Star Force: Bahamut (SF86) (Star Force Origin Series) by Aer-ki Jyr Page A

not
permitted here. Leave.”
    “Make me,” Riley shot back. “You think you can shoot
at our ships when they’re alone. Try it now.”
    “Your vessel was told to leave and did not. The fault
is its own.”
    “Well now I’m telling you to leave. If you do not,
will the fault be yours?”
    “This is our planet. You do not have the right to
order us to vacate it.”
    “I have the guns to do so if necessary, but I’ll
settle for a really good explanation. If you don’t give me one, I have to
assume your presence here, in our invasion corridor, in association with our
enemy, is nefarious and deal with you accordingly. So start talking.”
    “Any inquiries should be posted to the representative
we sent to your capitol.”
    Riley looked at him with scorn on his face. “Do you
really think that by saying that you’re going to get me to turn around and
leave to go ask them again?”
    “What you do is not my concern.”
    “I’m making it your concern. Shall I tattoo that
message on the hull of your ship so that you can better contemplate it?”
    “Be advised that the ships we possess are more
advanced than yours. You do not have a position of leverage here.”
    “Oh really?” Riley asked, his tone light. “We got a
pretty good scan from our scout ship, and while we don’t know exactly what all
of them can do I think we guessed pretty good . Those
big boys there have a dueron cannon each, but that
won’t do much good against a fleet of our size. There are too many ships to
target, though it would do a hell of a lot of damage if it hit something big.
Too bad we didn’t bring anything that size. And your pheeron converters…they pack a punch, but you’ll find our shields have been calibrated
to resist that type of weaponry. I could go on, but suffice to say that we’re
aware of most of your tech even if we haven’t faced off with you before.”
    He couldn’t read the Sety’s mind over a comm channel, but his demeanor shifted in
what Riley guessed was either surprise or dismay. After all, they didn’t know
Star Force had a galaxy’s worth of technical diagrams of every known piece of
technology that the V’kit’no’sat had come across to pull reference from.
    “Be advised, that if you engage us here, you will reap
that betrayal elsewhere. All the races present will lay a vendetta upon you
that you will not survive.”
    “The Li’vorkrachnika already have one on us, and we’re
surviving it just fine.”
    “They are minor partners. Do not mistake our strength
as being as small as theirs.”
    “Partners, huh? That’s odd. I thought you were
enemies. So, did you sell out the H’kar? Because we really like them, and if
you did, that’s just going to tick us off even more. Lying about it now will
only make things worse, so the best thing for you to do is answer honestly and
bluntly before this escalates even further.”
    “And the best thing you can do is turn around and
leave before you start a war you cannot win. We are honor bound to defend this
planet at all costs, and that is exactly what we will do.”
    “Then defend it by providing me the information I need
and there won’t be a fight…unless you really are our enemy, in which case
there’ll be a fight regardless. But if you’re not, just answer my damn question
and there won’t be any need for conflict. Which is more important, keeping your
secret or keeping that planet? Because if we do fight I’m taking it, and
believe me when I say that I have a lot more ships in the region to call on for
reinforcements to make sure we hold it long enough to do a thorough
investigation of everything happening on the surface…so are you going to make
me find out the hard way, or are you just going to tell me what’s going on?”
    “We have our duty, and will carry it out.”
    “If you’re really that dumb, then The Nexus is so
screwed that I can’t even…” Riley said, stopping as Paul’s mental voice entered
his head via the intership comm