Star Force: Resistance (SF75) (8 page)

Liam closed his eyes. “I didn’t realize it was that
bad. I was working off the maps they’ve given us.”

“Which are no longer accurate. The lizards have not
only surpassed our coreward border, they’ve also spread beyond the
Voku’s
detection range and apparently even the Preema have
not been able to keep up with them with Skarron intelligence. There’s word of
tendrils shooting off everywhere and cherry-picking going on rather than just a
massive wall moving forward. All unsubstantiated, but Cal-com shares such
rumors with me. It’s against his nature to report on anything that could be
inaccurate, but he trusts me to be able to sort things through myself.”

“Still don’t know why he’s taken to you more than the
rest of us, but I’m glad he’s sharing. No help here though?”

“He offered some light assistance, but I told him to
make use of it elsewhere. If the lizards are pouring all this here, more so
than I realized at the time, then there are worlds out there that won’t be
getting supplemented. He’s going to hop the lines a bit too and hit some bigger
targets. If he pulls some heat off of us so much the better. If not he should
take them a lot easier than previously expected.”

“Assuming we survive this, good call.”

“The lizards aren’t the only ones who can fight in
multiple places at once.”

“The Nexus really should have killed these guys when
they were weak and small.”

“Agreed, but at least they’re finally pushing back a
bit on the H’kar border.”

“Small victories,” Liam conceded. “If you let me
handle the Grand Admiral role here, you’re free to go hunting with your
ravagers. Just leave me a few extra defense ships if you can.”

Paul smiled. “You know me too well.”

“You designed the crude things, go use them,” Liam
scoffed.

“Slight offense taken,” Paul said as the transmission
cut out and he was left with his
Sav
-enhanced mind
running through the battle reports, which now increased in pace even as he
watched the status of the orbital pursuits that were dwindling down. The lizard
ships were slower than theirs, but they also knew that and were taking the
scattering technique to heart. Paul was going to have to poke them somewhere
they were willing to fight, which meant either the main planet or back at the
star.

To that end he finished up reviewing the reports and
then began to pick out his best hunting grounds, intent on starting to rack up
his own kill count in this massive campaign, hoping that a lot more Star Force
ships were on their way and trusting the other trailblazers to scrounge up what
was needed, even if it meant abandoning other war fronts. This was a must-win
system for the lizards, meaning they weren’t going to pack up and run. They
were going to hold to the last, and with their industrial capability that
‘last’ might never come. If Paul couldn’t eventually gain control over stellar
orbit he had no doubt the reinforcements would continue to pour in
indefinitely.

8

January 2, 2936

Gvaris
System (lizard
territory)

Inner Zone

Sen
Legat
Remmington-A002-92
watched from the command deck onboard the
King
Kong
-class seda RTL as the massive battle station made its slow
deceleration into the
Gvaris
System. Slow because the
gravity drives were ill-equipped to move something so large at jumpship speeds,
made only worse by the ponderously slow transit required into this particular
system in order to avoid the lower stellar orbits. As it was they were going to
arrive perilously close to the lizard fleets guarding the star, but he’d been
promised support upon arrival if he could time it close enough.

And the Canderians had not failed in that regard. They
were arriving within 20 seconds of the allotted time, a few early in fact, with
the RTL being first in line of a long convoy of sedas and drone warships. If
the lizards were waiting for them, so be it. He could fight his way through
them if needed. This system had becoming the largest campaign in Star Force
history, and now that they’d received permission to come Canderous was going to
do their part.

The hyper-accelerated light coming into the
seda’s
sensors was being toned down by the defense shields,
but a piece of it was allowed through to give them a visual regardless. That
image of the central star grew steadily larger as Remmington watched, then when
its size began to stabilize the color returned to it along with a host of
tactical data as the
seda’s
speed matched that of the
system and the battlemap signals became recognizable…as did the signatures of
the hundreds of thousands of lizard ships waiting directly ahead of them and
currently engaged with a much smaller Star Force fleet that had cleared the
path for their arrival.

“Helm, move us off the jumpline but drift towards that
engagement. We’ll be the fulcrum with the rest of the fleet redirecting. Bring
warships into escort formation as they arrive, but keep them behind us,” he
ordered even as the big spherical station began to reposition and the visual
displayed across the entire forward wall of the chamber showed the ongoing
firefight. “Initiate battle spin and give me safe targeting lines. We’re going
to clip a few enemy ships if we can.”

The RTL wasn’t the largest Seda in Canderous, but it
was the second largest by class and the biggest being brought into this system.
At 72 miles in diameter it was far larger than a Sentinel, though somewhat less
powerful weapon wise. What it made up for in combat was its bulk and its
ability to act as an instantaneous placement of an orbital colony, complete
with all facets of industry, bioharvest, military, population, and everything
condensed down into a nearly self-sufficient system that could anchor a
campaign like this.

But Remmington wasn’t here just to feed supplies to
the rest of the combined fleet. He was here to fight as well.

“We have navigational orders from trailblazer Paul,”
one of the command deck staffers said aloud. “Outbound vector to one of the
smaller rim planets.”

“Get the fleet moving there immediately, but we lag
behind as rear guard,” he said as another seda, this one
Donkey Kong
-class, emerged from just behind a fleet of some 24
warships. Each was bigger than the drones Mainline and the Clans used, though
small for a jumpship. They were all unmanned, like a Sentinel, and flown by
remote pilots within the seda. “Do we have a targeting lock?”

“All the attacking ships are cruisers. It seems their
larger vessels are not engaged in this battle and beyond weapons range. However,
the smaller ships are coming to us around the flanks of the
Mainline
fleet.”

“Target the densest clusters and fire at range. Launch
all starfighters and give me some initial kills. Orders to pilots to
not
go deep into their lines. Just
engage the periphery as it pushes towards us. Warships to interspace between
them and us leaving beneficial firing lines for our main batteries. Fire at
will.”

Remmington remained silent for the next few minutes,
watching more sedas and warship fleets coming out of their deceleration jumps
and pivoting around to move off the jumpline, then back out to the edge of the
system that seemed to nominally be Star Force territory, but in addition to the
hundreds of thousands of enemy ships engaged ahead, there were literally
millions indicated on the battlemap spread across the system…along with over
300,000 Star force ship icons ranging from the tiny
Cutter
-class drones to full blown jumpships.

There was not a Sentinel in play yet, and the reasons
for that had been explained to him by trailblazer Greg when he’d accepted the
Canderians’ request to participate. At present there was not a safe location to
set up a Sentinel, and they feared that any attempt to do so, even on the
system’s edge, would draw an immediate attack to deny the segments from being
assembled. In the past that wouldn’t have been an issue because the lizards had
lacked binary gravity drives. Now Star Force no longer possessed that advantage
and the enemy could get to wherever they went, albeit a bit slower.

His sedas, however, were fully operational upon
arriving, evidenced by the super-heavy Keema batteries sending slightly
distorted, yet clear beams of raw destructive energy into the lizard cruiser
swarms and piercing ships at distance, sometimes two or three at a time. Even
the misses destroyed ships when the beams lost cohesion and fanned out, for
their power was so intense that even the ‘spit’ was dangerous for a distance
afterwards.

This seda carried the largest Keema built for space,
equivalent in yield to what a Sentinel had, though less of them. Only planetary
defense batteries were larger, one of which was said to have been under
construction. Not on the main planet, but one of the smaller uncontested ones
without an atmosphere, though by ‘uncontested’ he knew that meant on the
ground, for he could see even now that there was considerable naval activity
around the planet where he was sending his fleet.

But there was a Star Force arrival committee there as
well to insure they didn’t get ambushed, though they’d make any attackers pay
if they did.

Remmington was one of only 72 Sen
Legats
in Canderous, which equated to their leadership cadre of regional commanders.
In some ways they were structured like the Archons’ trailblazers, without a
single head position and made up of peers, but it was beyond rare when 2 Sen
Legats
were in the same system at the same time, and today
was no exception. He did have 6 Kit
Legats
with him,
each of which was accustomed to leading the affairs of an entire star system
worth of sedas. This campaign was deemed essential enough to bring them all
with him, and there had been a waiting line a mile long full of volunteers.

He was going to need them, though, for the Canderians
were not just here to defend orbital slots. They’d brought their armies of
infantry, aircraft, and mechs along with them, intending to take the fight to the
lizards on the ground when and where the trailblazers allowed. Remmington fully
expected Canderous to be fighting in half a dozen different locations
simultaneously going forward, and he couldn’t oversee all of it at once…at
least not to the degree of detail his men needed, hence the Kit
Legats
had been brought in to enhance the leadership effect
when the already chaotic scene escalated further.

Right now the Kit
Legats
were transitioning with their sedas and the convoy away from this battle, but
after several minutes of holding position and lightly engaging the enemy
cruisers that stupidly dove towards them, an unusual prompt flashed on the main
screen…one that the Sen
Legat
had only seen twice
before.

“Paul is requesting control of this seda,” a staffer
informed him unnecessarily, for the trailblazer’s icon was emblazoned on the
link-in request. Canderous warships and sedas had their own sovereign control
system and shared data with the larger Star Force battlemap network, but remote
control could not be taken externally without internal overrides being enacted,
which the trailblazer was now requesting.

“Give him control,” Remmington ordered. “Pilots, do us
proud.”

A few seconds later the wall-sized screen changed,
gaining a golden trim that was instantaneously followed by commands being
issued to the Canderian pilots, with their warships being ordered forward into
the space brawl…then the Sen
Legat
realized that the
seda was also moving forward.

“That’s not me,” the helmsman said, raising his hands
in the air for emphasis. “He’s assumed navigational control directly.”

“Main batteries too,” another Canderian said, sitting
back in his chair now without a task to deal with.

“My friends, stay at your posts and await the moment
he relinquishes control, for it may come at any time,” Remmington said
wistfully. “But make no mistake, we are to be used here and now, not as a space
station, but to kill as many of the enemy as we can. Paul has sensed an opening
and is taking it. Mark my words.”

The trio of command ships before them grew steadily
larger as the seda accelerated forward, then suddenly Remmington saw the Keema
batteries go offline. He frowned for a moment, ignoring similar glances from
others as he sought to find a method to the madness…with the answer coming as
the shield generators received the additional power and the invisible shell
around the seda grew steadily stronger as they approached the trio of
donut-shaped ships, each the size of a small seda themselves.

The three realigned their positions into a triangle,
with his seda heading for the center and the Canderian warships being flown into
the shadow of the artificial moon. Remmington ground his teeth together in
anticipation, thinking he understood what the trailblazer was doing.

All assets forward, close formation. Deny the swarm
its area of effect and punch a
hole
straight into it.
There weren’t any assault pillars, invokers, or jumpships nearby to go after,
so he wasn’t sure where Paul was taking them exactly, but the movement had
drawn all the lizards off their pursuit of the still incoming convoy…with them
all heading towards the seda and closing in around it like a giant beehive hand
with dozens of fingers comprised of the tiny yellow/tan warships.

To his chagrin he saw the starfighters being recalled
into the seda, approaching from the back side and told to park inside rather
than take the fight to the enemy. The Archons never did like using
starfighters, even unmanned ones, but this battle was Paul’s to command and
Remmington wasn’t going to second guess him, though he had never fully
understood their dislike for the tiny, agile ships that could fly rings around
a lizard cruiser.

He checked their kill stats, seeing that they’d
already knocked down 13 enemy ships during the ‘light’ skirmishes, though a few
of those were probably cleanup runs after the warships knocked them down a peg.
Didn’t matter now, he’d have plenty to review later if/when he got the chance,
for he could already see from the system-wide battlemap displayed in holo
beside his command chair that this system was
active
and he didn’t expect it to ever settle down, given the size
and scope of the conflict happening here.

A secondary warning flashed on one of his personal
displays, indicating that seda OEG had been engaged at the head of the convoy
as it entered planetary orbit. Remmington pulled up another holo of that
location and set it to his left so he could keep a wandering eye on it, seeing
that the
Mainline
fleet was there with them, so he
assumed they’d get into position without delay, though maybe taking a few
scratches in the process.

Just then all the secondary weapons on his seda opened
up, firing directly ahead along with the command ships as a tendril of cruisers
flew right at them. Many of them were shredded, with the debris continuing to
move forward on a ballistic trajectory, but the intact cruisers didn’t alter or
slow their approach. Instead they stayed on the same course as the debris and
suddenly the shields were being rammed by both at considerable speed.

Not a few collisions, but a deliberate pounding by the
enemy fleet. The sheer audacity at seeing hundreds of warships flying suicide
missions directly at his seda shocked him, but then he understood the need for
additional shield power. Paul had known this was coming, and even now
Remmington could see their defensive power lessening under each hit. The debris
was forced aside, with the giant sphere acting as a snowplow against it and
clearing the path for the warships to follow…and not just the Canderian ones,
but the
Mainline
drones as well.

“Evacuate outer hull, collision protocols,” he ordered,
not knowing how much of this pounding was going to occur. “Lock down the Keema
batteries, full shell mode, but leave the other guns operational. If we take
hits I want them to be bee stings only. He’s using our mass as a shield, so
let’s turtle up as much as we can. Shunt all outer ring systems to automatic
and cancel any damage repair teams until I order otherwise,” he said, finally
rising up out of his chair and choosing to stand as they dove into the enemy
horde. “Expect a pounding.”

And a pounding they got. Like bugs to a bug zapper the
lizard cruisers came, feeling they had an opportunity to damage or destroy the
massive station…and they did, had the crew been inept, but his people weren’t
anything but skilled combat veterans and they had a trailblazer personally
leading this battle, meaning the lizards weren’t going to do squat. That said,
Remmington conceded the fact that his seda might be significantly damaged in
the process, but if that was the case so be it, for it would take that damage
away from the drone fleets that were much more vulnerable.