Star Force: Bahamut (SF86) (Star Force Origin Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

face more immediate
threats? ”
    “ Partly true .”
    “ And you believe
our suicide attacks would not be affective against them? ”
    “ Nothing you have
will be effective against them .”
    “ If you were to
implement them? ”
    Paul sighed. “ They’ve
been around for millions of years, and have grown quite accustomed to people
trying to take them down. They’ve developed technology to block a lot of
suicide attempts .”
    “ Which you have
implemented .”
    “ They have far
more .”
    “ Are they as
concerned with maintaining their troops as you are? ”
    “ No. But they
find retraining new ones to be tedious, so they take care not to lose them
unless absolutely needed .”
    “ They will still
spend their lives if necessary? ”
    “ Their
collective ego is more valuable to them .”
    “ Yet you have
never met them? ”
    “ We recovered
extensive records, so we know them well enough to be certain of their response .”
    “ Why not abandon
your world and travel far from it so they will never find you? If their empire
is in the core, flee to the rim and be rid of them .”
    “ That option was
discussed, but before we had the industrial muscle to make such a move the
Li’vorkrachnika became a problem and we needed every asset we had on the
homeworld just to survive you. ”
    “ Once you finish
conquering this half of our territory, you will begin to move your people away? ”
    “ No, we won’t .”
    “ Why stay? ”
    “ You tell me .”
    “ You won’t
abandon the races you’ve annexed into your empire. You’ve taken responsibility
for a large number of star systems and you won’t relinquish it for fear of what
would happen to them if you did. But why not evacuate them all with you? ”
    “ If the
V’kit’no’sat learn of our existence, they will not stop hunting us until we are
found and destroyed, no matter where we go. We could hide, we’re smart enough
to do that, but we would lose so much of our powerbase in such a transition
that it would put our efforts to upgrade our empire so far behind that we would
lose too much. If the V’kit’no’sat come back tomorrow that logic will seem
stupid, but we’ve been operating under it since day 1. We don’t know when or if
they’ll find us, and we’re using all the time we have to try and grow strong
enough to survive them .”
    “ But you cannot? ”
    “ We have
fallback plans, but if it comes to that, we will not go quietly .”
    “ How long have
they been absent? ”
    “ Oddly, it was
right at 100 millennia when we discovered our true history. Add another one on
since then .”
    The mastermind grew more serious. “ This is a very old empire then. Why do you
think they have not returned in such a span of time? ”
    “ We don’t know
how badly the rebellion hurt them…but there is another matter. What the
V’kit’no’sat was originally formed for. There are massive creatures that inhabit
the deep core known as Hadarak. They are themselves warships and prefer to live
within deep gravity wells. They are a plague on the galaxy and continually push
outward to devour worlds…not whole, but they do massive damage. The
V’kit’no’sat were created to oppose them and hold them back within a
containment line. They never figured out how to destroy them within the gravity
wells, so all they can do is fight and kill those that come too far out, and it
is a task they have never shied from. That duty, along with the outcome of the
rebellion, is probably why they have not pushed the boundaries of their empire
back to their heights .”
    “ Do you know
where their border is now? ”
    “ The other side
of Skarron territory .”
    “ Far from your
homeworld then .”
    “ Thankfully, yes .”
    “ For my entire
life I have thought we were superior. I knew there were races beyond us, but it
was assumed that given enough time we would achieve their level of technology
and surpass it. Even before then we would be able to overcome them with