by Jyr, Aer-ki
“I think he’s more interested in getting a Dre’mo’don prototype up and running. That’ll far outclass the Keema damage at medium to short range.”
“True, but I still prefer our base weaponry to outdistance the lizards’.”
“They were bound to make an upgrade at some point. I’m surprised we haven’t seen more, to be honest, with all the races they’ve conquered up till now.”
“Annihilated, not conquered. When you kill everyone in sight there’s no one left around to tell you how to make their toys.”
“Point taken, but they did incorporate a Kvash plasma streamer into their ships.”
“Which is now obsolete.”
“How much better are the phasers? I’ve read the numbers, but what’s the feel like?” she asked, referring to how they affected the fleet engagements when viewed through the command nexus, and therefore ‘felt.’
“They’re still weak ships compared to ours, but it feels like we lost Teemo’s blind and he’s just playing regular, dominant ADC.”
“That bad?”
“The Keema will give us that back. Just have to get the damn beams working. Hey, we can talk later. Get your butt over here before we jump.”
“Going,” Kara said, deactivated the nexus and turning around. She jogged down the L-shaped hallway and onto the bridge, pausing when she got to the Captain’s chair.
“I’m transferring off and you’ll be entering Morgan’s group.”
“Going hunting?” Captain Hafferson asked.
Kara smiled. “You know me.”
“Good luck.”
“Likewise,” she said, running out into the corridors and heading for her quarters to pack up her few belongings. She gave the twins the heads up and had them do likewise, then the trio met up in one of the hangar bays and got on a dropship that took them across low stellar orbit toward the schools of space ‘fish’ waiting there.
Those fish weren’t individual warships, but rather full-fledged jumpships with all of the naval fighting craft tucked up safely inside their holds. Some were twice as long as others, for there were many different models, but spaced amongst them were 7 larger donuts, with a few more on their way out from Sashneo. Each of the five trailblazers here had one, plus some more pulled from various duties to bolster the strength of the fleet as well as add more drone controllers to the mix, increasing the efficiency of each of the ‘little’ warships with more eyes and hands available to fly and fight the ships.
Kara could see that this was easily the largest Star Force fleet ever assembled, even bigger than what they had guarding Sol…not counting stations and other ‘permanent’ defenses. However, along with this typical warfleet were a few jump cradles carrying the segments to not one, but two Sentinels. They weren’t going to wait to take the system before deploying them, and so long as the fleet kept the segments covered as they were assembled the addition of a pair of ‘safe’ islands in orbit would be extremely useful in the fighting to come.
Aside from those three types of ships there was no additional diversity of designs. All the cargo and troop jumpships were still in orbit around Sashneo, with the Ma’kri waiting there to escort them in later. As big as those ships were, they weren’t suited for really heavy fighting the way the drone warships and their controlling jumpships were, so the trailblazers were electing to put them to support duty rather than delegating one of the warships, such as Kara’s, to that task.
The jumpships were capable of taking a lot more fire than the Ma’kri were, essentially having become mobile mountains that were very difficult to destroy, with the bulk of their firepower residing in the crewless drones. The Ma’kri were not crewless, and more suited for medium to small-scale engagements where they could dominate with their speed and capture capability.
But while the Star Force fleet looked relatively uniform, it was anything but. Morgan-063’s group was comprised of mainline units, while Larissa-048 had brought a chunk of the Bsidd fleet over for this assault, as well as a conglomeration of 18 different Clans. Connor-018 was commanding the Canderous, Scionate, and Lacvamat, while Kian-093 was bringing a huge Axius fleet to bear…yet it was nothing compared to the Calavari fleet, which had the largest ship count and was under Liam-090’s command.
Both the Bsidd and Calavari had radically different drone designs, eschewing the standard ‘blocks’ in favor of other geometric shapes, but they all used the same basic jumpships, meaning that from the outside the massive fleet looked to be from one faction, but in truth it was a representation of Star Force’s diverse naval power and the unity of design and purpose that bound them together.
But beyond that, it was just damn impressive to look at.
Kara’s dropship seemed smaller than a gnat in comparison, flying amongst the huge vessels and over to Morgan’s command ship, slipping inside one of the small bays on the otherwise packed hull of the ship that was not designed as a carrier, but rather a badass fleet-buster that did a good impression of a pint-sized Sentinel.
But it was far more than that, with the interior segmented up into all sort of command and control functions, weapon storage, survey gear, medical facilities, and just about everything else you’d expect from a command center. This one just happened to be mobile and sat in the middle of the fighting rather than safely behind the fleet.
Those who lead have to lead…and the only place to do that was in the front.
The idea of sending the peons first was not part of Star Force’s military structure, which was a major reason for their troops’ and ships’ longevity. Even the drones, which were considered expendable, were not wasted by flinging them at the opposition, nor were they designed flimsily. They could take hits and damage and still be able to retreat to be repaired later, which was the perfect counter to the lizards’ swarm tactics.
But the biggest thing that was evident by the command ship in front of the dropship and the jumpships surrounding it was the sheer size involved. Star Force had grown massive over its 7 centuries of existence, and there was no way tiny little cruisers were going to take this fleet down. Kara felt a moment of pride as they transitioned over, looking at the assembled fleet, then they were inside and walking off across the bay and into the connective tunnels that crisscrossed the entire vessel.
The trio of Archons boarded a small pod car and zipped off across the kilometers of ship, eventually coming to the armored central region that housed the more sensitive areas. It was shaped like a ring that surrounded the central plug that was the TF-class dropship housed inside. That was currently full of ground troops, mostly mech division, but likewise protected by the second layer of armor, ensuring that this command ship could survive an insane beating and still keep most of the crew alive to be recovered afterwards.
That wasn’t going to be an issue in the coming battle, for Star Force wasn’t bringing a fleet designed to make it a fair fight. They were bringing a sledge hammer that was going to pound the known lizard forces flat and have considerable margin for error knowing that they’d bring in an unknown number of reinforcements to counter them as the invasion progressed.
Still, it felt good to be standing behind that much armor, just in case something did go horribly wrong.
In Kara’s case she had an out, and in some respects she’d be safer flying through space in the middle of the battle than standing inside a ship…so long as she didn’t come up against any anti-air batteries. She was small enough to avoid the aim of the big ones, in theory, but the small ones would rack up so much consistent damage that they’d puncture her advanced shields in a relatively short amount of time.
That said, she liked having a backup plan as well as the fact that she’d be fighting in the naval battle personally, rather than plugged into a gunnery station or in a command nexus. That was something that no other Archon had ever had the pleasure of doing, and only she understood just how reckless it really was. It all came down to guile and positioning, which she would have to be employing in a couple of days, for Pag
aliss wasn’t that far away from Sashneo.
“Play nice,” Kara said when she finally sensed Morgan approaching from around the corner in one of the more crowded interior hallways.
“You know us,” Travis said just before the trailblazer turned the corner and her face came into view. “What the hell?”
“Never seen a tattoo before?” Morgan asked as she walked up to them.
“Didn’t know you’d gotten one,” Karen answered, referring to the scattering of dots and curvy lines on the right side of her face, giving her an exotic pirate-ish look that was extremely badass.
“It’s about a year old. You guys here to fight or mouth off?”
“Can’t we do both?” Travis asked deadpan.
Morgan smirked, for cocky or no, that was typical Archon. “Where would you like to figure in? Ground ops I assume?”
“We can supplement gunners if you need some extra hands.”
“We’ve always got extra seats for strikers. Do you want leadership duties, heavy combat, scouting, or sneak ops once we make ground?”
“Heavy combat, preferably,” Karen answered. “But we’ll fill wherever needed.”
“How do you feel about working with Arc Knights?”
“They’ll slow us down,” Travis said bluntly.
“On a reinforcement team that I send into trouble spots where we’re facing the heaviest resistance.”
Both of the twins’ eyes gleamed a bit. “That works,” Karen answered for them.
Morgan mentally gave the two directions to the section of the ship where those Arc Knights were going through training drills in the very crowded sanctuary. “Find Chandler and start making friends. You’ll be working with his strike team. He leads them, you tag along and work on your kill counts.”
“Come on, sis,” Travis said aloud for Kara’s benefit as the twins walked past Morgan, “time to play nice.”
Kara watched them go, but waited until they were out of earshot until she spoke to Morgan. “That went well.”
“I’m actually glad they’re here. They may be cocky sons of bitches, but put them in the right fight and they’ll dominate. Speaking of which, where do you want to be assigned…or do you just want to roam as normal?”
“You know me, I just make it up as I go. Unless you need another team leader?”
“The five of us can handle those duties, so feel free to go where you feel you can make the most impact, cheat armor and all.”
“Yeah, yeah…you’ll change your tune if we ever figure out how to duplicate my little baby,” Kara said, lifting her left arm and pulling back her sleeve to show off her Vorch’nas.
“I’m not having one glued on my arm even if we do.”
“That’s what I thought too when Puff stuck it on. Now, I’m glad he did. Never have to worry about losing it. I was horrible with my car keys.”
“Why?”
“Multiple thought lines. Until basic taught me how to turn it to an advantage I was always distracted and losing stuff. And those are genetic, not ink, right?” Kara asked, gesturing with her chin towards the top Archon’s face.
“Of course they’re genetic. No one sane uses ink.”
“Just checking. Looks good, by the way.”
“I like my natural hair color, so I figured I’d experiment with my skin. You feel like running or sparring?”
“How crowded is the track?”
“Very. But we can take a hike through the outer ship and get away from everyone else. Nice long hallways, very few turns.”
“You have a course set up?”
Morgan smiled. “I do.”
“Show me where to stow my duffle and I’ll give you one hell of a workout.”
“No armor, cheater.”
“I won’t need it,” Kara said with a confident smirk.
7
March 2, 2755
Pagaliss System (lizard territory)
Low stellar orbit
Morgan sat on a stool in the command nexus, her hands on the control sphere and her mind interlinked with the ship’s computer as she watched through delay as to what was happening around the system. The Megazord had come out of their braking maneuver along with one Warship-class jumpship that had then deployed its drones in a scouting capacity, with several models designed for such a role. The command ship held position guarding the jumpline that the fleet would be following on in a few hours’ time, with the linear jumpship tucked up alongside it.
The lizards knew they were here, for the system had a plethora of tracking devices set up that the Star Force vessels could detect the signals from. They hadn’t, however, come out to fight the interlopers. Rather they were sitting in planetary orbit around Varasiss, forming up into what they thought would be the best defensive formation possible. Typically the lizards would have rushed the command ship, but it seemed that they weren’t taking the bait this time, despite their overwhelming numbers.
The drones had spread out across the system, updating the last intelligence report and confirming two small colonies on other planets. It was one of those that Morgan was watching now, for the small fleet of 129 cruisers there had a Star Force icon amongst them. It was a tag that had been placed in response to a location ping rather than an active signal, but it was the location where Kara currently was.
The aggressive little twit had wanted a shot at the two invokers around Varasiss, but there was no way for her to get in to them or the defense stations ringing the planet. Rather than sitting the upcoming battle out on the command ship she’d opted to go for a low priority target, and the superficial mining colony had been accessible. One of the drones had deposited her in orbit of the rocky planetoid and she’d done the rest from there. How she didn’t get blown out of the sky Morgan wasn’t sure, but Kara had managed to board one of the cruisers and was now inside, hence the icon to make sure no one shot that ship…not that there was anyone here yet to do it.
As the trailblazer watched the cruiser she was on suddenly lurched from its sitting position and gently rammed the one next to it…with a little spec transferring across from hull to hull like a flea.
There was no way Kara was going to be able to sneak around now, but she hadn’t yet called for pickup. Rather, a signal came in, relayed by the drone that was sitting in a higher orbit around the planet, that indicated that the first cruiser was dead, either through internal sabotage or the lack of a crew, and it looked like the arrogant Saber was going to press her luck and go for a second.
Morgan’s mind was simultaneously watching the huge fleet around Varasiss, with no response from them yet. They were still shifting about their positions somewhat, but keeping well off the main jumplines in and out. The invokers were in the back row, with the mass of cruisers and larger warships situated out in front and around the defense stations, probably because they knew that against Star Force the invokers were vulnerable, and while they might lead with them against other races that was just a good way to lose them early on here.
As Kara’s confirmation signal came in that she’d breached the second cruiser’s hull Morgan placed the Star Force ‘no shoot’ tag on it, with her attention being diverted to the incoming jump ping. It was a signal that was sent out a few minutes prior to arrival, hyper accelerated due to the coast speed of a jump, but one that would arrive prior to an incoming ship. Morgan’s command ship hadn’t sent one when it arrived, for there was no one friendly here to receive it, but it did allow her a heads up to send back a return signal with any last minute instructions.
Since the lizards hadn’t come out to the star to fight them she sent the ‘all clear’ signal along with the preferred jumppoint she’d like them to come out on…which was an easy one in close to the star that would require less fuel. Had the arrival point been ‘hot’ they would have braked harder and emerged further away so the odds of the lizards being able to poach their ships one at a time as they emerged were low.
That was also another reason to send a ship ahead to a fight like this. If
surprise wasn’t going to be a factor then having a good scouting report before you brought everyone else in was worth the effort. Had a tenth of this lizard fleet been waiting for them around the star they would have been walking into a trap that could have destroyed every last one of her ships.
As it was, the lizard defense fleet had the potential to destroy the forces she was bringing to face them…if the Star Force ships were being flown by newbs. The firepower the enemy had at its disposal was massive, but there was more to naval warfare than just having big guns and pointing them at the other guys. There was a lot of strategy and small-scale tactics involved, which was why she liked having as many remote pilots as possible controlling the drones. The more time one had to think the better they would fight, and the less duties per controller the freer their minds would be.
Kara’s call for evac came about thirty seconds prior to the arrival of the first command ship, which was followed by a series of jumpships in close proximity, forming a line as they came in that diverted to positions Morgan indicated to clear the approach lane. Meanwhile the drone in orbit around the mining planet headed straight into the cruiser cluster there as the enemy ships were firing on their own, now that Kara’s presence had been noted. To kill her they were going to destroy their own ship, meaning it was time for the Archon to run.
Morgan watched with a part of her mind while she monitored everything else going on, picking up a few additional bits of data from the holograms around her, but most of her data was coming directly through the neural link. When the drone got to the cruisers it didn’t engage them, choosing to fly in amongst them and pancake the lizard cruiser that Kara was on. With its ventral shields dropping for a moment, the Archon jumped across and clung to the hull while the corvette was getting pounded with plasma orbs and streamers.
Once she was inside the perimeter of the shields Kara stuck herself to the hull and the exposure reclosed, with the corvette rushing off and outside the cruisers’ firing range before its defenses could go down. Satisfied that Kara was out safely, Morgan turned her full attention to the huge chess match about to be played out, giving the deploy order to the jumpships that had already arrived to start releasing their drones here at the star rather than wait until they got under the lizards’ guns.