“What the hell?”

“There’s an information packet waiting for you, I’ll
let you sort through it without any commentary from me. The transport you’re
heading towards is leaving the system within 2 hours and will get you back to
Iona. From there you’ll have to make your own way.”

“Diverting even a transport for me is reckless with as
bad as we need supplies out here.”

Paul smirked, but it was a humorless smile. “I’m not.
It’s a scheduled return. Davis’s message came in 13 days ago. No point in
pulling you out until your ride was ready.”

“Thank you,” Donn said, realizing that Paul wanted him
down on the surface supplementing the Dvapp as much as the striker did.

“Figure this out. We’ve got enough on our plate as
is.”

“Understatement of the century,” Donn said as Paul’s
transmission cut out. He wondered just what the hell was going on back inside
the ADZ, but without Paul giving him any hints he was just going to have to
wait till he got to orbit to find out.

In order to make that happen sooner rather than later
Donn went back into the hold and helped with the cargo offloading, cutting a
few minutes off their schedule. Once the dropship was empty it took on a couple
more passengers, all Dvapp, and lifted off…flying first across the surface to
another landing zone in a major city where the crystalized aliens got off, then
the dropship headed straight up to orbit and into the hangar bay of a large
cargo transport.

Once onboard Donn was greeted by the Captain and taken
to temporary quarters where he could get out of his armor and cleaned up in the
interim before the transport left planetary orbit and met up with a distant
jumpship tucked safely away from the Skarron fleet far out in the system where
they couldn’t easy go. Donn ignored the shower and fresh set of clothes waiting
for him and sat down in his armor at the comm terminal and logged
in,
pulling up the message packet that Paul had promised
would be waiting for him.

There were several files of data, but the striker went
first to the personal message from Davis which became a small hologram set in
front of the
flatscreen
monitor and hovering over the
keyboard.

“I apologize for interfering with your efforts on the
front, but I need an experienced hand in this situation,” the Star Force
Director said without preamble. “Whether or not you need to pull more of your
team in or others is a decision I’ll leave to you. What we know as of now is
that on June 24th a ship exploded for no apparent cause in the atmosphere over
the Lacvamat world of
Leerbot
. Within a day a number
of illnesses began to register, followed quickly by a planet-wide epidemic. A
bioweapon is suspected but as of yet it hasn’t been identified nor who used it.
The planet is in lockdown and the Lacvamat are gearing up to start a war with
whoever they think did it.”

“They don’t know, but with more people dying by the
day they’re ready to blow a hole in whoever did. I need you to find out what’s
going on and take whatever steps are necessary in dealing with it. There’s no
time to bring you back to Earth to discuss this in person, so I’ll leave the
details to your discretion so you can get onsite as quickly as possible.”

“I don’t know where this investigation will lead, but
I get the feeling that it’s an inside job…and by that I mean another faction
within the ADZ. I have no proof of that, but with as much attention and
resources being focused on the war fronts there is still a high level of
animosity and competition between the races and without the ability to fight
conventional wars against each other due to our edicts and the Protovic and
Hycre backing us up, the belligerent ones may be reaching for secondary means
of conducting warfare.”

“The ship in question was a standard commercial
transport, no racial affiliation and belonging to an independent shipper that
apparently died in the explosion, though that hasn’t been confirmed. It appears
like a dead end attack with no way to backtrack to the source. We can’t have
that, or we’ll start to see more popping up and the interior of the ADZ could
end up turning into a third front. As you well know we don’t have the resources
to deal with that, so find out what’s going on and bust the appropriate heads.
I’ll deal with the backlash and fallout later.”

“I’ve attached all the data I have at present and will
send updates as they become available, but the Lacvamat are keeping a pretty
tight rein on this. They’ve agreed to allow us access, more as an unbiased
witness to legitimize their payback when they find out who’s to blame, I
imagine, than interested with any real help, but we’ll work with it none the
less. I’m told the bioweapon is race specific to the Lacvamat, given a number
of offworlders on planet that haven’t been infected, but they’re not allowing
anyone to come and go for fear of a second detonation. They’re quarantining the
various regions of their planet to try and keep it from spreading, and with a
local population of 4.3 billion the death toll could climb much higher if those
quarantines are breached…so expected resistance regardless of any permission
you’re given.”

“Beyond that I have little more to say. This is a very
bold attack, and one that I hadn’t predicted was coming. The races are
constantly making various moves against and with one another, but nothing this
overt. This is a game changer and I need information as to what’s going on if
I’m going to get back ahead of the curve. As you know, our guests in the ADZ
are here because they have nowhere else to go, not because they like each
other. Push things far enough and twist the right arms and things could get
very nasty very fast.”

“But above all else I need to know the truth about
what happened. Faster would be preferred, but I can’t operate off of guesswork.
Figure this out, Donn, before we start fighting a civil war that will giftwrap
the ADZ for the Skarrons and lizards.”

The striker let out a slow whistle as the hologram finished
and shut down. Now he understood why Davis would call him back from the front.
He’d originally thought the Director had crossed a line, but he should have
known better. The man was a civilian and knew not to get involved in military
affairs, but he was quite right in saying that if the races in the ADZ started
fighting each other it would take so many resources to stop that they’d be
handing the Skarrons an easy win, Voku help or not.

The Lacvamat had the largest military that wasn’t
currently involved in frontline warfare…and the fact that they weren’t meant
they’d essentially been piling up warships and resources to protect their own
systems against invasion. That was useful, because it meant Star Force and
others didn’t have to worry about them so much, but it also meant that if they
wanted to misbehave they could do a lot of damage.

An exploding cargo ship as the means to deliver a
bioweapon to a planet’s atmosphere was very odd…not to mention that a single
detonation could cause such a widespread contamination. Donn sifted through the
data Davis had sent but in it was not a chemical or genetic profile on the
‘weapon,’ which confirmed his suspicions as to why Paul hadn’t mentioned
such…the trailblazer wasn’t entirely convinced it was a bioweapon, and Donn
couldn’t disagree with so little data, most of which was just speculation on
the
Lacvamat’s
part.