They didn’t hit the cities or outposts at first, merely coming down over top the moon-spanning forest and burning out some landing zones where they could deposit their ground troops…minus their walkers. The forest was too tall and too thick for them to operate with, so the transports merely hung in the air over top the LZs until enough of the trees had been cut down and disposed of to allow the ships to land.
From there they’d burned back more forest to create room for their walkers to deploy and hold ground as they began building prefabricated structures and setting up their own outposts on the surface. It wasn’t long before they had shield domes covering them and a foothold on the moon that they began expanding upon.
Trick of it all was, Star Force’s mechs couldn’t operate in the forest either, making this ground war purely infantry save for the open areas surrounding both Star Force and now Skarron infrastructure. The Hobbits and Skarrons had moved out on foot almost immediately and filled the surrounding areas with troops that eventually hit one of the outposts. They’d suffered heavy losses to take it, but the forest came right up near the edge and didn’t have much room for mechs to operate, instead relying on a number of defense turrets. With a combination of plasma and their annoying shoulder-launched missiles they’d taken them down and secured the outpost, but not before the Kiritak there were evacuated.
That was the one small gain the Skarrons had made, but with every day that passed they were cutting out roads through the forest for their walkers to travel on. It was hard work, for many of the trunks were 10+ meters in thickness, but the army of workers they’d brought with them were diligently making progress. Randy had bombarded several of their LZs from orbit, but every time he did more Skarron ships would appear from wherever they were hiding within the system and force him to stop.
One tactic the Skarrons had picked up was not showing their full hand, leaving Randy guessing how many ships they had insystem rather than showing him up front with a standard blockade. They kept a large number in orbit around the moon for quick response, as did Randy, but every naval engagement they’d made had resulted in more forces being brought in on either side, creating a stalemate all of its own over the moon while Randy still had ships out hunting the enemy elsewhere in the system…especially incoming transports that the Skarrons were using to reinforce their surface campaign.
Randy’s fleet had a 1 in 3 kill ratio going on those, with the Skarrons hesitant to bring them in randomly. Each attempt led to another costly naval engagement, usually for the Skarrons because Randy’s fleet pretty much owned them so long as they didn’t get careless. That price was something they seemed to be willing to pay in order to secure the moon. There was no way they were going to take the other habitable planets in the system, but whether it was out of pride or some long spanning strategy the Skarrons wanted this moon and Randy wasn’t going to accommodate them.
Right now there was a column of Skarron infantry heading out from one of their LZs, as there were many, Randy had discovered, moving from place to place and setting up a network of outposts underneath the forest canopy. Some were camps, others were being dug into the ground, and all being accomplished by hand and underneath the forest canopy keeping them away from sensors and air support. The Skarrons seemed intent on making this an infantry campaign up until they could get their walkers to the primary targets and Star Force had responded in kind, taking the fight to them underneath the trees with Randy choosing to become his own one man Venator squad.
That meant he was roaming freely while other units held to prescribed locations, defensive assignments, or attack runs. It also meant he got to play ambusher, and while his dark brown armor clashed with the deep grays of the tree trunks he’d found that the Skarrons didn’t pay much attention to the trees above them, thinking that their enemy was going to hit them from the ground only. That had allowed him to move through the treetops over them many times with impunity, but this time he was waiting for them to come to him.
They weren’t coming directly under, with the leading Hobbit skirmishers passing about 50 meters to the south. After them came a pair of Skarrons with their Hobbit units surrounding them. Behind them came the ranks of closely packed troops aligned simply for crossing territory rather than fighting…and there were thousands of them stretched out in a line that was 4 or 5 wide for the Hobbits and single file for the Skarrons, most of whom were not elites.
Easy pickings for a trailblazer so long as he had enough ammo…and Randy had packed plenty of extra plasma clips.
Rather than jump them at the midsection he waited for the end of the line to come up, then he stood, stretched out his legs a bit, and casually looked around.
“Time to play Master Chief,” he said to the air before taking a few steps forward on the branch and jumping with the assistance of his jump pack across to another one. He stuck that landing better then hopped again, coming over top the line of footprints in the ground where the enemy troops had just passed.
Randy stepped off the branch and fell to the ground, landing lightly with some anti-grav assistance and pulling his plasma rifle off his back as he sprinted forward. It took him some 14 seconds to catch up with the back of the line but he didn’t shoot immediately, instead he ran up to them and actually knocked two aside to get in their midst before he emitted a large Fornax field and dropped some 20+ Hobbits to the ground.
He peppered them with shots making easy kills as the sound of his plasma fire turned the attention of those ahead to him. After a moment of shock white plasma orbs began to fly his direction and hit his shields, but he stayed long enough to kill most of the ones on the ground before sprinting sideways and getting behind a tree trunk.
From there he did a Jedi jump straight up and got back into the branches, repositioning to another tree and jumping down inside the growing group of those turning around to engage him. Another Fornax field took them down and he killed some dozen more before taking off behind cover, this time running from tree to tree and drawing some of them out after him…which he circled back around to kill in ones and twos.
Though he couldn’t see it, the Skarron column suddenly became severed. The leading portion didn’t know what was going on and couldn’t hear the weaponsfire, for they were too far ahead. Those that did turned back, leaving those in the middle at a loss as to what was going on and what to do. Soon that was resolved by their Skarron commanders via comm and the line began to shrink in length and fan out into a wide formation to look for and pin down their attacker.
Which worked perfectly to Randy’s advantage. Get them isolated and he had easy kills, keep them bunched up and he could Fornax them into submission, but with enough of them they’d rack up plasma hits to his armor’s shields and force him back. That was their only effective option, for they couldn’t run, they were too far away from the nearest help for that, and they couldn’t call in air support for the trees would block their fire and most of their sensors.
That meant this battle was Randy’s to lose, and he was too experienced to let recklessness get the better of him. Keeping the engagements spaced out and allowing his shields to recharge at least a bit each time between strikes, he worked through hundreds of Hobbits while avoiding the Skarrons, knowing they’d take more than a few shots to take down…but deprive them of their escorts and they were vulnerable in the trees, for they already didn’t move very fast, allowing Randy to dart here and there almost with impunity.
The Skarrons might be stupid, but they weren’t stupid and after it became clear that they weren’t able to kill the single Archon they pulled their scattered forces back together and formed a clump of troops in a circle, putting as many plasma weapons together as they could to increase their chances of making a killing hit in the few seconds that their enemy would appear.
Randy recognized this and acted appropriately, going Jedi and pulling weapons out of the Hobbits’ hands when he was behind trees but able to see with his Pefbar. He’d throw them out into the forest, almost daring them
to come out after them. When they didn’t he remained patient, picking a few more Hobbit weapons off while the Skarrons literally wore theirs on their gangly four arms and weren’t so available for picking.
Eventually the Skarrons saw the writing on the wall, knowing that if they let this continue their escorts would be defenseless, so they guessed Randy’s approximate location and charged en mass.
The trailblazer smiled inside his helmet and jumped up into the higher branches, staying behind a tree trunk so they couldn’t see where he’d gone. He let them pass underneath him then he dropped down into the back section of their charging horde and emitted another Fornax blast, with this one catching a Skarron as well. It went down, but struggled to get back up on its feet while the Hobbits seemed to have no resistance to the intensity of his Fornax.
Randy shot several of them then decided to chance going after the Skarron. He ran up to it, still emitting the field which felt like he was mentally holding his breath as he maintained the effort, and jumped up onto the quadruped’s flat back and fired his rifle down into the sweet spot just back of the ‘head’ though in truth the creature had none. Its face was part of its body, but the spot he was firing into led directly into its vital organs and after some 14 shots it died and dropped fully to the ground.
Randy took several plasma hits to his shields from ranged shots, but not enough to penetrate so he jumped off and shot a few more Hobbits before retreating to the rear and ironically the spot where the enemy had been turtled up, now clearing their lines and releasing his Fornax emission, feeling his mind start to recharge so he could do it again.
He caught a few more Hobbits off on their own then went back at the others, making sure to give himself escape routes so the enemy couldn’t pin him down and hammer him with shots, for as small as the Hobbit blasts were they still posed a risk and he wasn’t going to be arrogant and think he could just run in there with impunity. He had to earn these kills like all others, and the best way to do that was by being smart and quick on his feet.
Eventually the Skarron infantry had had enough and they began to flee back the way they’d come, though it was more than 8 kilometers to their closest forest outpost and none ended up making it back. When they turned and ran Randy knew he had them, pursuing and taking them down with ease as there was little unit cohesion left in them, nor were they interested in firing at him…merely wanting to get away from the single enemy that they just couldn’t manage to kill.
Randy couldn’t be sure he got them all, and in truth he probably didn’t if some of them had ran off in a different direction, but he was sure that none had made it clear of those that had retraced their path. He stuck around a while and roamed the area, now having to use Hobbit weapons given the fact that he’d run dry on plasma rounds for his rifle, despite the excessive amount he’d brought with.
He found and killed some 13 more stragglers then, finding no more nearby on his Ikrid radar, took to the trees again and climbed up high, moving into the dark green leaves that were, in most cases, larger than his body and looking like thick, giant surf boards. They were so firm in fact that he could stand on them and got to actually ‘walk’ on top of the canopy, looking up into the blue sky and seeing the twin suns overhead as they poured radiation down onto the moon.
The gas giant was also visible overhead and much larger, giving the view an epic sense but he hadn’t come up here for the scenery, rather to get better range on his armor’s transmitter. He called for a pickup, and within 20 minutes a small mantis flew out to his location and spun about over the treetops, opening its rear hatch and allowing him to walk inside the armed personnel transport. There were still Skarron fighters in the area that could have harassed a dropship, but given the wide spacing of their patrols he’d decided to risk calling for the tough little craft and was able to evac without incident rather than take the long hike back over land.
But he wasn’t heading back to base, rather he reloaded with ammunition onboard the mantis and had it take him over to another engagement zone and drop him off on the treetops there before it had to fight off a rogue fighter. Randy watched for a moment as he stood on a giant leaf, then saw the anti-air lachars on the mantis take the Skarron fighter’s shields down and scare it off, allowing his ride to get away and head back to base.
Checking his battlemap and getting some troop locations nearby, Randy ran across the thick canopy until he found a spot where his boots fell through and he disappeared from the bright sunlight. Moving through various layers of leaves he eventually broke through into the empty middle zone of the forest and used his jump pack to cushion his landing, coming down on the shin-high grasses that covered a lot of the forest floor and seeing his battlemap update as the sharing signals got better reception.
He picked the closest units currently engage in battle and ran off, intending to add to his 4 digit kill count on the day.
5
May 31, 2549
Twensa System (Protovic territory)
Naden
Kip stood in the cockpit of the Voltron Mk. 3 as its center piece flew across the landscape with the other four segments following in formation and surrounded by a squadron of starscreams as he headed for an engagement zone that had literally just broken out minutes ago. The Skarrons had managed to slip a few transports through the Protovic orbital defense fleet and landed a Type-1 and a handful of Type-4s in a very bad spot on the map.
Bad because Star Force had no units nearby, leaving only the limited Protovic defenders incapable of defending themselves against a walker of that size. It was locking down the local airspace and keeping the Protovic Valeries out of the area while the Skarrons’ own fighters pounded the local populations. All that was in play were the cleansing beam defense turrets in some of the cities, but the Type-1 was put down out of range but still popping missiles at anything of size that came into the area.
That also included the Valeries, which Kip found disturbing that the walker would waste its missiles on them at extreme range. To the trailblazer that meant the Skarrons were buying time for some other play, possibly bringing in more troops to the area once the Type-1 locked it down. He couldn’t be sure, but his spidey senses were tingling and he knew he needed to knock that walker out as soon as he could.
One voltron wasn’t going to do much under normal circumstances, but this was Mk. 3 and in addition to the flight capability of the individual segments it was also a tad bigger and much better armed. He didn’t have a physical shield with him, due to the fact that he couldn’t carry it out to the engagement zone while the mech was in separate pieces, but the speed increase in the Mk. 3 had made it much more maneuverable, now like a stiff neo, so he figured he could at least do some damage to the Type-1 and eliminate its escorts with some fancy maneuvering. His plasma-resistant shield setting would protect him for a short period of time, enough to get in and out he hoped, but at the moment all he wanted to do was slow down whatever plans the Skarrons had and maybe get a poke at their grounded transports…if not scare them off.
Flying low to the ground to try and avoid missile fire as long as they could, Kip’s mech segments and the starscreams eventually saw launch warnings on their battlemap. When they did they went to ground immediately, with Kip throwing all power to the shields on each of the five pieces while the starscreams landed and transformed into mech mode and readied their anti-air weapons.
A few seconds later they lit up the incoming missiles with high frequency lachar bursts and plasma shards, reducing the number of hits greatly but not stopping them all. Their shields took the brunt of the attack then suddenly it was over, with the dust cloud drifting away in the stiff winds.
Kip saw two starscreams with light armor damage and suppressed a curse. The Protovic were supposed to have gotten the Type-1’s attention but they were nowhere to be seen. Checking his battlemap log he queried for those units and quickly found the problem…they were all dead.
Not understanding what had just happened he issued hold orde
rs to the starscreams and replayed the last known location time log, essentially rewinding the battlemap data until he saw something entirely new from the Skarrons. The transports that were sitting nearby the Type-1 had deployed infantry, Kip knew, but along with that infantry had come some type of assault sleds. A quick look indicated that they were small, about the length of 5 or 6 Skarrons lined up in a row, and barely 4 meters high. They looked like small trucks carrying supplies for the ground troops, but Kip nor anyone else had ever seen them before, for there was no mention of them in the Skarron intel log.
What they were, Kip quickly realized, was something he should have expected from their anti-air obsessed enemy. They were fire and forget missile launchers for the infantry…and the large Valerie force the Protovic were sending to distract the Type-1’s missile fire had flown over the Skarron infantry, intending to harass them later if Kip’s group ended up drawing the attention instead, forcing the Skarrons to make a choice, but when they had the little sleds popped like fireworks, sending up a one shot shower of missiles that had caught the Valeries off guard.
Nearly all of the aircraft had went down, with the few survivors retreating low to the ground and trying to play tank to avoid attention.
“Damn it,” Kip said, triggering the voltron’s assembly procedure and activating his comm. “Looks like we’re going over ground from here guys. Our distraction got roasted by infantry missile launchers. If you see any vehicles with them knock them out quick. They’re pretty much an anti-air mine for any fighters crossing overhead.”
“What the hell?” one of the starscream pilots asked.
Star Force: Backdoor (SF53) Page 4