Ikki and his squadron were relatively new, having only been in three previous campaigns against the lizards, but some of the pilots with him had considerable experience. Their ‘Cap’ was a veteran from the very beginning of Axius by the name of Chitticki, an Irondel, but one with good skills and could keep up with the rest of the squadron that was made up solely of Urik’kadel. All of their fighters were standard Valerie, no specialty variants, given that this was going to be a mixed operational campaign and they needed flexibility. Other squadrons would have the different models, but Ikki’s was straight up regulars with the idea being that they would go wherever needed.
Orders had already come through concerning the drop…for they were going into combat immediately. The Skarrons had established aerial superiority wherever they had walker clusters or one of the bigger models, but they were extending that range out by employing massive numbers of their own crappy fighters. The Skarrons flew them themselves, not their Aronsic, meaning the craft were big, heavy, and didn’t maneuver well compared to the Valeries…but they were tanks when it came to survivability and required a lot of hits to take down.
Combine that tankiness with numbers and you had an aerial force that could literally run over any other small squadrons, even if they didn’t kill them. That meant keeping them back from targets was difficult enough, and with the enemy not seeming to care about losses you had a juggernaut that could wash over any nearby section of the planet and support/cover for infantry advances.
On the up side the enemy fighters weren’t too good at poaching mechs, but they were trying to none the less with swarm tactics…which was probably why the mech kill stats for fighters was nearly the equal of the Star Force aerial total. On average the veteran pilots had a running 77/1 kill ratio, but given how many fighters the Skarrons had, and were continuing to receive from reinforcement runs, Star Force couldn’t establish aerial superiority except for in locations where they had mech or city backup.
Axius might not have a lot of ground troops to bring into the fold, yet, for they were still growing and growing rapidly, but they did have a huge aerial division. The Urik’kadel were largely responsible for that, choosing to ally with Axius for nearly all military applications rather than try to contribute on their own. Ikki had grown up in an Axius colony, but several of the pilots in his squadron had not. They’d transferred over specifically to join the military, as had many others. In response Axius had devoted more resources to fighter creation so they’d have enough Valeries to accommodate them all.
They all lived in Axius colonies now, but those who were not native to them planned on returning home when their time here was done. That said, they were all Axius in blood now, even the newer additions, given the length of training they’d all endured together. Axius didn’t field rookies, and Ikki had had to prove himself time and again before being given his first combat slot.
And when he had gotten it there was more training to be done in order to get himself accustomed to flying with the members of his squadron. They’d gone through hundreds of simulator runs onboard the carrier prior to each assault and in the down times in between, working on learning each other’s tendencies and practicing combined maneuvers of so many varieties it’d been a challenge for Ikki to learn it all…but he had, as had the others, and because of it and their natural piloting skill they were about to go to school on the Skarrons with it.
Ikki waited impatiently until the countdown finally ended, with his fighter being given the go to launch. He lifted up off the small deck that his fighter sat on and moved out into the large hangar bay that had the rest of his squadron parked into the back wall in niches. The Urik’kadel followed three other Valeries out the opening bay doors and shot through the atmospheric containment field, immediately getting hit with turbulence as the carrier continued to descend through the atmosphere.
As soon as he was outside his battlemap lit up with target contacts being highlighted by either the Cap or a controller in the carrier. Regardless he shot out after them, seeing several hundred enemy fighters coming in to harass the carrier and troop transports that were coming down and now splitting up to head to different locations on the surface. His targets were about 50 klicks out, but that was nothing for his pointy-nose Valerie and he shot out across the sky of the new world, linking up with his 10 man squadron as he did so.
Cap flew center, with three trios spread around him, making what was called a ‘tri-force’ formation. Ikki didn’t understand the metaphor there, but he’d learned the grouping early on and found it was the most reliable for head on engagements, for each piece would split up and chase down Skarron fighters in the simulations. Since they required more pounding having 3 Valeries working together could take them down pretty quick, leaving Cap to fly around on his own as a diversion or to add a few kills of his own with enough persistence.
He did well with that, and when the break came Ikki went with his pair flying starboard wing and following Fanvi’s lead. A targeting mark appeared around one particular enemy fighter and the trio went after it, with Ikki flying wide. He turned sharp left and came at it from the flank as Fanvi shot it head on and dove low, getting a two hit run in. The third fighter in their group, Mava, spun around and came in on its tail, pounding it relentlessly with a scattergun until it suddenly fell out of the sky…their first kill of the day.
There would be many more to follow, for the carrier held some 60 squadrons and there were multiple carriers coming down to the planet. It was feeding time, and the largely Urik’kadel comprised squadrons went to work on the slow Skarron hordes with a ravenous appetite for kills.
Two Axius armadillos landed outside one of the captured Star Force cities on the Skarron-held continent that was currently undergoing a counterassault. Infantry was coming up out of the ocean and heading into the city while aquatic mechs held off and were doing a good job of chewing up the few Skarron walkers challenging them. In addition one aquatics battleship had risen up out of the water and was adding its firepower to the insertion, ensuring that the infantry made it inside the buildings where they began taking it to the invaders in close quarters fighting.
The armadillos landed several kilometers away on the north side, far enough away from the Skarron walkers not to come under fire, given that the largest in play was a Type-3 that didn’t have any missiles and a few lachar blasts weren’t a cause for concern. The two large ships set down on the marshy ground and opened up their doors, spewing out a contingent of Axius mechs that immediately began running towards the city as they fanned out into a loose line that buckled outward into an arch. Inside that arch followed infantry…huge infantry.
Reen scurried out with their long necks reaching up nearly two stories high as their six pointy legs poked holes into the soft ground as they walked/ran their way forward covered in heavy armor that made them look like mechs themselves. The big race actually had turrets on their armor in lieu of the handheld weapons they didn’t have…given that they didn’t have hands. Each of them also had a tiny mauler on their head, able to point it wherever they looked and fire in addition to the plasma cannons placed at the high knee joints on their inverted ‘V’ shaped legs that rose halfway up their neck length.
They were far larger than the Skarrons, but still able to move around in tight confines given their ability to crunch down into a smaller form. That said, it was going to take several minutes for them to get to the city walls before they could get inside, with the mechs providing them an escort to make sure they did prior to going after the walkers.
Then, almost as an afterthought, a few more ‘infantry’ came out of the transports last of all. There were 7 in total, each of which was an Ikrotor that stood taller than the mechs. The Ent-like race also had body armor covering their already stone-like bodies, but where the Reen were mildly slow the Axius-trained Ikrotor were not. They ran ahead, quickly catching up to the Reen and then the mech line. When they passed it a few of the mechs accelerated to keep pace with them, for they wer
e not heading for the city…they were heading directly for the enemy walkers and coming up on their rear flank as they battled the shoreline aquatics forces.
The Ikrotor were bipedal and enormous. Untrained individuals moved about slowly and ponderously, like the Ents they resembled, but with time and Star Force-specialized training, a little side project of Wilson’s, they’d gotten their stride length and cadence up, allowing them to actually run with strides that ate up nearly 20 meters with each step…and that was with armor weighing them down, for theirs didn’t have a powered function as of yet.
In stark comparison the tiny Irondel in the mechs beside them kept pace despite their being smaller than a cat. Through the use of technology and Star Force’s unique approach to warfare, both incompatible races now fought side by side within Axius, with both ambushing the Skarron mechs with a fervor born of going into battle knowing you were going to win and win big.
The mechs that went with the Ikrotor started pounding on the Skarron’s shields from range with plasma and maulers, eating into and weakening them as the giants ran directly up to the enemy machines while charging plasma nubs on their fists. Like the Elarioni and lizard aquatic weapons, the plasma was held concentrated in a small container until physical contact was made, then released suddenly with no dissipation loss suffered from firing over range.
The first Ikrotor to get to a Type-5 walker punched the golf ball square in the center, with the plasma blasting through what was left of the shield and the physical impact to follow tipping it backwards. The walker’s thick bipedal legs made choppy steps trying to catch its balance but the Ikrotor didn’t relent, swinging its other plasma charged fist into the armor and melting a bit of it off while knocking it further back.
The Skarron walker tipped over and immediately pulled its legs in to begin the righting process, but that wasn’t to occur. The Ikrotor came up on it and, even while it was showering out tiny white plasma blasts like a bright sprinkler, punched it repeatedly on top, keeping it pinned to the ground while melting through the armor with each semi-charged hit. That eventually weakened the protective shell enough that the physical blows cracked it open.
The Ikrotor reached in and peeled the shell open, then pounded plasma inside until the walker stopped returning fire. The giant infantry stood up and stepped aside, its shields having gone down and it taken a few slight scorch marks to its armor but that didn’t matter. It looked around at the others and focused on the nearest Type-3 as two more of its brothers headed towards it, running off to join them a few hundred meters back and meeting up with a Weapon-class aquatic mech coming in from the other side as the Skarron walkers suddenly found themselves severely out gunned and began to scurry around in a panic.
The Axius mechs moved through the chaotic mess and pounded down shields while letting the Ikrotor inflict the armor and physical damage. In the case of the Type-3 its back legs were wrapped up by the mechanical tentacles on the aquatic mech which held it close as it pounded one side of its double-hulled body with pointblank mauler shots. At the same time the three Ikrotor came at the other section and tore off one of its front legs with repeated plasma punches to the spindly support.
The walker shot out a tether launcher from underneath, which attached to the leg of one of the Ikrotor and tripped it up, pulling it in underneath it where it launched a waterfall of plasma down onto its armored figure before one of the others got to the cable and cut it.
Its leg now free, the Ikrotor stood back up and, instead of running away, stayed underneath and punched up into its belly taking out a few plasma cannons as the other two likewise pounded on various segments. Unable to move with the aquatic ‘tick’ on its backside the Skarron walker poured as much plasma damage as it could into its opponents before it eventually went down, with the Ikrotor tearing through its armor shell and pouring plasma inside to make the kill with the aquatic mech letting them finish it off as it retreated back to shore.
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 t
he 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.
Star Force: Backdoor (SF53) Page 2