Star Force: Temple Wars by Aer-ki Jyr (fox in socks read aloud .txt) 📗

return with more knowledge of the Hadarak our people have never possessed, along with the ability to control them the way their masters do. That is how I managed to escape.”

“Then you control this one?”

“No. I don’t have to. He is my friend.”

“What’s this I hear about the Endgame happening now?”

“We are on the cusp of it and ill prepared. Star Force is triggering it, though I am not sure how and neither do they. The lightside will trigger it when sufficiently advanced, and it will draw many enemies here. We will not be that enemy.”

“Good. This has been a wasteful war. Will they accept a truce?”

“No, Commander. They will accept nothing less than full allies. I have Director Davis’s full confidence and friendship. As long as I am leading the Neofan, the war is over and we will both prepare to face the Endgame war.”

“You are not the Reignor,” the Overseer sneered, only to have the Commander kick him in the back of the knees and force him to the ground.

“Take this one and all others that refuse to obey, or who wish to leave, to the portals and send them to the nearest Zotav. Out of respect they will not be killed, but I want them out of our way.”

“What of Truven?”

“Where is he?”

“Hiding in your quarters and rarely comes out. The Diem moves around giving the orders and daring you to question their authority to do so. They deserve to die, Reignor.”

“Is there one here?”

“I don’t think so. We’re stationed here to prevent Star Force from taking it back, but otherwise this entire Temple has been tainted with the stench of failure. It’s where they send those of us who don’t enthusiastically follow orders the moment they are given. Do you wish to come onboard?”

“No, but I do need Essence. My personal well is nearly depleted.”

“Most impressive, Reignor. Even I thought you were outmatched.”

“I want an accounting of every Neofan here. They serve or they leave. Who else is in the Temple?”

“A lot of Vargemma, but we were told to execute all Star Force personnel. Some escaped into hiding, and when I have occasionally spotted traces of them I’ve ignored them. I don’t know how many, but most are dead.”

“Secure the Temple first. I expect a reprisal to hit us before we can spread to another Temple, and I don’t want to have to worry about who is loyal and who is not. We need to find out now, and fast.”

“Then you need to make an announcement to the entire Temple and declare your return. I’ll be able to sort out after that which ships are loyal and which ones will have to be taken, but I think we can avoid a lot of unnecessary fights if we display the recordings of what happened here and you make your demands known immediately…but not while you’re an easy target out in the open.”

“Agreed. I’ll travel in the catacombs until the fleet is secured, but I’ll transmit from your landing craft.”

“Give me a moment to set it up,” he said, kicking the overseer once more for good measure before turning around and heading into the ship.

Plausious lifted the Overseer to his feet with the wave of his hand, then looked the other Neofan in the eyes from only a few finger lengths away.

“They will not submit,” the Overseer warned.

“I don’t expect they all will. When you get to the Zotav, know this. If one day you lose your insanity and wish to rejoin the Neofan, you are welcome to do so along with any other exiles. I now wonder how many good people we sent out there simply because we did not understand that we were in the wrong. I have a lot of blood on my hands from the past, but I am clean of it now because I have chosen another path and acted on it. You always have that choice, no matter where you go or what you do. Never forget that.”

“I hope House Mutavi burns this entire galaxy down.”

Plausious leaned in even closer. “They are welcome to try.”

8

The fighting didn’t take long to escalate elsewhere in the Temple, and almost as soon as Commander Yuer returned to his warship two others were redirected to his position with orders to his crew to relieve him of possession of it.

That didn’t go over well, and the few that tried were quickly subdued but not killed, with Yuer bringing his ship to battle status and authorizing full use of reserve Essence…something that was never done, given how precious it was. Even in the retreat from Utovi the warships rarely risked deplenishing their full reserve to the point of nothing. If they did so, the ship would only be able to fight using conventional weaponry and conventional defenses…but in this situation his going to full burn would force the other ships to do the same, else they would be easily defeated.

Gjardans had been designed to fight the Hadarak’s Essence-capable units as well as their swarms, and in order to do so they had to have significant burst capability in order to take out targets before they could exchange damage. This was also useful against most other races, but the longevity wasn’t there for their maximum output, which was why Yuer and the other fleet commanders had been taught to only draw on their Essence reserves on a limited basis as necessary, and missions that required a deep draw were hardly ever assigned.

That’s why his ship powering up to full on weapons and defenses shocked the two approaching ships into a slower closing rate as they were most likely querying the Truven’s command staff that ran the Temple about how to proceed. That may or may not have included Fero, but the intercepted messages to the two warships