Star Force: Penance (SF49) (7 page)

“All set,” she reported.
“You riding
single or buddy?”

“You can handle both of us?” Morgan asked.

“I can carry
a skeet
if I
have to. You guys weigh far less than that.”

“Let’s not waste time then,” Morgan said as Kara
turned around and spread her arms out into a ‘T’ with each trailblazer grabbing
hold of one of them at her elbow and reaching around with their other arm to
get a double wrist lock that they held at a 30ish degree angle down, giving
Kara two passengers, one on either side of her that kept her balanced.

“Ready?”

“Good.”

“Good,” Paul echoed, with Kara connecting to both them
via battlemeld to enhance their balance and grip as she lifted up into the air
a meter or so feeling their weight drag her arms down slightly, but her own
strength was supplemented by the powered nature of the Vorch’nas armor,
allowing her to remain in the ‘T’ as she started to fly them across with both
trailblazers holding on with her elbows buried in their chests and their legs
dangling freely.

Kara couldn’t fly nearly as fast, but the trip across
the sky wasn’t painfully long. They got across without drawing any alarm and
came up on the window that Kara had previously cut open with delicate ease,
leaving it in place but still severed. When she got within a dozen meters of it
she reeled back her right arm and threw Morgan towards it, pulling the pane out
telekinetically a moment prior to the striker ducking through it and landing
inside, falling into a somersault and coming up in sentry position, heading for
the nearest door in the empty and unlit room.

Kara got a bit closer then tossed Paul through, coming
in last herself while hovering the two meter wide circle of clear polymer back
into position, with the seam nearly disappearing given how fine of a cut Kara
had made. She walked up to it and welded it back in place at a couple of spots
to make sure it wouldn’t fall out, leaving their entry point nearly
undetectable…at least until someone came around to wash the windows and saw the
small crack.

“Where to?”
Morgan asked when
no new waypoint popped up in her HUD from Paul.

“Kara, find somewhere to hack in. I need you to get a
building layout and search for a few names.”

The red scale-clad Archon looked around, seeing
through the walls with her Pefbar and sighting a fiber bundle. She walked over
to that portion of the wall and punched inside it, grabbing the comm/computer
fiber in her armored hand and linking into it with the tiny hacking tendrils.

“I’m in.”

Paul responded by rattling off a list of names from
his HUD, with Kara throwing up waypoints for each one as she found them, giving
the trio potential locations for them to be found, some being personal dens and
others work areas.

“Hold on,” Kara said a moment later. “Number 1 on your
list just logged onto a terminal,” she said, isolating the location within the
building and throwing Paul a priority waypoint marked as 62 levels below them
in the same quadrant of the building.

“There’s timing,” Morgan commented.

“Best route,” Paul asked, with Kara giving them three
options with one highlighted, indicating a vertical shaft buried within the
walls.

“Nice,” Morgan said, walking to the door and taking a
look outside with her Pefbar as the trio got ready to move. “Looks clear, but
let’s let the shadow go first just the same.”

“My pleasure,” Kara said, her scales disappearing into
a null void shadow that really did disappear within the dark room, then became
‘visible’ again as she opened the door and walked out into the hall, more optical
illusion than silhouette.

7

Ken’slan pawed the button, scrolling to the next
report on the fighting on Admat, limited as they were. He had access to more
information than the news kiosks, but still he was getting an incomplete
picture of what was happening. Suddenly the Scionate had decided to invade the
Star Force world, and from the pieces that he was pulling together the leader
of the Grisst bloodline was coming to the unlikely conclusion that they had
actually lost…and lost badly, but no official reports had made their way to the
public as of yet, which was unusual, for as a race the Scionate fiercely
supported one another. When one went into combat, all did, at least from a
moral standpoint, thus news of battles was not meant to be suppressed.

The news Ken’slan was getting was fresh, but something
of the launch of the attack should have been made public, with all the notice he
got being a copy of the military orders forwarded to him by members of his own
bloodline on the ships and in the ground forces that had been hastily
dispatched.

The quadruped went to step on the button again, but
suddenly his limb froze up, as did the rest of his body as he went stiff and
unable to move. A sickly feeling crept through him as he was paralyzed, then
panic broke out as he saw a biped figure walk into his gaze, recognizing the
tell-tale Archon armor that Star Force used.

“
Calm yourself
,”
Morgan said, taking off her helmet as she stood in front of him a couple of
meters and stared down into his fixed eyes across the console. “
We’re here to talk, not to fight…at least
not yet. I will release you, but if you flee or attempt an alarm I’ll
immobilize you again. Understand?
”

Ken’slan couldn’t answer, but a moment later his body
returned to his control and he took an involuntary step back into a combat
crouch…which was when he noticed two more Humans behind him. He half looked
back at them, then eased up slightly, but he was still ready to pounce if
needed.

“
What did you do
to me?
” he growled.

“
We have
abilities that others do not
,” Morgan said evasively. “
Get used to it
.”

Ken’slan’s
eyes narrowed. “
Why are you here?
”

“
Vensiol has to
go, one way or another. We’re offering you the chance to do it yourselves
before we’re forced to do it
.”

Ken’slan didn’t reply, but just stared into the
Human’s pale face. “
Tell me what has
happened on your world. I only have pieces of information
.”

Morgan crossed her arms over her chest, black armor
rubbing against itself with a whisper of a scrape. “
The Scionate violated the terms of colonization. Meat farms were
established outside the ADZ and you’ve been smuggling it in trying to avoid
detection. We found out and are even now putting a stop to it on other Scionate
worlds. The three of us came here the other day to deliver a message and a warning
to your leaders that such violations would not be tolerated. We delivered it
personally to the Chieftans, leaving a few injuries as a reminder but killing
no one. I doubt you missed the spectacle?
”

Ken’slan growled again, more at what the Human was
saying than as a threat. “
I am aware that
there was a disturbance, but nothing has been said of it officially. Our troops
were summoned to battle and little has been mentioned of it since.
”

Morgan looked to Paul.
“So much for
our big demonstration.”

The other trailblazer sent her a telepathic question,
letting her handle the meet and greet.

“
Your troops
,”
Morgan continued, “
were sent to our world
where they launched an invasion and subsequently got a lot of themselves
killed. We lost some people, which is something we cannot let pass. We’d prefer
not to have to conquer your entire civilization, but we will if we have to.
We’re here to seek another option, one that has your bloodline replacing
Vensiol
.”

Ken’slan wanted to hiss in defiance of what would
essentially be treason, but he held his composure and considered what the Human
was saying, still unnerved by its ability to take control of his own body away
from him, but with a growing anger at the leading bloodline if the Human’s
claims were even half true.

“
If you have
slain Scionate blood, you will have blood in return
.”

Morgan pointed a finger at his blunt muzzle. “
We came here to break bone and flesh, but we
did not kill. We also wanted to show you that we are not incapable of enforcing
the terms of colonization
,” she said, hacking into his mind again and
forcing the Scionate to sit on the floor and look up at him, unable to do
anything but watch. “
Your leaders didn’t
get the message
,” she added, finally releasing him.

Ken’slan stood up again, angry, but wise enough to
continue to listen. “
There were rumors
floating around from the incident at the den, but we dismissed them as the
ravings of those who had failed to acquit their duties.
”

“
Not rumors
,”
Morgan said, telekinetically lifting him into the air on her own accord without
having to link with Paul for extra power.
Ken’slan’s
eyes went wide with shock and horror at his own helplessness, and Morgan let
him paw the air for several seconds allowing that to sink in.

“
If we wanted
you dead, you would be
,” she said simply, then lowered him down and
released her grip. “
You’re supposed to be
our allies. It’s time you started acting like it. Either you fix your empire or
we will, and we don’t have a lot of time to offer you. We have to deal with
Vensiol quickly before an interstellar war erupts between Star Force and the
Scionate. You would lose that war, but it would be costly enough to us that it
could jeopardize the safety of the ADZ…and if we have to go to those lengths to
rectify the situation, your race will lose your sovereignty as a consequence
.”

This time Ken’slan did growl reflexively, then thought
better of it and began thinking…hard and fast.

“
Are you certain
that we spilt blood first?
”

“
The first blood
was on our world when you invaded it, though technically Scionate died before
Humans did because your people fought stupidly. We were forced to slaughter hundreds
of thousands of them in order to defend ourselves, perhaps millions. The actual
number we are uncertain of, but it was on our world that your people were
assaulting. Your fleet began by destroying a defense platform in orbit. It was
unmanned, though I’m not sure if they knew it or not. We didn’t start this
fight, but we did finish it…and now we have to truly finish it before it
escalates. If your bloodline is unwilling to take the lead then we will find
another, and another, and another until we run out of candidates or simply grow
bored from looking and decide to do things the hard way
.”

“
You keep
repeating that threat as if it is your preferred choice
.”

“
No, I keep
repeating it because we said the same thing to your leaders and they ignored
it. This is the Scionate’s last chance to regain their honor and fix their own
problem before we have to do it for them…and on our terms, which I can
guarantee that you will not like. You are independent, and with that privilege
comes
responsibilities
.”

“
So it does
,”
he finally agreed. “
But you will find
that Scionate do not respond well to bullying
.”

“
Humans don’t
respond well to oathbreakers
.”

Ken’slan hissed. “
Nor
do
we
. If your claims are true then there is an
accounting that must take place here, but I will not take your word for it. I
must see it for myself
.”

“Kara?”

Ken’slan turned when he heard the faint whisper of
footsteps behind him. The one Human that wasn’t dressed in traditional armor
walked up next to the Scionate, seemingly unphased by the combat threat that he
was, and nudged him aside to get her arm to his console…whereupon it began to
malfunction, shutting off and reactivating with new displays and a wealth of
information.

“
See for
yourself then
,” Morgan said, pointing down at the images as Kara retreated
back to her waiting position with Paul as the two made sure to keep any
visitors out with subtle Jedi mind tricks being played on anyone that approached
in the exterior hallway to keep them walking past and forgetful of the door
that led to this chamber. “
Data from the
meat farm and the interrogation of the pseudo-independent group running them,
their link to the Scionate, and a full copy of the battle data from yesterday.
”

“
Your
technological edge has been severely underestimated
,” he said with
annoyance as he stepped forward and started looking through the images,
statistics, and reports written in the trade language, knowing that this might
be part propaganda as well, but he was curious and the Humans didn’t seem to be
in a mind to take ‘no’ for an answer.

Still on edge with the Humans’ presence, Ken’slan
searched through the records from the farm, seeing that most of the individuals
involved were not Scionate, as the Human had indicated. A few were, but they
were rogues and not part of the empire’s forces…but it was the linkage between
the organization and its employers that was damning, as was the records of
where they had been shipping the meat and to whom.

The Scionate had not liked the meatless edict that
Star Force had imposed on the ADZ originally, but they had agreed to it like
the others and now their youngest generation had lived their entire lives
without eating meat, which was becoming the norm even for Ken’slan. Though he
still craved the taste of it, even he now admitted it was a dishonorable
practice. That hadn’t always been the case, but since it had been forced on
them he’d gained a new perspective and was now in agreement with Star
Force…though not nearly as passionate about it.

What their records indicated was that the Scionate
leadership had organized special privileges for favored individuals to get the
meat shipments. While the Humans were probably unaware of the significance of
the locations the meat was being shipped to Ken’slan was not, and right then and
there his allegiance to Vensiol ended. Grisst had reluctantly worked with them
in the past because they appeared mostly level headed and honorable, but the
kind of backroom dealing these records implied…and there was no way the Humans
could have faked them without knowing the inner relationships between the
bloodlines…was dishonorable.

If one had a dispute then one aired it out. Likewise,
if one made a pact, they didn’t do so in secret…let alone say one thing to one
group and say the contrary to others. Truth, forthrightness, and leadership
went hand in hand, with Vensiol now leading the Scionate down the path of
dishonor along with several other bloodlines that Grisst vehemently hated…and
to top it off, they’d offered them the meat and not Ken’slan. Perhaps they knew
he would have objected to it or the betrayal of the oath they took when moving
their race to the ADZ, but regardless these records showed that Vensiol had made
a number of secret pacts, ostensibly to keep
themselves
in power when their leadership ability became insufficient.

An honorable bloodline would have stepped aside and
let another with more skill tailored to the present challenges their race faced
take the lead…but this farming activity was incontrovertible proof that they’d
become greedy and disrespectful to the duties of leadership, and for that alone
they had to be removed.

Ken’slan kept that revelation out of his face as he
shifted over to the battle records, seeing the sudden and violent assault on
Admat unedited and reconciling the disparate reports he’d been getting in. He
saw his people attacking with great power and forthrightness, as was proper,
then, like a giant beast waking from its sleep, Star Force rose up to meet the
challenge and slew them with such efficiency and ease that it galled Ken’slan
to be standing next to them now.

What made it worse was that they were in the right.
Many of his brothers and sisters had died in an unjust battle that the Vensiol
had ordered simply to assuage their own pride, which Ken’slan also saw, from
the Human’s perspective, as there was helmet cam video from their ‘warning’ to
the leading bloodline.

The way these two, for he assumed they were the same
pair, had gone about it had been greatly insulting to the Scionate there…and he
wholeheartedly agreed with their approach, and their restraint. Had Ken’slan
done the same there would have been deaths involved, but that was different,
considering it was an internal matter. For the Humans to come here and
physically assault the Scionate leadership, well, they had done so in an
honorable manner. In fact, they’d done it perfectly, given that they were in
the right, and Ken’slan now saw that they’d done so as a favor.

Star Force was their ally, and they’d dealt with the
Scionate in a friendly manner.
Warrior to warrior.
They’d given them a chance to make amends, and what did Vensiol do? They’d
doubled down and increased their dishonor…and in the process had gotten many
loyal Scionate soldiers killed in a battle that should not have happened, and
one where they were in the wrong.

That ate at Ken’slan more than anything, and even
though he hadn’t personally taken part in the battle he felt just as guilty.

“
How many of your
people were killed?
”

“
A few hundred
,”
Morgan answered.