Star Force: Retribution (SF60) (10 page)

For the Dvapp this was their grand crusade, and a
world that they were taking from the enemy rather than being given out of
charity by Star Force. They liked and appreciated their ally very much, for
they had literally saved them from annihilation twice, as well as giving them
the fix to their chemical weapon vulnerability, but there was just something
missing for a race like the Dvapp if they weren’t able to stand on their own
merits.

It was true they had taken a lot of blows by the
Skarrons in order to shield Star Force and their allies, but those were still
losses. This was different because they were on the upswing and winning,
heavily, in this battle. The Voku were here to assist, so it wasn’t entirely a
Dvapp affair, but the responsibility for securing this world after the Voku
left would be entirely theirs and any reprisals by the lizards or Skarrons
would be theirs alone to handle.

And after that, when they’d built the planet up
considerably, they’d begin patrolling the surrounding systems, establishing a
small footprint similar to what the Voku had done. This system was their piece
of the gigantic puzzle and as pride had it the Dvapp were going to own it in
every way, shape, and form…with the chance to fight and kick the crap out of
the lizards being a sweet payback that was long in coming.

It wouldn’t be the last, for the Dvapp were staking
out their spot on the new front lines, with many more conflicts to come in the
following years as the lizards further consolidated their growing conquest of
the Skarron systems around the ADZ.

10

August 17, 2687

Zeta Region

Mid Jump

Vedja was in his personal quarters onboard his
flagship and had been there for several days, moving as little as he could for
his joints were paining him terribly. When H’kar neared the end of their life
one of three things typically happened…their carapaces weakened to the point of
cracking, their digestive systems malfunctioned and began to leak acid into the
rest of their body, or their carapaces
overhardened
,
extending their firmness into tissue where it didn’t belong.

The elderly H’kar was experiencing the latter, barely
able to move without extreme effort and pain. He only came to the command deck
when battle was imminent, and ever since this recent campaign had concluded
he’d become a recluse, with all food and other sustenance being brought to him
by a single aide. The rest of the crew didn’t have access to him, nor did Vedja
want them to. Right now the only thing he was holding onto was his duty, and
with his fleet on a return trip to Loki with a host of Li’vorkrachnika kills to
add to their already impressive totals he had nothing to do but review battle
data and wait for the next opportunity to be of value.

But he wouldn’t make it back to the Star Force core
worlds. Forcing himself out of his unrestful sleep he slowly walked across his
quarters, pushing through movements that felt like he was lifting weights given
the resistance in his joints as he headed to the adjacent chamber to relieve
himself. He wasn’t so far gone that he’d become completely sessile and was
determined never to be, with him putting as much effort as required to make the
short walk to where he could properly empty his internal bladder…which for a
H’kar couldn’t expand much given the rigid volume of their bodies.

Vedja made it halfway there when he felt something
inside him snap. A few moments later his vision blurred and he lost
consciousness, then a few minutes later he was dead…but standing in place, for
without the effort of his muscles his stiffened joints held him still like a
statue that his aide would discover several hours later.

When the younger H’kar entered the elder’s quarters
and found him frozen in place he knew immediately that he was gone, but did the
various biological checks to be certain. Before he informed the captain of the
dreadnaught he walked over to a storage compartment that Vedja had instructed
him to open on the occasion of his death, for inside it contained his final
orders.

The aide pulled out the small data storage device and
quietly input it into a nearby reader, seeing a mass of text as well as visual
records. He sorted through them, for they were itemized in great detail, even
as the statue corpse seemed to look over his shoulder as he did so. It didn’t
take long for the aide to find the order meant for him and read it through
thoroughly, for it was simple text only.

Complying with his orders he took the data device with
him and immediately had it copied, securing several in device form and hiding
them away within the ship before taking one to the Captain and informing him of
what had occurred.

That conversation occurred on a lightly staffed
command deck, for mid jump there was little to do but the Captain preferred to
remain there when on duty. There was no surprise when he revealed
Vedja’s
death, for they had known it was coming for a while
now. There was only a deep sadness and resignation, knowing the loss that the
H’kar had just suffered. Within the orders was one directed specifically to the
Captain and the aide referred him to it, then left the rest of the assigned
task in his hands, for now his only job was to preserve copies to insure that
they did not become ‘lost’ in the coming days.

There was no risk of that occurring on the
dreadnaught, for the crew were fiercely loyal to Vedja. The Captain immediately
read through the order specified for him, then had the crew carefully preserve
the elder’s body in a stasis pod that was put into storage until they arrived
back at their ever growing colony on Loki. It was then when the H’kar were
informed of
Vedja’s
passing and the Captain met with
the other H’kar commanders on the moon. They went through his final orders,
which were many…some not to take effect for years to come, but sending a
message via courier ship back to their empire was the first priority.

That message was not going back to the Royals,
however. It was going to
Vedja’s
former students,
many of which held high positions within the military and who had supported his
move to the ADZ. They had to be informed first, so as to prepare themselves for
what Vedja assumed would follow news of his passing reaching the empire at
large.

Gavra
received his message
first, via a specialized courier ship sent directly to him. His portion of the
orders, of which he got a complete copy, were extensive. Vedja did not want a
recall from the joint Star Force mission...in fact he wanted escalation and, if
his predictions were valid, a backdoor assault on the Li’vorkrachnika invading
the
H’kar’s
assigned Nexus territory.
Gavra
didn’t understand at first, then it finally clicked
that he wanted to turn Star Force’s territory into the primary warfront.

That was not going to go over well, for the idea of
fighting through the full length of enemy territory in order to get back to
H’kar space was ludicrous. They couldn’t even defend their own region, how then
were they expected to fight through the thickest and strongest Li’vorkrachnika
colonies?

But Vedja had a plan for that as well, and after the
third read through
Gavra
reluctantly agreed with his
former master…though he knew the Royals would never go through with it. It put
primary emphasis on aiding Star Force and defeating the enemy through them
while basically abandoning their Nexus mandate to protect their assigned
territory. On the face of it there was no possible way to convince others of
the wisdom hidden within the order, even with the numbers that Vedja provided.
Gavra
knew their significance, but others would not.

The H’kar fleet, under
Vedja’s
command, was killing so many enemy ships that they dare not assign them
anywhere else. They were actively pushing the Li’vorkrachnika back in several
areas and raiding even more systems deeper into enemy territory, racking up
results that the H’kar had never come close to matching throughout the entire
history of their losing war.

Vedja was adamant in his final orders that victory
could be achieved in a joint venture with Star Force and their assembled
allies, with or without other Nexus support, and his master implored his former
students to find a way to make it happen. For so long victory hadn’t been more
than a foolish notion for the H’kar, who were so decimated and demoralized
that, even when they received Nexus membership, only hoped to survive and hold
the enemy back.

Victory was what Vedja and others had long sought and
never achieved, so even a whiff of that sentiment from his old master put
Gavra
into a state of anxiety…for he knew that the Royals
would never allow them to do what was needed, but that if they had such a
chance they could not let it pass by and allow their enemy to continue to grow
stronger.

Fortunately Vedja had also included several
contingency plans, with one that seemed to fit the circumstance.

But this wasn’t something that
Gavra
could do alone, so he immediately sent out messages to
Vedja’s
other supporters informing them to gather at a rendezvous point so they could
discuss matters amongst themselves. Once the messages were sent the H’kar
departed on a ship of his own, traveling to the secret summit even as
Vedja’s
messages began to arrive at the others.

Slowly his followers began to assemble and take
action, whereas before they’d been spectators reading the reports coming back
from the ADZ. Now it was up to them, and they agreed that they would do
whatever was necessary to give the H’kar a chance at true victory and honor
Vedja’s
last orders, impossible as they were.

They considered keeping his death a secret from the
empire, but knew that word would eventually leak out or his absence would be
noted indirectly no matter how close a charade they concocted. It was also
noted that such a deception could backfire, so they decided to go with the
polar opposite and make his death public knowledge…but with a political push
going along with it.

It was many months later when
Vedja’s
body eventually returned to the empire, escorted by a massive honor guard fleet
that grew in number as it began a long ceremonial tour of each and every H’kar
world. With his body came the open publication of some of his final orders,
with
Vedja’s
students loudly declaring that they
would be followed and trying to preempt the Royals from making any decisions to
the contrary.

That built backlash that was contained but brewing,
with the Royals being patient but ready to begin removing
Vedja’s
supporters now that he was gone, one by one if necessary to keep the empire
calm and secure, but they had no intention of letting this presumptuous faction
gain
defacto
control.

That was until they began getting reports back of the
reaction that the ceremonial tour was having on the worlds
Vedja’s
remains were visiting…as well as the promise that victory was possible,
followed up with the legend’s last orders and predictions detailing what he
thought would happen if they were implemented.

The ground swell of support broke all expectations and
eventually became fervor, with the empire having been subconsciously waiting
for the seed of hope to grasp onto. The Nexus had once been that hope, but with
the stalemate that it brought that hope had faded, with it seeming that no
matter what the H’kar did they would never be able to defeat the
Li’vorkrachnika. For if even with Nexus support they could only survive and not
push the enemy back, with them being fated to be survivors at best and never
victors.

The combination of that lingering bitterness, the
gravity of
Vedja’s
death, and his assertion that
there was a way to win hit every world the honor guard visited like a storm,
reawakening belief in even the most ardent doubters when they saw that the
legend had not only promised a possibility of victory, but had laid out a
battle plan…his last contribution to the H’kar…of what exactly they had to do
to achieve it.

When word reached the Royals they went into a panic,
for there was no resisting this patriotic uprising. They immediately sought a
way to steer it off course or to put it to their own use, but with Vedja having
laid out in detail what had to happen, and his former students making sure
there was no misinterpretation allowed, there was no way to stop the uprising
short of instigating a civil war.

That possibility was considered as a necessary step in
order to maintain control, but the Royals’ military advisors pointed out that
such a drastic step would have cataclysmic effects on the empire…not to mention
the fact that most of the military would probably side with the patriots and
the Royals would end up losing their power in a full-fledged revolution.

For a long time the Royals were publically silent,
watching the ceremonial procession moving from planet to planet and gaining
supporters with each transition. When it finally culminated at their homeworld
they’d seen the writing on the wall and had arranged to back the supporters,
organizing and funding a much larger ceremony as
Vedja’s
body was brought to its final resting place

That place was a new monument built in the center of the
capitol city, with several very important buildings being leveled to create the
artificial plain amongst the chaos of the tightly packed infrastructure. In the
center of that 6 kilometer-wide plain was a single structure…a narrow spire
that reached up higher than any other object within the city, seeming to defy
the parameters of physics.

The ‘sky needle’ had at its base a single interior
room that held
Vedja’s
preserved corpse, still locked
into the rigid position of his death, and surrounded with the enshrined orders
that he had left for the H’kar so that anyone visiting the monument could look
upon him and receive the orders personally, with an endless line of visitors
forming outside and stretching back into the city.

That line would exist for years to come without a
break, and the site became the central rallying point within H’kar society. The
sky needle was the symbolic spear that would be sent into the heart of their
enemy, delivering them their long awaited retribution against the
Li’vorkrachnika. Eventually the buildings surrounding the monument would be
reconstructed to service the site and the pilgrimages being made to visit it.
Whatever small hope that the Royals initially had of their being able to wait
out the fervor and return the empire’s future into their hands withered away as
the public demanded reports of what was happening in the joint operations with
Star Force.

Those reports became the most important and
scrutinized news within H’kar society, and as the resources and ships continued
to flow out to the distant empire the impressive results only got better,
showing to everyone that the Li’vorkrachnika could in fact be beaten and the
H’kar learning in detail just how it was being done…with Star Force becoming
revered second only to Vedja himself.