Star Force: Backdoor (SF53) (3 page)

Meanwhile the Reen finally got to the city, with their
mechs breaking off into two groups. One went to fight the walkers outside while
the other led the Reen inside and began patrolling the main streets and sniping
infantry where they could. A host of navigational beacons and target icons
popped up on the Axius battlemap and the Reen broke up and headed out on
individual assignments to aid the Star Force infantry already in the city…and
to hunt the Skarron elites who looked like tin cans compared to the armored
Reen.

No Axius small-scale infantry had been deployed to the
city, but their large scale supplemented the mainline units there and broke
through any strongholds/barricades that the Skarrons had laid down with ease,
supplemented by the mechs that had come in with them. Though larger, the Reen
could wiggle their way into everywhere the Skarrons could go, leaving only the
Hobbits for the regular infantry to hunt down inside the buildings.

The slaughter of the walkers on the exterior was
mirrored on the inside, with the latter taking much longer to execute given the
sheer size of the city and ample opportunities for the enemy to hide out. Not
long after the beatdown began the Skarrons responded strongly, throwing their
aerial superiority down on the city with waves of hundreds of fighters sniping
the Reen, Ikrotor, and mechs…with all taking cover inside the city walls and
hiding behind buildings as the mechs returned anti-air fire, downing many of
the Skarron’s bulky fighters that then crashed into the city, wrecking building
exteriors but not damaging the beefy superstructures.

The city defense shield was down and would stay down
until repairs could be made, but for the moment it was Star Force territory
again…with distant enemy walkers and troop transports mobilizing to come in and
take it back in the days to come. Shield or no shield they were going to push
Star Force back off the continent, but for the moment all they had to strike
back with was fighters, which they spammed heavily.

Eventually the Axius fighter squadrons made their way
over to the city and began chewing into those swarms, culminating with an
hour-long feeding frenzy that eventually saw the Skarrons retreat with the
armor on the Ikrotor having been chewed up considerably. The Reen had managed
to avoid most of the incoming fire while the mechs were middle ground, being
enough of a threat to the fighters to make them keep a little distance, but
also taking some damage when their shields went down.

The Ikrotor armor wasn’t exactly easy to replace, but
none of them had been injured and the city was theirs. With cleanup of the
smaller units still to be finished, the Axius troops stayed on location to
assist then headed back over to their armadillos for repair patch work on their
armor and provisions. A few hours after that the ships took off, repositioning
elsewhere on the planet while allowing others to hold the city. When the hammer
came back down on them the giant infantry and their mechs would return, but
until then there were other engagement zones to gank…and they planned to milk
their size advantage as much as they could until the Skarrons learned to adapt
to it.

3

May 26, 2549

Jennit
System (Dvapp
territory)

Urrit

Paul sat in the command nexus onboard the
Excalibur
, having found that standing
was too much of a distraction, as he directed a large scale orbital assault.
The raised platform that he sat crosslegged on was a new addition to the nexus
and brought him up to a level head height to where he normally stood, but his
eyes were closed and not looking at the numerous holographic displays
encircling him. His hands were forward and resting on the Ikrid interface
sphere, linking him to the ship’s computer system as he issued orders, some to
crew and others to automated devices, at a rate that no one in Star Force could
match.

And he had to…for the Skarrons were learning. They
knew they had to attack the planet periodically to draw Paul’s forces out from
the Sentinels and had done so this time with an insertion of several warships
into the atmosphere to bombard ground troops, which was something that Paul
wasn’t going to allow. Likewise, when Paul had attempted the same thing the
Skarrons had come down into atmosphere to stop him. Neither side was going to
allow the naval game to be played in atmosphere, though that hadn’t stopped
Paul from getting in a few quick strikes here and there.

The Skarrons knew Paul would react when they went to
ground and he had to send his fleet out from the Sentinels’ protective radius
to get after them. The point had been to draw them out so the Skarrons could
eat up a few of his ships, for they knew that if he was allowed to pool them in
safety as more Star Force reinforcements gradually trickled in then their
technological edge would tip the scales of the stalemate to their advantage.
Thus they had to keep an attrition rate on the naval forces while their ground
ops continued.

But the reverse was also true, for if Paul allowed the
Skarron reinforcements to build their fleet to insane numbers then they could
conceivably take down a Sentinel with far less casualties than he was counting
on. The whole idea of the Sentinel defense grid was to make the enemy pay a
heavy price to remove them from orbit, but the more weapons they had in play to
throw against one the quicker it would go down, thus preserving more of their
ships.

So Paul had to eat away at the Skarron fleet, and the
Skarron fleet had to eat away at Paul’s and the
Dvapp’s
.
His ally’s wasn’t linked into the Star Force battlemap the same way the drone
fleet was, but with dozens of movement and targeting orders going out of his
mind per second some were going to the Dvapp fleet none the less, with both
races working out a shorthand that Paul could use to quickly communicate with
them.

At the moment the fighting was in a gap between
Sentinels and just above the atmosphere. Paul had driven their in-atmosphere
warships back up…or crashing down in some cases, with the fight turning into a
moving slugging match. Both sides were making constant adjustments, with Paul
needing to get his drones in close to make use of the talon and mauler cannons.
Given that Skarron armor was designed to be plasma resistant, more than a third
of the drones in Paul’s fleet were a special variety built with no plasma
weapons whatsoever. They had a mix of Ta’lin’yi, maulers, rail guns, and
missiles, making them very hard hitters in close range.

The Skarrons knew this by now and were constantly
moving ships back to outside the talon and mauler range so they could hit them
with their plasma. That kept the whole mess of battling ships constantly
moving…with new groups coming in from both sides to try and blindside the
others. Right now Paul had a group of 52 Dvapp ships coming in to counter the
range differential with their Sammies. When they started to engage the Skarron
ships from the rear the enemy had a choice. Move in closer to plasma range or
run.

They chose run, knowing that if they went head to head
with the Dvapp they’d have to hold position and Paul’s short-range sluggers
would come after them. To counter the run the Skarrons were bringing more ships
down into low orbit to hit the Dvapp from the top side, forcing Paul to choose
from reinforcing them or chasing the fleeing lower group.

That sort of back and forth chess match had been going
on for more than two hours with both sides losing ships…but the Skarrons were
losing far more. That didn’t necessarily mean a win, for Paul had to average
nearly a 14 to 1 kill ratio just to hold even with the reinforcement rate the
Skarrons were getting. He was near to that at the moment, but he needed more
and was tweaking formations and targeting assignments all across the fleet
trying to maximize their advantage. His fleet pilots, Captains, and Admirals
were good but he was better…and he didn’t hesitate to make improvements to what
they were doing on the fly.

He didn’t have time to explain anything, for the
orders he was giving happened in the blink of an eye. The trailblazer had
become so accustomed to the mental interface that his speed with it was
phenomenal. He was in command and commanded. There was no time for discussion
or suggestions, with the Star Force fleet recognizing this and following his
orders immediately.

The Dvapp had been slower to coming to that
realization and had questioned orders many times in the past or offered
suggestions, but now they knew not to waste his time. He wasn’t in command of
their fleet, but if they weren’t going to take his suggestions they’d learned
not to argue about it. Paul needed to focus on making quick adjustments, so
they’d just send back a declination signal if they were unable or unwilling to
do something he wanted.

That didn’t happen much anymore, for Paul’s strategies
were proving to maximize their survival and enemy damage rate. Still, there was
only so much he could do with their current interface, and getting a more
advanced one built was on the top of his to-do list, with the techs currently
working hard on it and Paul dropping in to make tweaks when and where he could.

They were designing it to his wishes, but so much of
his time was spent in the command nexus that he couldn’t go very far away from
it,
nor
for very long. The Skarrons kept pressing
their attacks, usually 3-4 times per day, and even the slightest delay of him
getting linked in with the fleet could cost them a handful of ships. He knew he
had to utilize every single one as much as he could and didn’t want to waste
any opportunity in what was essentially a game to stall the enemy advance long
enough to build and bring in more Sentinels.

It was a game that he wasn’t sure he was going to win,
for the enemy was hitting his fleet the hardest out of all the systems under
attack. He preferred that, but conceded that they might get the best of him
just through sheer numbers. Naturally Paul didn’t want to accept that, and was
putting everything he had into the defensive effort.

Unfortunately that left him little time to train or
even sleep. That just killed him, but true to form he adjusted his workouts for
the short gaps he had and even had ordered additional command nexuses built
around the ship for him to use on a moment’s notice, including two inside the
sanctum, one of which he was currently sitting in.

He’d been in the middle of a 10k run and only at the
3.4 mark when the call had come in. He’d sprinted off the track and through the
hallways to get to the nexus, leaving him dripping sweat as he sat in a
meditative pose, his mind nearly disconnected from his body as he continued the
fight in orbit.

Paul was also in orbit, with the
Excalibur
sitting tucked up next to a Sentinel…but then it also
began to move under his orders, and move fast. With it came two of the nearby
Warship
-class jumpships, both empty and
remote controlling from range where they normally sat. All three ships winked
out of view as they made a microjump away from the planet, then made a heavy
turn to starboard during the jump that required an insane thrust expenditure
from their gravity drives. Without even coming to a stop they made a high speed
U-turn and accelerated back towards the planet, braking easily against its
gravity well and coming in behind the Skarron fleet in mid orbit that was not
involved in the battle.

Still controlling the battle in lower orbit, Paul let
some of his attention drift out to the three big ships and gave firing
orders…as well as navigational ones telling the helmsmen to dive right into the
Skarron lines towards several of their juggernauts.

The two jumpships got there first, given they were the
smaller, and began launching mauler bloons onto the targets while opening up
with the rest of their weaponry at the surrounding ships as they dove into the
swarm. The big donut that was the command ship came in behind them and the
Skarrons seemed to get caught off guard for a moment, not knowing whether to
run or fight. They eventually settled on fighting, with the hope of taking the
big chess piece out, but their slight hesitation cost them as the mass of
weaponry across the
Excalibur
opened
up and shredded the smaller Skarron ships nearby.

Paul took control of shield control and adjusted the
forward shields into repulsor mode, creating an invisible second shield out in
front of the primary one that only blocked dense matter. It let the plasma fire
through, but any sizeable objects got caught up in what ‘looked’ and felt like
a giant airbag that would depress then push back on them. The
Excalibur
didn’t slow when it hit the
enemy fleet, with Paul intent on ramming right through it and not letting ships
in the way be a problem.

The two jumpships fell in behind it, firing as they
went, with the command ship plowing the way, literally, as it pushed aside ship
debris and even a few intact ones that failed to move aside in time. The
shields didn’t hold up forever and the physical impacts eventually reached the
primary shield. That held up even less, with several impacts hitting the
hull…but that hull was so thick with armor and the ship so big that they were
inconsequential given the slow collision speeds.

Eventually the command ship came all the way through, leaving
a swath of destruction behind it that the jumpships added to, then the three
ships accelerated again, making the tiniest of jumps down to low orbit, and
coming in at the back of the Skarron’s upper fleet in that engagement that Paul
was still directing.

Seeing what was happening, the Skarron fleets higher
up broke their position and came rushing down after them. Paul knew he only had
a few minutes before they arrived and intended to make the most of them. With
bloon launchers hurling mauler energy at ranges the cannons never could, the
command ship blew through the Skarron cruisers’ shields with single hits,
savaging their hulls and leaving them easy pickings to the drones.

Paul had all three big ships hitting the smaller ones
with single shots, essentially ripping off their defenses and opening them up
to the Ta’lin’yi to do their thing…and in those few minutes so many enemy ships
went down that the remainder began to flee even as their overwhelming number of
reinforcements were starting to come down to them.

Which was when Paul sent his fleet scattering in
groups to the nearest Sentinels, making sure to give the Dvapp a window for
retreat as well, given that they wouldn’t respond as fast. He kept himself and
his command ship there as the last ship, then made a slow lateral jump to get
out from under the hammer coming down and back within Sentinel range.

A few of the Skarron ships not yet to the engagement
zone diverted and tried to intercept the command ship, given that its shields
were down, but they didn’t make it in time and got hit by cleansing beams at
range from the Sentinel that sliced right through their hulls, bisecting them
with the touch of beam drift the gunners liked to use. Three went down within a
second
,
then 29 more were damaged before the Skarrons
were able to reposition enough to make the long-range shots miss as they fled.

The cleansing beams didn’t have a finite range limit,
with the beam cohesion dropping over distance, but it was primarily the
accuracy involved, meaning the bigger the ship that came near, the greater the
range the Sentinel would have…which was why the Skarron juggernauts were
keeping well clear to make sure the Sentinels didn’t get in any lucky shots at
extreme range.

Paul stayed linked in and hyper active until he was
sure that the Skarrons were done with this engagement. He saw their ships
pulling back up to mid orbit while a few limped away, damaged but not killed.
The few ships that were sitting in place Paul sent drones out after to finish
them off. He wasn’t in a position to take prisoners and would prefer killing
them quickly rather than letting them die slowly, for there was no rescue
coming anywhere near Sentinel range.

A quicker death was the only concession he could, or
would, make to the enemy. There were over a billion Dvapp on the planet’s
surface that, if he failed, would be eradicated by the Skarrons…not to mention
the Star Force troops down there. Mercy was a luxury of the dominant, and right
now he was doing everything he could to just hold their lines without the
Skarrons spamming them out of existence.

When he eventually released his mental and physical
link with the control sphere he noticed a presence behind him.

“How long have you been there?” he asked without
turning around, for he could both sense her mind and see her with his Pefbar
had he wanted to.

“A while,” Riona answered. “Take a
break,
I’ll watch things for a few hours.”

Paul blew out a long breath, realizing as he spun
around on his pedestal that he’d gotten a bit stiff. “Thanks.”