Star Force: Empire (SF58) Read Free Page A

28, 2652
    Sului System (Beta
Region)
    Favrrcor

 
    Gam’len’wex ran through the small stream, kicking up
water as the Scionate bounded across in only eight footfalls, with the latter
two sinking into the mud on the bank and slowing him as he ran up the short
incline and back onto the trail he was following. The quadruped wore no armor
nor shoes, clothed only in a thin torso vest that had holes for his neck, legs,
and tail…the Scionate equivalent of a body suit.
    Behind him others followed, staggered a few seconds
apart, with two on ahead of Gam’len’wex as the group crossed through the still
wild regions of the planet that Star Force was rebuilding for them. They owed
the great empire a debt they felt they could never repay, and had been working
hard the past 6 years to prove their worth after hearing the stories of how
their forbearers had so dishonored themselves.
    Gam’len’wex had not been born at that time, but he’d
learned from others what had truly transpired. The records Star Force had
available to the maturias were incomplete, and it wasn’t until Gam’len’wex had
graduated and met others who had lived through that era that he’d learned the
truth.
    The Scionate had never been a united people, with
constant dissention and battling amongst themselves over various matters. When
the war to fight the attack by the Lacvamat began they were united in the
obvious sentiment to defend themselves, but how they did so and the subsequent
counterattacks they made were not universally supported. By the end of the war
those frustrated and ignored Scionate that had argued for a saner course of
action had an opportunity presented to them when Star Force and the other major
powers punished the Scionate for their actions by taking a number of systems
from them.
    The fools had fought back, which cost them further,
reducing the Scionate’s holdings down to only two
systems, each of which had a Star Force presence in it acting like a leash to
monitor the behavior of the dishonorable. The Lacvamat had lost all of their
systems due to their actions, but given that the Scionate acted mostly in
self-defense their autonomy was not stripped from them. They did, however, have
to relocate their populations from the confiscated worlds into those they
retained, with anyone staying behind falling under Star Force jurisdiction.
    Many of the original bloodlines that did not need to
evacuate because they were based in the capitol system sought out Star Force
and asked to arrange a deal in which they would be allowed to come over to the
Star Force worlds regardless of how many Scionate decided to stay behind, for
they were sick of the way Scionate society operated and felt that, in addition
to a form of penance for the bad decisions their kin had made, their sense of
honor could be better satisfied as part of the Humans’ empire.
    Ironically those bloodlines were one of the first
things to be disbanded by the Star Force conversion, with Gam’len’wex having
been born to parents that were unknown to him. He’d been raised in a maturia
and had no idea what former bloodline he belonged to, nor did he care, for the
new Scionate, the Star Force Scionate, did not think in such terms. They were a
united people who, regardless of whether they were new born or converted, were
committed to growing their small race into a military force capable of
assisting the rest of Star Force and earning their keep.
    Gam’len’wex had also learned that the conversion of
the originals did not go smoothly, for Star Force had to break them of many bad
habits…but they had been willing to try, and that willingness had set them
apart from other races, they’d been told, with the Scionate taking to the Star
Force ways far more quickly than others once they got past the first few
transitional bumps. They were adapting so rapidly, it was said that they were
being fast tracked towards higher status within the empire, even more so than
the Scionate within