Star Force: Quenar (SF88) (Star Force Origin Series) Read Free Page B

more
ships.”
    “That we did, along with reports of more unidentified
ships heading our way.”
    The trailblazer’s hologram frowned. “A lot?”
    “A lot of stragglers. None have shown up here yet.”
    “There must be some information network in place that
we’re unaware of. This is too much common knowledge for such a short span of
time.”
    “Agreed. Now that we’re back inside our territory, I’m
going to lag behind and have a chat with those ships following us. I’ll catch
up later.”
    “You, or you and the fleet?”
    “Just my command ship. The rest, including the Calavari,
go ahead of Nami as usual. I’ll leave Brayden in charge.”
    “What if they don’t feel like talking?”
    “Then we get to see how fast their ships are.”
    Riley smiled. “Have fun. We’re blowing through this
system, so if you wait here you might be able to intercept them on arrival. If
they know our pattern, they’ll know they have to get here quickly to see which jumpline
we take out.”
    “Good idea. I got the rear. Move along.”
    “Moving,” Riley echoed, cutting the comm line.
    “You seek a confrontation?” the Oracle asked.
    “More like a greeting,” he said, adjusting the
commands to the fleet and his bridge with a few thoughts. “But I intend to get
a response this time.”

 
    Jason watched the Zeus move around the curve of the star and out of sight as the Sanguine Blade picked up small amount of arrival deflection, the
super-accelerated light coming off the star and hitting the approaching ships,
picking up their speed and sending it back into the system faster than
naturally possible. It was a very small amount, but enough to give him a heads
up that they were coming about 20 seconds before they otherwise showed up on
sensors.
    Or rather the first ship. It was long and spiked with
cross bars, a design that Jason had gotten used to seeing in their wake. It
came to a halt only 3,281 kilometers away from the command ship, with Jason
immediately signaling to it.
    “Attention unidentified vessel. You are now within
Star Force-controlled territory. Identify yourself.”
    It didn’t respond before the second ship arrived, nor when
the third got there less than a minute later. Jason didn’t know if that was
because they couldn’t understand the message, which he’d transmitted with
copies in every known language, or if they were just ignoring him, but none of
the ships moved past their braking position. They held at the jumppoint, staring
down the command ship, until the third ship finally responded with a text
message written in Ancient.
    We are
monitoring the path of the Hamoriti.
    That was something, but it wasn’t an identification.
    “Identify yourselves,” Jason repeated, then waited for
a response as the first ship suddenly took off.
    With a though, the Sanguine
Blade went after it. Accelerating for all it was worth around the star at a
bad angle but keeping up with the ship as it raced around the curve of the
gravity well to get into sight of the convoy just prior to it jumping out. With
it now under sensor surveillance as the Uriti approached the outgoing jumppoint
with the Zeus trailing behind it, the
unidentified ship decelerated and let the command ship catch up to it gently,
with Jason coming within 20 kilometers and letting the mass of his ship dwarf
the 1300 meter destroyer analog that was apparently content with having
identified the outgoing jumpline.
    Jason eased the ship closer and closer, with it still
not responding to comms as the other two caught up
and joined the pair. When Jason got within range he activated the IDF field and
pinned the ship in place, cutting off its gravity drives from their source of
pull and trapping it within weapons range.
    “Identify yourself,” Jason repeated. “You obviously
want to know where they’re heading and now you do, but you’re not going anywhere
until I get some answers, so start talking.”
    But the first ship still sat silent, not opening