Star Force: Starchaser (SF69) Read Online Free Page A

war
within their borders, so for them to travel outside them to invade a race that
seemed to keep to themselves on principle was a datapoint that he was not going to overlook. Something important had happened there, and
more importantly The Nexus had not scouted out the true strength of their
target, otherwise they would not have been so easily thwarted.
    The Elder had told him that The Nexus would not last,
and if they were actively pushing beyond their already oversized borders and
picking fights with others then he could see one of them pushing back and
wiping them out. He wasn’t sure if the Preema were capable of that or not, but
The Nexus had been given a break when they did not counterattack…or had they
anticipated that and the invasion been a probing mechanism?
    There was conflict there regardless, and given that
Cal-com was an ally of an ally with a member race of The Nexus could
potentially be an issue, but again, the Preema were seeking the Voku out. They
had to have a pretty big reason to do so and since it hadn’t come on the back
of an invasion force he didn’t think it was with hostile intention. Nor were
his forces anywhere near Preema borders, so a warning was probably not at issue
either. Cal-com had put out an open call for allies against the lizards, but
the Preema were so far away from them it didn’t seem likely that they would
take issue with the distant enemy…especially since the lizards’ tech level was
so low as to not pose a significant threat to them.
    Whatever was going on was important, for this was not
a low level race. That meant Cal-com needed to meet with their emissary
personally rather than rely on an intermediary. With language issues being
ever-present with first contact situations the less ambiguity involved in the
process the better. He didn’t want to bring the Preema here, so he decided to
go to them after he finished the review of their data packet.
    Cal-com transferred up to orbit and boarded one of his
conglomerates, taking it and it alone out of the system and across lizard
territory. Between the weaponry and the speed of his ships he had nothing to
fear from the lizards so long as he didn’t enter planetary orbit. Stopping a
conglomerate as it transitioned around a star was something the lizards just
couldn’t do, so even though he was in the middle of enemy territory it did not
matter. Most of the galaxy was empty space, and if you knew how to navigate you
could stay clear of the real ‘territory’ that races possessed, for dots on a
map were one thing, but the actual geography of a star system was mostly unclaimable
space.
    And if the lizards happened to have an ambush fleet waiting
along Cal-com’s course he wouldn’t mind a short delay to destroy some more of
their ships. The less they had the less danger they posed to his wards and
allies, despite their building capability. It might look like they had an
infinite supply of ships, but he knew that wasn’t true of anyone. Illusions
factored heavily into life, and the ignorant often took them at face value.
Every lizard ship he killed mattered in the grand scheme of the war even if he
never personally knew the implications of it.

 
 
    3

 
 
    June 19, 2825
    Djaret System (Voku
territory)
    Djar

 
    Cal-com stood on a neutral platform having been
constructed by the Preema on the surface of the Voku planet to serve as a
meeting place, for neither race could exist in the atmosphere of the other and
facilities on either’s ship were not accommodating to the needs for this
occasion. The Preema had anticipated this and brought the construct with them,
then having landed it within the oxygen-rich atmosphere once Cal-com had given
them permission.
    It had been inspected by his troops to ensure there
were no snares or hazards prior to his landing, with him walking up onto the
spherical platform that was bisected with a clear energy shield. His side held
the planet’s native atmosphere while the other held a