Maty by Aer-ki Jyr (reading books for 6 year olds .TXT) 📕

Force to make the first move, but until they were ready he had to hold the line firmly, and the best place he could do that from was Holloi.

The Era’tran capitol had also become the V’kit’no’sat capitol once Itaru had been taken from them. It was still in Zak’de’ron possession and was being stripped down at present as they prepared to leave, not wanting Mak’to’ran to have anything to claim when he returned there in the coming days for nostalgia sake, but it would not be the V’kit’no’sat capitol again. The trailblazers had their own plans for it, plus, the V’kit’no’sat had been reborn on the Grand Border, and that was their home now. Jamtren may have been off the border, but it was one of many support worlds with tethers leading to it. Itaru was the past, and it too would be reborn in another useful fashion, but not for the V’kit’no’sat. The trailblazers wouldn’t release their plans for it yet, but Mak’to’ran had spoken with Greg-073 about it in person a number of years ago.

He’s said simply that the V’kit’no’sat would be expanding their territory…but doing so further into the Core. The Grand Border was to stay intact and act as a launching point, and claiming Itaru as a Capitol would put it on the wrong side of the line. The Grand Border would eventually become the center or center/back of V’kit’no’sat territory as the fight moved further and further into the great swirl of stars they were all fighting for.

That conversation had rid Mak’to’ran of his desire to reclaim and reestablish Itaru to its former state, but he still needed to be there and feel it return to his claws…then to discard it, along with everything else that was Zak’de’ron. The V’kit’no’sat had grown beyond them and their capitol, and even Jamtren would eventually be reduced to a backwater regional capitol, for the V’kit’no’sat’s future was deeper into the densely populated regions of the galaxy where they had never been able to venture before, continually blocked by the seemingly feeble roaming Hadarak patrols of long ago. How the fate of the galaxy had shifted in so few millennia.

Right now Mak’to’ran was in between strategy sessions and taking a run along the jungle lakeshore in the southern hemisphere where the air was a bit drier and cooler, but the vegetation remained mostly the same. The air on this planet was thick enough to blanket it in enough insulation that there was little seasonal change regardless of planetary axis tilt. And as always the gravity fought to strengthen or crush you into oblivion, but Mak’to’ran barely noticed it now as he strode slowly with long, huge steps that reverberated the ground with each foot strike on the cobblestone path that had been built to keep from making a muddy mess of the lakeside trail.

The loop around the lake was some 52 miles long, and Mak’to’ran was in the habit of taking a full loop whenever he needed to think, and today was no exception. The day of Star Force’s invasion of the Hadarak Zone was nearing, but when they launched it there could be no hesitation. It was straight to the Galactic Core or die trying, because the pressure the Hadarak imposed could suffer no lapse, and getting the logistical backing for the fleets that were already more or less built was the greater issue…and the further they pressed in and away from the Grand Border the harder it was going to be to resupply.

They had to get to the Tethers in the very center of the galaxy where the ultra massive gravity wells were strong enough to allow jumps to and from this galaxy. But there was no way they could go straight there, fight through unknown territory, take all the tethers, and then hold them. Whatever force they sent would be cut off from resupply, which was why the counterattack was going to be very complicated. They couldn’t hit every system and move the border inward slowly and expect to be effective. The intergalactic reinforcements had to be stopped, else the carnage would escalate to far too costly measures.

The Grand Border’s infrastructure was saving them a great deal of that, but once they started to counterattack it would be fleet only, and that was an entirely different way of fighting than the V’kit’no’sat were used to. And that was why the rest of Star Force was going to take the forefront of that assault.

Mak’to’ran’s memory had nearly come back to full, but there were still an occasional blank regarding his history that he would encounter time to time. He didn’t miss it, nor the past. They were worthy battles and challenges fought and passed. His future lay ahead of him, not behind, but he knew the V’kit’no’sat were not ready…at least not as ready as they should be, for the counter assault. They were going to have to continue growing through the battles, and while that was possible it was not ideal, yet it was what the trailblazers were calling on him and his people for.

The galaxy couldn’t wait, and the longer the Grand Border held, the higher the likelihood was of the Hadarak finding a way to breach it. And all it would take was one hole for their forces to move through and begin to hit the mass of underdefended worlds behind it…not to mention all the others that were not part of Star Force that couldn’t hope to defeat even the smallest of the Wardens on their best day.

Mak’to’ran should have had all the time in the world while the Grand Border was built and held, but he never felt like it. He was always rushed with more to do and never a break. He had become accustomed to it, but the addition of his Essence skills made his time even more crunched as he had to train with it regularly in order to