Star Force: Resurrection (SF84) (Star Force Origin Series) (2 page)

The lizard expansion systems were weak, Paul knew, but
damn the V’kit’no’sat for keeping Star Force from going after them when they
were done here. Risking detection wasn’t worth it, otherwise Paul and the
others could hunt down and kill all of these bastards given enough time. With
that no longer an option with their coreward expansion, the victories Star
Force was going after were selective. Taking out the original lizard empire,
for one, was no small thing. And with the eventual fall of this system and the
rest of the core worlds they’d be sending a big message to this part of the
galaxy that the lizards were not unbeatable. They might be numerous, but not
superior.

Star Force was the new power in the region, and even
The Nexus was going to take notice when the lizard capitol fell, for they knew
this enemy was not as small as they pretended it to be. Davis had learned that
much from his contacts, and they were relieved they were no longer encroaching
into Nexus space in force. One less threat for them to deal with on their very
long list.

But there was no getting around the people lost here.
Had Paul or the others even suspected the lizards could set up this type of
minefield so fast they would have prepared for it, but they’d never used this
tactic before and the idea of them cannibalizing a shipyard ring to do it had
never crossed Paul’s mind. He’d always known the lizards were adaptable and
innovative, and a part of him was kicking himself for not seeing this
possibility. Next time they’d make sure a scout was sent in just prior to the
invasion so they wouldn’t have this much time to work with, but their rate of
mine laying scared Paul, for he knew there would still be several days gap
between when a scout ship left the target and when the attacking convoy would
arrive, especially if that convoy was going slow enough to come out in middle
stellar orbit or higher.

He’d have to send multiple scouts and leave some
behind to watch for mine laying so they could transmit a warning to the
incoming convoy, allowing them to divert like they were now.

Damn it, why hadn’t they thought of that before?

Because tearing
apart an entire ring around a planet in a little over a month is nuts
, Paul
admitted. It had probably taken them centuries to build that one ring, maybe
more if it was one of the earlier ones in their empire. But if you were going
to lose it anyway, why not take it apart yourself and put it to use.

This mission was already a failure, but Paul and the
others still had a job to do.

He stepped back into the nexus and linked into the
system, getting a couple of messages from his fellow trailblazers that were
variations on curses and
facepalms
. None of them were
happy, but an initial report from the first boarding party on the
Manticore
was picking up localized
emergency beacons. Low power and long lasting, the beacons were used to
highlight regions within the ship to rescue crews to allow them to find
survivors in lifeboat-like enclosures or other makeshift sanctuaries.

That didn’t mean anyone was still alive after the
radiation cooking they’d got in near the star, but if they were only half dead
Paul had a V’kit’no’sat regenerator onboard that would bring them back.
Hopefully they’d be able to pull at least one person back from this ambush.

In the meantime crews were heading out to do emergency
repairs on the
Excalibur
while they
were away from combat. The damage was such that they’d need a shipyard to fix
it all, but some band aids could be applied here and there to the massive
construct…and that mass was the reason why Paul wasn’t taking a dip in the star
himself. That, combined with the higher shield strength, had blocked or
dampened enough of the mine hits to allow the
Excalibur
to survive.

And judging from the damage reports, she wasn’t just
alive but still combat capable. Not 100% by a long shot, but she wasn’t going
to be a spectator in this fight.

As the Star Force convoys were continuing to emerge
from their jumps around the system Paul saw the lizard fleets in low stellar
orbit begin to detach and race out towards the jumppoints to engage them before
they could get all their ships here. The fighting was about to go down in a
very heavy way, but Star Force had enough ships in play to keep their footholds
while the rest arrived, and at the moment it seemed the lizards were ignoring
the
Excalibur
entirely.

As soon as the
Manticore
debris was searched his ship was heading back in. Until then his convoy
commanders would be in charge of the fighting, for he was too far away to
suffer the signal lag, making him for the moment a mere spectator while his
peers were the ones calling the shots as the first lizard ships came into
contact and the battle for this system began.

2

June 16, 3202

Krachnika
System
(lizard capitol/homeworld)

Middle Zone

Paul hadn’t slept in 2 days, having taken only the
mildest of breaks that amounted to a grand total of 23 minutes absent from the
nexus onboard the
Excalibur
. After
recovering 6 survivors from the
Manticore
his command ship had jumped its way back across
the star system to rejoin the fight underway at the entry jumppoint. All 834
jumpships in his convoy had already arrived and deployed drones by that time
and the lizards hadn’t backed off, preferring to meet the invaders and fight to
the death and kill as many of them as they could rather than playing a waiting
game that they knew they would badly lose.

There were so many ships in play across all 12
jumppoints that even after 2 straight days of fighting there were still some
active lizard ships out there amongst the debris. Paul’s mind was locked on
them, sending orders to a few drone pilots as to what routes to take through
the debris to head them off as the
Excalibur
sat broken but not defeated amongst a mass of
Warship
-class jumpships while they all remotely controlled their
smaller, unmanned kin. Some others were out near the combat, but with so much
debris in the area it was easier for the drones to skirt around it solo,
leaving the giant manned ships back to lick their wounds while their crews
hunted down the remaining lizard ships.

This battle was already won, but Paul wasn’t going to
allow an extra drone to get destroyed out of sloppiness, and that’s exactly
what the lizards were attempting to do before they died. They were maneuvering
around the debris rather than making a suicidal charge, getting Star Force to
chase them in the hopes of setting an ambush for one or more of the drones.

But so long as he and other Archons were watching over
and guiding the battle they didn’t have a chance. It took another 5 hours to
clean up what was left of the lizards near Paul’s jumppoint, then he finally
was able to let his mind wind down as he checked the status of the other fleets
around the system.

Four were already clear, with the other seven being in
their final stages of cleaning up as well. There had been over 12 million
lizard cruisers here and some 730,000 Star Force drones carried by 9,421
jumpships, plus 73 command ships. Paul was grateful that this had not been one
massive battle, for his alone had been far too large and his mind was starting
to object fiercely now that the adrenaline was wearing off.

The crew had been rotating in and out, so they were
all fairly fresh, but he was not. Even with his Inas he was barely holding his
mind together after such a long, continuous intense effort.

Paul walked out of the nexus and down the short hall,
turning the corner and coming onto the bridge where he caught Franken’s
attention.

“Admiral, I’ve got to crash. Hold the fleet here until
the others get done fighting, but get us clear of the debris field…no, check
that. Start clearing the jump lane. Nudge it to the side so we can recover it
later. Unless we come under attack again, don’t wake me. I’ll get back to you
when I’m sane again.”

“Understood. Do you want a courier sent back warning
of the minefield?”

Paul hesitated, kicking himself for not thinking of
that. “Find out if anyone has done that already and send one if they haven’t. I
am so brain fried right now.”

“Most of the Archons didn’t rest,” the Admiral told
him, having already checked their status. “The fleet can hold itself together
while you guys crash. I promise we won’t break anything until you wake up.”

Paul nodded. “Good work today…or, days. Make sure the
crew knows it. That was a nasty fight after a nasty ambush and no one tanked.”

“Did you expect them to?” the Admiral asked, a mix of
curiosity and wounded pride.

“I don’t know what I expected. We haven’t lost that
many people in a very long time,” Paul said, rubbing his eyes. “Damn I’m fried.
Anything else I’m forgetting?”

“We just destroyed the largest fleet in lizard
history.”

“That we know of…and it’s still not over yet. If the
others ask for help be ready to send it, but I don’t think they will. And get
some ships in low orbit so no lizards can sneak out.”

“And we can poach any incoming traffic?”

“Yeah,” Paul said, unable to stifle a yawn. “I’m out
of here.”

“Take as much time as you need,” Franken insisted as
Paul walked off the bridge. He got halfway to his quarters when he saw Riona
step out in front of him, surprised that he hadn’t noticed her mental presence
before that.

“You alright?” she asked, not looking all that well
herself having come from a secondary nexus onboard the ship.

“Fried. You?”

“Yeah, but that’s not what I meant.”

“What then?”

“The mines.”

Paul’s face slacked a bit, but he didn’t have much
wherewithal left in him to lose. He was starting to get dizzy now that he
wasn’t forcing himself to hold together during the battle. “I’m not ok with it,
but it feels like it happened a long time ago. How are you doing?”

“Ticked and tired.
Wanna
crash?”

“That’s where I’m headed.”

“My quarters are closer.”

“By about 200 meters.”

“Do you really feel like walking that extra 200?”

“No,” Paul admitted. “Thanks,” he said as they began
walking again.

Neither one said another word, nor did they have any
telepathic conversations. There wasn’t much to be said and neither one was in
good enough shape for a coherent discussion. They both needed to rest hard and
get themselves back into play so they could oversee the next stage of the
invasion. There wasn’t a rush per se, but with the lizards you never wanted to
give them extra time to get clever with…and the mine field was ample evidence
of what they could do in a very short span of time.

When they got to
Riona’s
quarters Paul followed her in and shut the door, then both of them crashed on
her bed and fell asleep as soon as they let their last bit of resistance go,
knowing they had time to recover and allowing themselves to indulge in that
blissful rest.

Paul was back on the bridge and in the nexus 9 hours
later, still a bit groggy and needing to get in a shakeout run, but wanting to
get himself up to speed on the situation first. According to the battlemap
feeds that were flowing across the system constantly like a giant net
connecting every single Star Force ship, the naval combat was now over save for
some intercepts happening near the star. A good number of the lizard cargo
jumpships had tried to make it out and run the blockade, with some 18 ships out
of over 2,000 having made it on some very long jumplines that were questionable
as to whether or not they could accurately hit the destination star. The rest
were now additional junk that drones were going around to and destroying
further rather than allowing any surviving lizards to slowly suffocate or
freeze to death.

As per standard orders, surrender offers were going
out on a regular basis…and as per standard lizard protocol they were all being
subsequently ignored. Star Force would keep sending them though, right up until
the last of them were dead or they broke their trend and actually accepted.

Looking around the rest of the system he saw the
remaining lizard civilian ships clustering near the battlestations or shipyard
rings. The latter they were going to board and take as previously done, though
there was now one less to claim. That would save them some time, but first
they’d need to take out the battlestations and any other defensive emplacements
the lizards had in orbit around the various planets.

There were also a large number of warehouses here,
more so than even in the other core worlds that they’d taken to date. What each
contained varied greatly. Some had spare parts, foodstuffs, old ships,
explosives, raw materials…they were never the same, and a few previously had
been booby-trapped. They’d all need to be inspected and
safed
before being ticked off the threat list, and unless there was a reason to
destroy them Paul wasn’t going to. Everything in this system would eventually
be recycled and used to fuel Star Force, so breaking things up with weaponsfire
was counterproductive when you’d just have to hunt down those many drifting
pieces later.

There was a complication, however. Of the six
inhabited planets, and there were others with outposts on them, there was a
large tract of land on one that was not covered with cityscape. The scout ship
had noted this and Paul was getting updates on that location now that they had
ships in closer, with him seeing that the land was housing billions of varying
races that the lizards used for food.

Star Force would not be targeting them from orbit, and
the last time they’d taken a lizard farm thankfully their intentions hadn’t
been noticed. Paul hoped this would also be the case, for as long as the
lizards didn’t realize they intended on rescuing the lizard livestock then they
wouldn’t try to use them to their advantage. The only reason that hadn’t
occurred to date was the fact that the previous farms taken had occurred in a
single swoop that didn’t allow for any communications out of the system.

That was prudent so the lizards couldn’t learn as much
from Star Force’s tactics. When a system went dark, as far as the rest of the
lizard empire was concerned, Star Force didn’t want them knowing what had
happened to it short of risking to send in a scout ship of their own. If the
lizards here didn’t realize that their cattle were on the Star Force priority
list, then hopefully they’d still be alive after the lizards were all
dead…though Paul could see them killing them just to spite the invaders, and he
hoped that didn’t come to pass here.

All the other core worlds they’d taken thus far didn’t
have farms in them, for it seemed they were too costly to maintain as a food
supply for such enormous populations. Shipments of meat were then brought in to
them in some form of priority system. How that worked was still uncertain
despite Star Force having accessed a lot of lizard databases in the core worlds
they took. Who got the meat and who didn’t wasn’t noted, so maybe it was based
on an informal system that was so basic, or perhaps mentally ingrained into
them, that they didn’t need to bother recording it in their computer logs.

There were plenty of farm worlds, large ones even,
spread throughout lizard territory that Star Force had taken previously, but
none of them were located within the surrounding cityscape. The fact that there
was one here was noteworthy, for it seemed the capitol wanted its own local
supply of meat rather than having to ship it in in lesser numbers.

Yet one more reason these bastards had to be stopped.

Right now though that farm region was sitting
underneath its own powerful energy shields. Not to protect the
foodstock
, but to deny an enemy an easy landing zone. In
fact there was no place on any of the six planets that wasn’t covered with
either a plate-like shield or a domed variety. Not one square inch of vulnerability,
and the shields here were registering significantly increased power levels.
That had been anticipated, due to the fact that it was their capitol, but what
Paul was seeing now showed shield density matrixes 3x what they should have
been.

The lizards had gotten another tech upgrade.

Paul chewed on his lower lip as he thought. The shield
strength wasn’t going to save them, but it would mean Star Force would lose
more drones to the anti-orbital batteries while knocking out that first hole
through which to land ground troops…and he was sure that all of these guns were
cleansing beams. Based off the distribution pattern on the surface, the density
of the batteries had increased as well, not to mention the placement of several
sites that exceeded previously encountered weaponry. Either these were bigger
versions of the same weapons or the lizards had kept something in reserve for
their capitol.

He wondered about that. Why hold something back when
you could do more damage by spreading the tech around everywhere? Then again,
Earth had some beefy defenses of its own not seen elsewhere, or at least not
yet, due to the cost of producing them. Epsilon Eridani was building one of the
massive Bra’hem beam turrets right now, but they required so much solari that
they weren’t cost effective within Star Force yet.

Earth currently had 7 of them and was working on an
eighth, and every Archon knew why it had to have the big guns before any other
planet did.

But if that’s the same idea that the lizards had taken
to here, they’d been at it for a very, very long time. And given their more
recent cleansing beam additions, whatever these big guns were couldn’t have
been that advanced…or had they seen the writing on the wall and just went all
out in building the biggest and hardest system to take in order to kill as many
Star Force ships and troops as they could as a massive middle finger while they
trotted off to their coreward territory?

“Yeah, I’m getting the feeling that’s exactly what
they did,” he whispered to himself as he looked through more updates across all
six major planets. The minor ones were airless and had a plethora of mining
sites, most of which seemed abandoned, and from the mass readings he knew they
were now hollow. What was inside he didn’t know, but they’d find out before
hitting the inhabited worlds.

Paul had access to a file sharing system that no one
else did aside from the trailblazers, and inside it he had already seen that
some of the others had claimed targets for their own. Given that they were still
spread out across the system and couldn’t talk to each other in real time, this
was the best way to communicate and they knew each other so well they could do
so shorthand to save a lot of time.