by Aer-ki Jyr
“Where do you want us to go from here?” Morgan asked, hopping over to the next station and finding its interface equally intractable.
“After the holding team arrives split up into two groups and head out both of the other exits. Starboard team runs and guns as a distraction while port team assaults the rear of the area Rafa is clearing. He’s running up against some above average resistance, see to it that they don’t reinforce through your area.”
“ETA on the holding team?”
“No more than 20.”
“Alright, we’ll…” she cut off, noticing a flashing light on the underside of one of the platforms at the top of the ‘T.’ She’d missed it before because her line of sight had been too high. “Stand by.”
Morgan ran down the row of consoles in the opposite direction and stepped up onto the walkway at the nearest access point as she adjusted her comm back over to her unit frequency.
“Guys, get ready to fall back on my signal,” she warned, hopping over the fence-like railing beside the starboard platform and dropping down into the row of stations on the top of the ‘T’ looking for an explosive device that she’d missed earlier…but there was none. What she found was a blinking nub on the upper end of the wall-mounted control board. Crossing her mental fingers she touched it, resulting in a lizard-style map of the star system appearing in holo as if it was an upright flat screen floating an inch off the control paneled wall.
“Paul, I think we’ll need those techs after all. They didn’t lock down all of the consoles. Check my helmet link, I think you’re going to want to see this.”
Back in the command nexus on the Excalibur Paul brought up her image of the holographic map and immediately came to the same conclusion that Morgan had. Three tiny dots were a third of the distance away from Corneria out to the jumpship and one was pulsing with what the Star Force techs had previously identified as an incoming communication or data transfer on their displays.
The lizard cruisers were finally coming out to assist the jumpship, and one of them was in the process of signaling to the crew.
9 hours later the Excalibur fired its massive rail gun at the first of the three targets it could not see, using sensor telemetry from the jumpship relayed through a helmet cam to the bridge crew that were able to visually map out the lizards’ sensor grid and correlate it to their own without the use of any numbers, merely guestimates based on the image, hoping that their holo display was as accurate as their own.
The Excalibur fired off six rounds before the three ships came close enough that a forward positioned corvette was able to tag one with a laser, at which point all the rail guns in the fleet opened up on it as another cruiser broke off from the group and jumped the corvette. The smaller ship didn’t last long, but it maintained position and the laser lock on both ships as long as it could.
When it went down Paul’s position data on the ships went with it, cutting off any more firing locks, but thanks to the jumpship telemetry he could still see where the ships were and adjusted his own fleet positions accordingly. When the first two cruisers arrived, one with a gratifyingly large amount of forward damage to its hull, they met up with a bowl-like formation that had the two enemy ships centered in the middle of the prime firing zone, at which point missiles that were already inbound found their new targets via the hull damage on the one and additional laser spotters on the other.
They met up with a hail of anti-air return fire that cut through the cloud of incoming warheads with lethal efficiency, but the initial barrage had been so massive about half of them still got through, slamming into the shields on both ships as well as adding to the forward hull damage on the port vessel. Before the ships had passed out of that shrapnel cloud rail gun rounds began shooting through from all directions within a 160 degree hemisphere, pummeling the lizard ships with a ferocity they didn’t expect, given that they had always had the advantage of position when ambushing Human warships in the past.
A large slug from the Excalibur slammed into the cruiser that still had its forward shields up, breaching their already depleted matrix on impact and deforming into a smooshed mass that tore into the ship with far greater surface area than a normal slug, cutting a long trench down the top of the ship back to one of the bumpy ridges where it finally came to rest, popping that surface feature like a balloon and throwing debris out in all directions, some of which caught underneath the still deployed upper shield. It ricocheted underneath all the way back to the aft, scratching up the hull as addition rail gun slugs tore into the narrow front of the ship.
Caught off guard, the lizards seemed unsure of which ship to go after, given that all were approximately the same distance away, then they split up with either one heading to the edge of the ‘bowl’ in an attempt to confront an individual ship while also enabling them to veer away from the formation on an escape trajectory, which both ships quickly elected to take as Paul ordered the bowl to reform into two arms, both of which came up from the center and out at the cruisers, closing to plasma range and adding that to the rail guns they were continuing to fire.
Both ships were caught with their shields down and took significant damage before their higher rate of speed pulled them away from the Human ships, which were now able to track them on sensors. Paul ordered his fleet not to pursue, given that only his smaller ships had a chance of keeping pace and they wouldn’t be enough to take one down, even if it already was damaged. From his link to the jumpship telemetry he saw that the third cruiser had pulled off as well and was making a long circle around the jumpship, apparently trying to flank to the other side.
Or to the starboard, Paul thought, remembering that attempted comm signal. He quickly issued new orders to his fleet and got them to begin repositioning as the lone cruiser began to tighten its turn and head directly for the jumpship, and at increasing speed.
Paul typed out new orders to his fleet, having them stretch their lateral formation out into a long column off the port side of the jumpship as he had a pair of destroyers split, one going high and the other low with orders to laser tag the incoming target without drifting into the firing lines of the intact plasma cannons on the starboard end.
The cruiser hit the brakes quickly as it approached the jumpship, attempting to get the drop on the Human ships, but it maintained sufficient speed to make a strafing run, firing off its plasma cannons at the upper destroyer and managing three hits before it flashed past, taking down the ship’s shields and burning off a bit of hull armor. It targeted a Star Force cruiser next, but met up with a hail of plasma fire of its own that didn’t abate. As the cruiser passed ship after ship it continued to get hit, while was only able to get a shot or two off at each of them.
Halfway down the line it took a slug from the Excalibur in the face, which weakened its forward shields enough that the plasma cannons on the battleship punched through as the lizard ship passed, along with every upper lachar battery on the heavily armed ship poking holes in the underside of its hull, which were then added to by a heavy destroyer and a pair of frigates at the end of the line.
The enemy cruiser exited firing range a shieldless, smoking mess, but was otherwise intact. The damage was superficial, but left the ship vulnerable to continued attack, hence another strafing run was not forthcoming.
Paul watched on the jumpship’s sensors as the cruiser flew off to rendezvous with the others half a million kilometers away. They stayed there for the better part of a day, making repairs and recharging their shields, before they attempted another attack, during which Paul lost a destroyer and suffered heavy damage to a cruiser as he ordered all his ships to focus their firepower on a single target, which they successfully wounded before turning their firepower on the other two ships and driving them off. The third cruiser also tried to escape, but its engines had been damage to the point where it could only outrun the Excalibur. Paul had it trailed and put out of commission, after which the other two lizard ships broke off and headed back to Corneria, silently conceding de
feat.
He knew they’d be repaired in their surface yards and be sent back out to attack Star Force again, but not in time to save their jumpship, meaning the rest of this conflict would be decided by the ground war inside the behemoth.
8
October 21, 2264
Epsilon Eridani System
Lizard Jumpship
Jason fired a long range shot down the hallway, nailing a lizard in its unarmored torso and dropping it to the ground before it could fire another plasma blast at his team as they fought their way inside three side chambers. Another two showed up behind it, weapons raised, as Jason took them down without trouble. He walked forward, passing behind the backs of his team as they fired into the rooms, feeling the ache of the heavy gravity with each step on his weakened body.
Another lizard came into the hallway and was shot down by the Archon before he got to the end and took up a guard position, fighting off the few stragglers heading their way as his team cleaned out yet another section of another level on the jumpship. This was his first mission back after nearly getting killed in the bomb blast so he’d assigned himself to one of the teams not pressing into the heart of the lizards’ remaining defense. Epsilon team had been running the cleaning efforts on the lower aft side of the starboard section of the jumpship, finding a lot of small clusters of lizards holed up in areas such as this.
Behind him he heard another door opening as the team worked through each of the rooms, about half of which had lizards in them. They’d mostly emptied when the firefight had begun, spilling out into the hall while Epsilon gunned them down with lethal efficiency. Jason had held back behind the group playing a support roll due to his weakened state but he was glad to get back into the action, knowing that the faster they cleared these lower threat areas and secured them with teams of Knights and techs who were sealing off each section as they progressed, the sooner they could consolidate their forces and make the big push against the fortifications in the far starboard wing of the ship that Morgan had scouted out just yesterday.
Going solo and covert she’d infiltrated what was left of the enemy lines and made her way deep into the far side of the ship where she discovered a mass of portable turrets, sealed doors, barricades, and everything else the lizards had been working on as they sacrificed thousands of their crew to keep the Humans at bay. Morgan reported that they were holed up fairly good and that it was going to take a forceful attack to break through…the kind of attack they needed most of their available Archons for, but to free them up the rest of the ship had to be locked down first, thus the sweeper teams were pulling double duty as often as possible.
Jason had spent the past two days in training rehab, assessing his strength and returning some flexibility to his body, which had been drastically reconstructed with new tissue. He figured he’d at least lose 6 levels on his acolyte ranking, which currently stood at level 58, because the regenerator’s replacement tissue, while miraculous enough in returning them to action in short order, was never as strong as what it was replacing, meaning that even though Jason was ‘fully’ recovered his loss of strength would take months, if not years to replace.
He pushed one of the lizard bodies off to the side as his team approached, having already cleared out the rooms behind them. What the lizards were still doing out here he didn’t know, but this area appeared to have been some type of barracks and not defended at all. The lizards they came across were the standard variety, most of which were armed, but without the numbers necessary to overcome the armored Archons. It was almost as if these smaller groups had gone rogue and were holing up wherever they could.
Jason saw and shot another coming up on his left, then his team split up and went three ways…forward, left, and upper left. The hall going to the right led back to an area they’d already cleared and at the end of that hall he could see the tall, white armor of a Knight standing guard. Once the rest of Epsilon team had moved out Jason waved the man forward, holding position until he arrived to ensure no lizards could slip past during the changeover, then he followed the middle team up the angular branch to his upper left.
They encountered no resistance, as was typical of most sweep segments, but he and the others always had to stay on guard for if the lizards knew they were coming they’d either rush them or try and set up an ambush, and given that they knew the layout of the jumpship far better than the Archons those ambushes could come from any corner, room, or hallway at any time, keeping the sweeps from ever becoming routine.
Epsilon didn’t encounter more resistance until more than half an hour later when one of their forward scouts took a sniper blast to the shoulder and spun around as he fell to the floor. In the next second every Archon ahead of Jason in the foyer went evasive, leaving the trailblazer with open air between himself and the source of the pinpoint plasma shot.
As soon as he saw the retractable turret hanging down from the ceiling he took a wild shot at it and ducked down behind a short pillar that had the lizard version of art on top of it. The smooth, crystalline image of twisting lines and sharp barbs shattered as another plasma blast hit it over top of Jason’s head. As he ducked down he heard return fire coming from his team, then a ‘pop’ as the turret finally detonated under the plasma assault.
“Clear,” one of them said, with Jason and several others coming up out of cover to inspect the scene.
“Stay sharp,” he suggested, though technically he wasn’t leading the mission. “That was defending something.”
“Door,” Jaime said, jogging over to the empty wall behind where the turret had lowered. “I can see the seams.”
Xavier-466, who was leading the mission, motioned for the others to search the side entrances, one of which branched into an alcove, the other a hallway. Half the team scurried off out of view while the rest of them took up defensive positions, Jason included, as Jaime further examined what looked to be a hidden door.
Jason watched the road behind them, noticing a small nub on one of pedestals nearby. “Heads up,” he warned, getting the others’ attention before pressing it.
As soon as he did the hexagonal slab of wall pressed out, then slid aside revealing a short tunnel about shoulder height on the Archons.
“Jaime, Frank…go,” Xavier ordered, holding back until he knew what was on the other side. Jason came up and stood beside him as the other Archons crouched down and began walking through. A few moments later they came back out, apparently without finding any lizards.
“Armory,” Jaime reported. “Standard rifles, about two thirds empty.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Jason said, urging the others on before getting on the comm with the Knight team trailing them. The other Archons split up and followed the others out, who were already rendezvousing with the other portions of the 15 man team as they searched and held this small area of the jumpship.
When the Knights arrived to relieve first Jason, then the others, Epsilon leapfrogged ahead to the next section, and the next, and the next ad nauseum until they came to either a lift or ladder connection to the other decks above or below them. Those points defined the edge of their current sweep, most of which had already been sealed off by Gamma team who was hopping around enemy held territory ahead of Epsilon and setting up hard points for them to sweep between. Once they got the rest of this deck port of the new demarcation line secured they’d head up to the next level and repeat while Gamma headed out further into the starboard and started sealing off more passageways to limit lizard movements.
It was tedious and tiring work, especially for Jason, but it was necessary. They couldn’t have lizards running around behind their lines, and with a ship of this size they couldn’t be sure they’d gotten them all unless they held a secured line and gradually walked it down the length of the ship.
After three more days of similar sweeps Jason and Epsilon team, along with similar work by the others, had pushed the lizard lines all the way back to within 200 meters of their fortifications, whereupon they disc
overed that they hadn’t established their last line of defense across the entire width of the jumpship, but focused it on a small chunk inset from the hull, probably to keep it clear of possible weapons damage should the exterior shield go down and the Humans’ fleet started firing their deep penetrating rail guns into that area.
This also meant the lizards had less area to defend and could consolidate their efforts to holding just the one fortification with however many personnel they had remaining. Paul and Morgan decided they weren’t going to hit them right off, but rather sweep up the balance of the territory that they’d left undefended all the way to the tip of the starboard side. In doing so they also cleared out the weapons batteries of their gunners, discovering that they were in fact manually targeted and fired.
They took two more days to consolidate the remaining areas and establish their own barricades around the lizard fortifications to keep them from fleeing, as well as to diminish the number of guards that were necessary to secure the area, allowing them more personnel to devote to the attack, which was planned with four insertion points…two on the top level and opposite one another, fore and aft, one in the middle of the cube-like stack of decks from the starboard, and one on the third lowest level from port.
Jason was assigned to the port insertion team as a sniper, carrying a lachar rifle that he used to knock out one of their defense turrets from the side down a long hall, after which a team of Archons moved in and secured the location, battling a mixed group of standard lizards and maulers. From his lateral position he couldn’t see anything, for the battle was taking place just inside the doorway the turret had been positioned in front of, but he soon got the call to move up.