Star Force: Mantle (SF92) (Star Force Origin Series)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  “It feels like we shouldn’t even be a part of this, but I can’t fault your logic.”

  She put an armored hand with a melted patch on her thumb on the side of his arm that wasn’t hurt. “It helps to work through this beforehand, but as long as you’re here you just need to run and gun. We didn’t cause this, we helped stop it, and we’re going to teach the Bandaii how to fight properly when we’ve got the time.”

  “There are way too few of us out here.”

  “How much can a single Archon accomplish in a nightmare situation?” she said, putting his thoughts into words. “Sounds like a challenge to me.”

  Ryen half smiled, realizing she was right as that simple sentence peaked his competitiveness just enough to clear his mind of the dark haze and make him realize he’d gotten in too deep and lost his perspective.

  “Challenge accepted,” he said, immediately feeling better. “Where do you want me?”

  “Good boy,” she said patronizingly. “Just roam the city and look for places to make a difference. If we get anything organized I’ll let you know, but right now we need to be seen leading so the Bandaii don’t go crazy with despair…or worse.”

  “Prisoners?” he asked darkly.

  “I don’t know yet. But if there are…”

  “Right,” Ryen said, suddenly feeling the urgency. “Are we setting up a safe zone?”

  “How are your troops holding up?”

  “Licking their wounds. They’re pretty beat up, but everyone is still alive. We had to make use of the Bandaii as distractions.”

  “They were going to die regardless, so you should have used them,” she said in a tone that held no room for debate. “Can you set up base with what you have?”

  “Yes, but I really don’t think they’re up to fighting the Bandaii if they want to start taking out their grief on the wounded.”

  “We’ll jump off that bridge when we get to it. I’ve got a few transports standing by in orbit for another drop run. We’re just waiting for an opening.”

  “I’ll get you a secure LZ,” he said, walking off down the street and looking away from her, “and thanks.”

  “Got your back,” she said amicably, then ran off another direction into the war torn city.

  Ryen eventually found his way back to the shoreline with his shields keeping the water off his injuries as he walked back beneath the semi-calm surface. The shield generator in the city had been kept intact and was now in Bandaii hands so that the orbital fleet couldn’t rain down bombardment on them to spoil their victory, and it was knocking down most of the ocean waves that were now slowly becoming visible as the haze outside began to dissipate slightly. They’d shut off the local generators, but there was so much built up in the atmosphere it wasn’t going to clear anytime soon.

  When the Archon got underwater several floating figures were waiting for him. He could have contacted them via comm, but he preferred face to face.

  “How do we look?”

  “The Bandaii are severing the control lines as directed,” the Elarioni said. “The turrets will be recoverable later if we can get the necessary techs.”

  “Mobile units?”

  “We’ve intercepted several scouts. They are programmed to turn and run upon contact, but we did not let any that we observed get away. There have been no troop movements in this area to report.”

  “Looking to see what the situation is?”

  “Either for intel or to herald a new offensive,” the Elarioni speculated.

  “Probably want to know how we got to shore.”

  “How did we get to shore?” another of his scouts that had been unable to take part in the ground war asked.

  “I took out a control hub…and the mortars.”

  “Do they know this?”

  “Depends how good their information sharing technology is. It’s possible it was all local, in which case the other Hashvi strongholds won’t know. But I’m not counting on that.”

  “Your psionics?”

  Ryen nodded, immediately regretting that unnecessary movement. “I doubt they realize we can control minds, but they’re probably beginning to suspect something unconventional is happening. The defenses here were more than enough to kill all the Bandaii. They laid a very good trap.”

  “The Bandaii are planning to bring a comm cable in on this approach.”

  “Cable?”

  “Strung along the seafloor that will connect back to one of their bases.”

  Ryen frowned. “Kind of gives away its location.”

  “It does. They think this area is secure enough that they want the connection.”

  “Up to shore or nearby?”

  “They said it will connect to the existing infrastructure.”

  Ryen looked at his battlemap, not seeing anything in the water around the city save for what the Hashvi put here. “If these guys are amphibian, why aren’t there structures in the water along the shore?”

  “They have a binary civilization.”

  Ryen frowned. “Explain.”

  “Physically they can exist in either environment, but there are internal divisions that separate the air breathers from the water dwellers. The two groups are not always in unison.”

  “Wonderful,” Ryen said, realizing that would be yet another hurdle for them to overcome while civilizing these people.

  “Though the current situation seems to have pushed those divisions aside,” the Elarioni added.

  “For now,” Ryen amended. “Best recommendations for our aquatic LZ?”

  The Elarioni answered via the battlemap with four different waypoints as options, all of which were at least 8 miles from the shore and no more than 20. Ryen chose one and labeled it ‘Alpha Base.’

  “Start relocating all our prefab structures there and set up camp. When we get the bigger pieces down here I want a minimum delay. This is our world now, even if we only own a tiny piece of it, so we need to start claiming it and setting an example of what true civilization looks like…before the chaos drives everyone mad.”

  “The fighting was equally gruesome on the surface?”

  “Yes, and just as many dead, but on both sides. We need a stabilizing rod established on land and in water…and you’re in charge of setting up the water one until we get another combat mission.”

  8

  December 19, 3463

  Shemma System (Rim Region)

  Asteroid Belt

  Greg-073 stood in the command nexus onboard his command ship guiding it, two Star Force Ma’kri, and a fleet of over 8000 Tolsoi vessels as they engaged the Zargor around one of their own worlds. It was about as small of a planet as you could get, only some 300 miles wide, but it was the only inhabitation in the system and acted as a supply base for the wolf-like race as they were expanding out and attacking both the Tolsoi and dozens of other races in the region. Hitting it was skipping over multiple other conflicts, but Greg was insistent on sending the message to the enemy that their own holdings weren’t safe and that Star Force was willing to go on the hunt and not just play defense.

  The Zargor ships were fat and bristling with weapons, most of which were short ranged and coupled with decent engines to get them within their preferred range quickly. The Tolsoi, on the other hand, had a mixed fleet of larger command ships, medium-sized carriers and cruisers, and smaller escort/picket ships. They also used starfighters, which Greg was holding back behind the fleet as they engaged with orders to standby for target assignment.

  The Eternal Pyre was the class of the field and one of Star Force’s newest models of command ship, visually identical on the exterior save for more weapons ports, but drastically different inside as the entire design had been reworked around a Nash’ti reactor, or more accurately 7 small ones, with the core of the ship no longer containing a TF like the Alpha models did. This was a Beta, and designed for naval combat only.

  That gave it a lot bigger punch and made it the predator in the field, to which the Zargor were attracted like mo
ths to a flame…and in this case they were both getting burnt by it and being distracted from the Tolsoi as Greg didn’t hang in the back like their command ships did, rather he dove straight into the enemy and forced them to focus on him as his two flanking Ma’kri provided cover fire.

  Right now this was a slugging match, for none of the Zargor’s fast Hunter-class ships had been in the system, giving the Tolsoi a movement advantage amongst their smaller ships which Greg had attacking and rotating back behind the larger ships before they could take serious damage. The Tolsoi now had their command and control linked into the Star Force systems and Greg had them all showing up on his battlemap, but they weren’t up to Star Force standards, despite the years of experience they’d gained already. The real Tolsoi Star Force fleet was in its infancy and not ready for heavy combat, but the Zargor had to be hit and he couldn’t wait another century or two while they gained experience in smaller battles and numbers grew. He had to make use of the old school Tolsoi, and making his own command ship the primary target was the best way to keep them alive and useful.

  It was a tactic that the Zargor were not used to seeing. The Tolsoi had always tried to keep their command ship away from the enemy and used their weaponry as a last resort. It was standard practice to send in the smaller ships first to soften up the enemy before gradually sending the ones with more tonnage and less maneuverability…which was a tactic that Greg had struck down immediately. Right now the command ships were center in the formation, not in the back, and the smaller ships were circling around the medium ones at the front, with those to fall back behind the command ships if/when needed.

  That would eventually move the command ships to the front lines where their bulk could be used to block the smaller vessels and allow them to recharge shields, thus extending their lifespans. Regardless of how he fought this battle, he was going to lose Tolsoi. Their ships were all manned, and the numbers here were not so small that they could get away with a clean victory. In fact, clean victories were a thing of the past for Greg, with him having to honor the Tolsoi by making their deaths count. And to do that he had to be aggressive and not protective of them. It wasn’t something that came naturally, but the Tolsoi crews all knew that they were fighting for the survival of their race and of their neighbors, so they were fully committed to the fight and relying on Greg to lead them…and lead them he was.

  It was a type of combat he didn’t like, and that Star Force had never fought, but he was a trailblazer and was excelling at it regardless. He was winning battles that the Tolsoi would have lost if he had not been there, and keeping the losses in their victories much lower than expected. He focused on that fact whenever a ship was destroyed along with its crew, knowing that he had to stand by the Tolsoi now as a new fleet was constructed, else they’d be outmatched against the Zargor without his strategic cunning…and his badass flagship.

  With the Zargor weaponry being primarily short ranged, it meant all of the Dre’mo’don cannons on the Eternal Pyre were within their kill zone and living up to that moniker. He left their individual targeting up to his remote pilots and Admiral while he focused on the Tolsoi fleet and their movements, issuing constant orders to crews and captains that still didn’t fully understand the logic behind such things, but they had come to trust in the trailblazer implicitly over the years of combat and the number of battles he’d seen them through, so they reacted instantly to his orders…as best they understood them.

  It took a long time and a lot of carnage before Greg finally released the starfighters from their holding position, giving them orders to target damaged ships only and to remain at high attack speed…pushing through the engagement and not circling around within it. The Zargor had plenty of anti-air capability on their ships, so going up against them with small arms was suicide. What the starfighters did have was decent anti-ship missiles that had been reconfigured for early release, so they could be programmed with a target and let coast into range before activating and powering into detonation range.

  That could keep the starfighters out of anti-air attacks, but the missiles themselves were still vulnerable to intercept…thus the need to attack damaged ships that may or may not have their anti-air knocked out or unpowered. Greg wanted the starfighters to add to the warships’ damage rather than trying to down their own targets, and given that these pilots were living longer than most under his guidance they’d started adhering to his rules of engagement.

  Or more accurately, the ones that didn’t died and were weeded out, thought that didn’t always hold true. A lot of good pilots following orders died as well, for there was almost no margin for error with the tiny ships. One good hit, or a lucky one, from a warship and they were toast, which was why Greg would only use them for support operations or bait, though the Zargor hadn’t chased after them this time as he’d hoped. They’d stuck with their prime target of Greg’s flagship, and not just because of the wicked amount of damage it could pour out. They wanted him eliminated, for he had already gained a reputation as the mastermind behind the Tolsoi resurgence and their stopping the Zargor assault on their territory cold whereas they’d expected them to eventually fold like all others did.

  But that was another tactic that Greg could use, making himself the bait and riding it out in a very well armored decoy. The Zargor didn’t have enough ships here to take him down, so he let the Eternal Pyre eat up weapons discharges as the enemy ship count diminished rapidly. Unfortunately they didn’t all shoot at him, for they didn’t all have good firing lines, and some chose Tolsoi targets instead. When both fleets mixed together the battle became chaotic and Greg had to work his tail off to get the sluggish Tolsoi maneuvering as he needed.

  They didn’t respond as fast as Star Force troops, whom he could order through the battlemap system as quickly as their own captains could, and Greg hated playing games with lag, especially when people’s lives were on the line.

  He watched the starfighters streak in, thankful that the distraction had worked and the Zargor were too preoccupied with the warships to notice them. They shot in and out, launching missiles on the way and hitting unshielded enemy ships that were engaged with other vessels, tipping the scales in those engagements without drawing any considerable return fire.

  One of the starfighters did get clipped in an explosion and became ballistic, but his comm system was still up and he was still alive. Greg sent three of the other starfighters after him on retrieval orders as he reformed and circled the starfighters around the main battle to set up another strafing run as a few weak spots on the Eternal Pyre’s shields momentarily collapsed and let a little weaponsfire through that licked away at the hull without doing much damage.

  Several of the medium Tolsoi warships were racking up considerable damage, with Greg ordering them into a retreat through the other ships along specific lines, predictably dragging Zargor pursuit that wanted to finish them off before they could get away, directly into ambushes. Flanking ships crisscrossed over those routes and hammered the chasing ships with 3 to 1 or better advantages in numbers, knocking them down and allowing the damaged Tolsoi vessels to cycle back around behind the command ships as several of them now moved up to first position on what was left of the battle lines.

  Within a few more minutes the fighting was over. It ended so suddenly he didn’t think the Zargor even realized what happened to the rest of their ships, so consumed with their targets and making kills. Their ships were considerably larger than the lizard cruisers, but they operated with a swarm mentality more focused on pursuit than self-sacrifice. Once attached to a target they didn’t like to lose it, making the basic Star Force fleet cycling patterns so disruptive to them. A good commander would learn to adapt, but for years these same tactics were getting the same responses from the enemy…and some of them had survived to tell the others what had happened, so there was no excuse for their stupidity.

  Maybe he was just used to the adaptational skills of the lizards, to which these guys compared poorly. Then again, if
he didn’t have a technological advantage their ‘pursue at all costs’ strategy would make engagements all in or run, and in that environment the more aggressive usually came out the winner, especially when they had superior engine power to run down fleeing ships. And if you knew you didn’t have numbers on them, you’d be reluctant to engage for fear of being pursued relentlessly.

  The Zargor strategy was based on fear and intimidation as much as raw firepower, but with Star Force they’d finally found someone they couldn’t bully. The downside of that, though, was the Zargor wanted to keep bullying so they had to knock off those that stood up to them first, which had accelerated their assaults into Tolsoi territory and forced a much more rapid conflict than had been building up previously.

  Then again, that also pulled Zargor ships off of other systems that couldn’t defend themselves, so it wasn’t totally a negative, but being the powerful good guys did have negative effects for your friends because you tended to draw the bad guys to you in some situations. The Tolsoi didn’t have a choice in the matter, for they couldn’t wait to build up resources. Star Force was their one and only hope and they were fully committed to fighting on their side, no matter how much escalation their arrival incurred.

  When the warships were done hammering it out Greg didn’t wait to lick his wounds. He ordered retrievals for survivors while taking most of his fleet further in to the planet and within a few dozen miles of the surface. Gravity was inconsequential, and there was barely a trace of an atmosphere, but there was a sizeable base with a lot of warehouses and other support structures.

  “Zargor, this is your chance to surrender and live. If you do not I am obliterating your surface facilities with my fleet. You have no defenses that can stop us,” he said, emphasizing that point by targeting the few weapons batteries that were firing up at his ship from the planet, again focusing the big ship rather than taking a shot at a smaller Tolsoi vessel. Their predator mindset didn’t match their visage, and right now he didn’t care if they stuck with it or surrendered. He needed to neutralize this base and get moving before another Zargor fleet could arrive.