Star Force: Bloodlust (SF54) (10 page)

Ven’poi
knew they couldn’t
win, so he focused on doing damage. Every enemy he killed here without getting
himself shot down would be one less the Lacvamat would have to throw against
other Scionate tomorrow. With that in mind he engaged the enemy fighters when
and where he could, but when they tried to draw him off towards one of the
heavies he let them go, dipping down to the upper edge of the swarm and killing
dozens more infantry there before the fighters returned to chase him off again.

Eventually the outpost beneath them was overwhelmed,
but the newly arrived ground troops were holding position a kilometer outside
it with a tight cluster of tanks with infantry around them firing up randomly
into the air and managing to hit the Lacvamat infantry enough to do damage,
even when their plasma spit only brushed against them. The tank blasts did far
more damage, and through sheer number of weaponsfire the swarm began to thin.

Then like clockwork when their numbers diminished to a
predetermined level, the Lacvamat swarm turned and fled, all of them, in a
matter of seconds as their fighters flew around behind them, covering their
exit as they left the Scionate ground troops behind to reclaim what was left of
their orb-battered outpost.

Ven’poi
tried to chase after
them, but their fighters wouldn’t let him or the others get close to the swarm
that was now tightly bunched up to make it easier to protect as they flew rapidly
across the landscape back towards one of their surface encampments, which were
literally prefabricated vertical buildings where the flyers would roost.
Ven’poi
desperately wanted to bust one of them up, but
their defenses were too strong to go up against with anything less than a full
ground assault…or a warship.

But still, the idea was to hurt and stall the enemy.
With that momentarily accomplished the Scionate pilot flew back over his own
troops, waiting for orders on where to go next and getting a recall order to
his carrier transport. He flew back inside the bay and set it down on the
appropriate spot, then abandoned the cockpit and let the crew move it to where
they wanted for service and repair, for he’d taken a few hull hits during the
fighting.

Others hadn’t been so lucky, and a number of slots in
the bay remained empty. Pushing aside thoughts of the dead, he headed further
into the grounded ship to get some water and an update on their next
mission…keeping himself ready to be called to the hangar at any time. They’d
come down directly into the heart of the fighting and it was unlikely that they
were going to get much of a respite, for the enemy was hungry for their world
and wouldn’t be denied for long.

How soon the rest of the Scionate military arrived
would determine the fate of this planet, and
Ven’poi
truly didn’t know who would come out the victor, with only the relentless bloodshed
to come being a certainty.

10

January 29, 2553

Plenx
System (Dvapp
Territory)

Rvitx

Paul read through Morgan’s report, his anger growing
at the Scionate, but he wasn’t overly surprised. This was the third notice that
had come through the relays of Scionate units suddenly abandoning their
assignments. A day ago he had gotten the answer as to why…the Lacvamat had cited
that it was the Scionate who had launched the bioweapon on
Leerbot
and the avians had subsequently attacked one of their systems in response.
Given the amount of troops the Scionate had devoted to the border they were at
a disadvantage to the otherwise inferior Lacvamat, necessitating the recall to
defend themselves against what, according to the few reports had made their way
out to Paul, was a huge offensive.

But that didn’t excuse the Scionate leaving other
troops behind. According to Morgan they didn’t even tell her they were leaving,
just up and pulled out in the middle of fighting resulting in many dead
soldiers and even Morgan had to pull a Houdini just to survive. Paul didn’t
care if Earth was under V’kit’no’sat attack, he wouldn’t sacrifice others to
return to defend his home a few hours early.

Fortunately some of the other Scionate commanders had
been more tactful, informing the Star Force and Protovic troops that they were
leaving but still offering no explanation. Paul expected that was because they
didn’t want to argue when their minds were already set, but regardless of their
motivation they’d just significantly weakened the Skarron front and handed the
enemy two worlds that were in contention…maybe more, with the reports filtering
in through the relay grid and those, like Morgan’s, that had to get back to a
grid nexus just to log in and be sent.

There were no Scionate units in
Plenx
,
so Paul hadn’t lost any of his troops but several other systems had. He wanted
to send some of his off to counter the losses but he couldn’t afford to do so.
He’d finally gotten the Skarron offensive on
Rvitx
pushed into a stalemate and was using it to reset the battlefield to his
liking. Given time he’d push the Skarrons back but he needed all the troops he
could get to do it. The fighting was still heavy and looked to favor the enemy,
yet Paul could read between the lines and knew he just about had them beat, so
long as there weren’t any surprises heading his way.

No, he couldn’t reinforce anyone else. The best he
could hope to do was win this campaign quickly so he could leave it in Dvapp
hands and move off to another…but this was a planet he was talking about and
taking it back from the enemy wasn’t going to be easy nor quick, and it was
going to take his unique skills to lead them to do it, so he couldn’t redeploy
himself either.

If the weakened systems were going to get reinforced
it wasn’t going to come from him…which he explained in detail in a message that
he sent out, hoping some of the others would be in a better position to help.
If it wasn’t for the Voku disrupting the Skarron reinforcements the Scionate
and Lacvamat would have just handed the enemy the border worlds...and he wasn’t
entirely sure that they hadn’t. Right now there were at minimum 12 systems that
were vulnerable. He didn’t know if the Skarrons could take advantage of that or
not with the limited fleets they had, but those with troops already on the
ground were beginning to roll over the weakened opposition.

Paul expected more updates to come in emphasizing that
point, but his hands were tied so he tried to put it out of mind and focus on
the problems before him…reclaiming the Dvapp planet and preserving the
surviving civilian population while killing as many of their warships as
possible.

Morgan waited for the boarding ramp to lower fully
before she walked out the back of the
Eagle
-class
dropship and onto the plaza surrounding the Scionate ruling den on Vaadsip,
leaving about a 300 meter walk between the ship and the entrance with
yellow-armored quadrupeds surrounding it and blocking her way. They began to
part as she got close, seeing that she had no weapons, opening a path to her up
to a pair of Scionate standing in front of the closed doors in their ceremonial
armor, indicating that they were permanent guards assigned to the den rather
than the standard military versions surrounding it as backup security.

“
Permission is
required prior to entry, Human
,” one spoke, referencing the fact that
Morgan’s dropship had simply informed the Scionate that it was coming down. The
Scionate hadn’t fired on it, despite their never agreeing to let it land, but
giving her access to the ruling den wasn’t going to happen, especially after
what had happened the last time she was here…though it was for that reason that
the other guards were giving her extra room as she passed through them. Her
armor color had changed and the designed thinned down a bit, but otherwise she
was still the same intimidating presence that she’d been when she, Paul, and
Kara had kicked the old bloodline out of power…for which this one was still
grateful.

Morgan didn’t stop walking forward, nor did she say
anything. There was a brief staring match as she approached the two, then when
it appeared she was going to walk between them they moved to block her way.

With a single stiffened palm, she pushed her arm
forward on the go and threw both armored Scionate back through the air and into
the closed doors with a concussive energy blast, bouncing them off it hard and
dropping them to the ground.

“
Open the doors
or I will myself
,” she said loudly, coming to a standstill a few meters in
front of the tall, closed entrance.

She let her demand sink in for a long moment, then
when there was no response she pulled back her arms into a Kamehameha position
and readied a large blast to begin breaking through when the doors cracked open
and began to slowly pull apart. The two shell-shocked guards stepped aside at
the insistence of others that had received a comm message from those inside and
got out of Morgan’s way as she continued to walk forward, meeting up with a
ceremonial honor guard that led her in and through the building…more to keep
others from interfering with her than to keep her from going where she wanted,
which was obviously next to impossible to do with the Archon.

When they came to the audience chamber the guards
stayed outside, allowing her private access to the room…that held only a single
occupant. As she walked inside the doors closed behind her, sealing her inside
with the Scionate leader, Jen’ton, coming down off his pedestal and meeting her
halfway wearing no armor.

“
I do not
apologize for the recall order
,” he said stoically

“
One hour
,”
Morgan said icily. “
One hour and I could
have arranged a pullout. Your people gave no warning and left in the middle of
battle. I lost 26,481 soldiers, most of my fleet, and the planet because you
idiots couldn’t open a comm channel
.”

The Scionate’s eyes narrowed. “
Where was this?
”

“
Weema
.”

Jen’ton frowned and turned around, walking back to his
pedestal and accessing the controls there to bring up the battle reports. It
took him a moment to find the ones for the system Morgan had mentioned, then
even longer for him to read through them.

Morgan gave him time, her anger not abating with it.

Finally the Scionate leader shut off the holograms and
turned around. “
If what you say is true I
have no record of it. Our troops recalled from there withdrew without incident.
”

“
I was on the
planet at the time.
”

Jen’ton looked up at her. “
I will investigate the matter further. If the commander in question
abandoned his post prematurely he will be punished for it
.”

Morgan took a step forward and suddenly Jen’ton found
his throat constricting and his body being lifted up into the air with his legs
and backside dangling from an invisible grip.

“
Twenty six
thousand
,” Morgan repeated ever so slowly, “
four hundred and eighty one of my people are dead because of the
Scionate. The planet we fought to retake is now fully in the hands of the
enemy. My ships were destroyed trying to save as many of us as we could
evacuate in the time you didn’t give us. The entire front is now weakened and
vulnerable to a Skarron push, with even a small one now capable of taking more worlds.
You betrayed us and the entire ADZ
.”

“
Re…
lease
me
,” Jen’ton demanded.

Morgan held her Vader
choke,
pinching her fingers a little closer together and tightening her grip while she
pulled her helmet off with her other hand, then tossed it onto the ground to
her left.

“
We told you
that we would not tolerate any more misdeeds
,” she said as the doors far
behind her burst open and the guards rushed in, running over to where she was
strangling their leader with her magic.

Morgan raised her ‘free’ hand, though technically her
other one wasn’t necessary other than for theatrics, and summoned up a surge of
Jumat, pooling it outside her armor for a moment then throwing it out in a
hemispherical wave as the guards got within a few meters of her and Jen’ton, bowling
them over with ease while her body didn’t so much as twitch.

“
Killing…me
won’t…change anything
,” Jen’ton said defiantly.

“
I was going for
pain
,” she said, taking a quick moment while the guards gathered themselves
to access the Scionate’s mind and inject a stinging pain sensation…the feeling
of a plasma burn from her distant memory translated as best she could into
Jen’ton’s
realtime senses. She forced it into his mind for
only a second, just enough to get his attention before she telekinetically threw
him over top of her and to the ground in front of the guards as she opened up
and emitted the largest Fornax field she could, sending everyone around her
also the ground.

She held the effect, simultaneously targeting one mind
at a time and sending the Scionate individually into a deep sleep, neutralizing
the guards until half of them were down and staying down, then she released the
field and began to pick off the others in twos and threes, leaving Jen’ton to
slowly stand up in the center as his dozens of guards were dropping like flies
around him.

“
Blame the
Lacvamat!
” he roared, both fear and anger in his tone. “
They invaded us. We have to defend our own
worlds!
”

Morgan didn’t answer, still looking at and dropping
guards as more came in and ran over to the fallen others. One actually fired
a plasma
shot at her, but she saw it coming and put out a
telekinetic ‘net’ that actually caught the fiery ball of gas a few meters in
front of her. She held it in place and let its glow fade out into nothingness
before releasing the now hot air into the room…then she pointed at the one who
had fired at her and sent a Jumat blast his way, knocking him back four meters
to where he skidded across the ground and into the legs of another oncoming
guard.

“
What would you
have us do?
” Jen’ton demanded as she continued to mow down guards with her
‘sleep stun.’ “
Let the Lacvamat take our
worlds and kill our people? They are already close to doing that with the
troops we recalled. We must defend our own kin!
”

Morgan swiped an arm through the air sideways and
bowled back another half dozen at range, then finally looked at Jen’ton, who
was crouching three meters away and to the right. “
Not by sacrificing others.
”

“
We have a right
to defend our own first
.”

Morgan’s rage ticked up a notch when he said ‘right’
and she telekinetically grabbed him again, dragging him across the floor and
under her. She dropped a knee down on top of him and held him in place while
once again emitting a huge Fornax field, dropping all the conscious guards in
the room, then picking off a few more with her sleep stun before finally
relenting and seeing
Jen’ton’s
eyes focus on her
again as his body began to recover its function.

“
You speak of
honor as the foundation of Scionate society…but the truth is you have none.
What you have is a bastardized version that puts you and your kin above all
others, and where they cross swords with honor to you slay it to justify your
own pride. Those you abandoned on the front are no less valuable than those at
risk to the Lacvamat. You could have
withdrew
your troops
in conjunction with us, we could have formed a plan that would have kept the
front relatively secure with no unnecessary losses but you didn’t give a damn
about anyone else! You just up and pulled out…and to what, fight the Lacvamat?
”

Morgan raised her arm again and threw out another
Jumat wave, knocking down the guards that kept trying to get close to her and
their besieged leader despite the mounting bodies all around testifying to the
stupidity of that notion.

“
Your military
is superior to theirs
,” Morgan bit out. “
You didn’t recall everyone to defend yourselves. When your pathetically
slow jumpships finally arrive you’re going to push them off the worlds they
have taken and then annihilate them for the impudence of attacking you! You let
my troops die to go on a bloodlust!
”

Morgan repeated her Fornax field, taking down and
neutralizing a few more before continuing to speak.

“
The Lacvamat
claim you poisoned their world. They’re reacting the same way you are.
Irrationally and dishonorably striking back at their supposed
enemies
.”