by Aer-ki Jyr
At his core Paul knew they had to be better, and that they would be better in time, if the technology evened out. The idea of someone out-training the trailblazers was ridiculous, even with all the breaks they took to work on other projects or go into combat. Someone might match or exceed them for a day, a week, a month…maybe even a year. But no one was going to beat them over the centuries, and eventually millennia for one simple reason.
They craved advancement, and even if there wasn’t a super strong enemy out there that they were racing to catch up with, they’d still work their asses off just for the fun of it. They lived for challenge, and that was the core of their being. While that facet might not be unique to Humans, nor a race in particular, Paul knew the V’kit’no’sat were lazy in comparison. Not in the conventional sense, but the more information he read coming out of the pyramid the more he understood that they didn’t operate out of a need or quest for challenge, but out of ego.
The two were often overlapping, with the V’kit’no’sat responding to a need or a threat with equal zeal as he and the other Archons, but it was in the quiet times, the peaceful times, that their drive would wane. They were too good to abandon their training or actually get lazy, but they wouldn’t push as hard in those times whereas Paul would, and he knew the other trailblazers and a lot of the other Archons would as well.
That was where they could gain ground on the individuals who’d had thousands of years’ head start on them, though it was still going to take forever to catch up to individuals like Ironnsey and their dinosaur counterparts, but the fact that they had a window, that it was actually possible, was all they needed. Given enough time they would get there.
Time, it was all about time, so Star Force’s strategy had to play towards that, even if it meant restraining themselves from going out and kicking the bad guys’ asses as much as they’d like. They had to turtle up and play the waiting game, which at his core Paul didn’t like, but when viewing the big picture it made sense, and as long as he kept that in mind there was no internal conflict. They were playing to win, and this was the game plan they needed to pursue.
But from experience with the lizards he knew that holding a strict boundary was suicidal. They operated off a creep mentality, and holding a line with them meant a constant push and pull between the two. Hold your ground and they’d push harder and harder until you moved an inch, then that would be the new boundary until they got you to move again, and again, and again.
No, in order to hold the lizard engagement line Paul had to make gains against them, and the Excalibur was his solution to the problem, for the time being, as he was launching their first assault against a lizard system with the intent of taking it away from them and making it their own. Doing so would push the lizard lines back a touch, providing more distance from the Ninkari that Canderous was still guarding in the ‘open.’
It would also send the message that they weren’t marks for the lizards to eventually take down. That often was an invitation, when someone only defended instead of counterattacking, to greater invasion because it gave the impression of weakness. That was something he’d learned playing StarCraft long ago, and ironically it held true in real warfare.
So in order to keep his piece of Star Force territory locked down, he had to expand it. Not a lot, just a touch here and there to keep the lizards at bay. It seemed counterintuitive, but give the lizards a fixed point to work on and sooner or later they’d figure out a way to beat it. Paul had to dictate the course of the conflict at least part of the time, otherwise they’d swarm over his worlds and make his defensive effort twice as difficult.
The attacker got the choice of time, place, and numbers…the defender had to work with what they had, and more often than not it wasn’t an advantageous arrangement, else the attacker wouldn’t have been launching the assault in the first place.
So here Paul was, kicking the crap out of a sizeable lizard fleet and ‘holding’ his border against the lizards by expanding it. In the past Ollsonat had been hit twice by Sara and once by Greg, each time doing major damage to the lizard infrastructure from orbital bombardment, but the lizards always rebuilt, and would keep rebuilding until you either eradicated them or gave up and abandoned the effort…in which case they’d win by default.
Today was different, and as the last few lizard ships that hadn’t been able to flee were destroyed by the Excalibur’s weapons and the drones surrounding them reformed into patrol groups to scour the debris and eventually move to orbital bombardment locations, Paul nodded satisfactorily and looked to Captain Evinson.
“How’s the weather?”
“Adequate. The cleansing beams should hit ground with 85% cohesion at minimum.”
“Good. Move us into position and prepare to disengage the landing core. I want it touching down nearby while we’re still assaulting the target to minimize their army response times. I expect them to flee the city when we start hitting them anyway, and the less that get away the less we’ll have to track down and kill later.”
“Should we wait for the drones?”
“No. Let them handle the auxiliary targets after they confirm orbit is clear. We’ll take the primary ourself.”
Evinson nodded and began implementing Paul’s orders as the trailblazer began to slowly pace around the bridge, eventually seeing the holographic status display update as the Command Ship began to retract the armor segments around its core in a slow ripple, revealing the true nature of the giant donut.
Paul suppressed a smile, imagining an image of Homer Simpson giving him an approving ‘thumbs up’ on the design.
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Table of Contents
1 August 15, 2467 Rotunna System (Beta Region) Inner Zone
2
3 August 17, 2467Rotunna System (Beta Region)Ida
4 September 12, 2467Rotunna System (Beta Region)Ida
5 September 27, 2467Prolio SystemHTC
6 November 3, 2467Zanor
7 November 18, 2467Lonigan System (Epsilon Region)Outreach
8 December 25, 2467Hammer System (Core Region)Ironhold
9 March 22, 2468Epsilon Eridani SystemBabylon 1 Station
10 July 8, 2468Trantiss