by Jyr, Aer-ki
Travis sat in one of the control booths onboard the Megazord, operating the shield controls for a cruiser. He could have handled the entire ship himself if needed, but he was just backing up the regular pilots at the moment and applying the special touch that could make the difference between victory or defeat when this many enemy guns were in play.
The drone he was connected to was engaging the lizards in orbit of Varasiss in a massive exchange that he couldn’t even begin to follow…but that wasn’t his job here. He was to focus on the shields for this one ship and that was it, trusting in the rest of his team and the overall strategy of the trailblazers on site to guide them where they needed to go. The fact that the ship he was sitting in was also under attack didn’t phase him, for he understood naval warfare on this scale and the need to delegate, otherwise it would turn into a randomized free for all.
Those were sloppy and costly, with the lizards having more than enough firepower to make them pay for it. As it was his cruiser was getting hit hard, and not from the ships nearby. The few that were within mauler range were going down quickly, but those beyond that and plasma range were firing their phasers through the gaps and turning the drone cruiser into a pin cushion of pink streaks, allowing several dozen, if not hundred of ships to target the cruiser simultaneously.
The range increase from short to medium had given the lizards so much more naval power it was nuts, but Star Force’s tech and skills were still superior. It was likely that this cruiser was going to be destroyed, for apparently they were to hold position and slug it out for a moment. Normally when the shields dropped below 20% they would be on their way to the back lines to get a breather and a recharge, but not now.
Travis wasn’t controlling the helm, so he didn’t see the communications from others or know the battle plan. Shield control was pretty much an isolated job, with him having to watch the surrounding ships and decide which of the 18 shield segments needed reinforcing more than the others. He had two options for that…the regenerative energy coming from a continuous feed, or the cannibalization of other shield segments to send to one of greater priority. He didn’t like using the latter, for some of the matrix was wasted in the process, but on occasion it was necessary in order to safeguard the ship against a huge hit you knew was coming.
Right now there were no big hits, just lots of little pink stings mixed in with green plasma. The ships around the cruiser were about 2/3rds the old variety, leaving the other third with the new weaponry. In fact those ships were sitting further back in the formation, leaving the plasma-equipped cruisers to run head on into the approaching ships and get chopped to pieces while drawing fire themselves…all the while the more advanced models snipped at the Star Force ships outside of mauler and talon range.
The cruiser had a cleansing beam and it was using it to great effect, but if the ship wanted to throw its full weaponry against the ships shooting at it from afar it was going to have to get closer. In the meantime the enemy was going to get some free shots off, whereas in the past it had been Star Force getting those free shots while the enemy closed distance. That swap alone was giving the enemy more teeth, but they were still losing ships rapidly.
Travis took a chance to look around mentally from time to time, seeing how many drones were going down…and there were plenty. This wasn’t going to be a roll-over engagement, and Star Force was going to have to pay a price in equipment to take control of orbit, which was why Travis had elected to take the shield control rather than the cleansing beam. That was just point and shoot, while the management of the shields could be much more intricate in the hands of an experienced controller.
When the cruiser got down to under 10% shields Travis got a rare prompt from higher up the command structure, telling him to stand ready to lower shields. Along with the stylized order, which appeared as a unique icon rather than words, was a tag for an incoming ship that the striker saw was of the support variety.
That was why they’d been holding position rather than retreating, and when the slightly larger vessel pulled over top of the cruiser Travis deactivated a single sector, sending a coordinate ping to the controller on the other vessel. A moment later a stream of sand shot across and accurately targeted the opening Travis had made for them, with the replicator armor blocks clinging to the hull there and piling up on it in a lump.
As soon as they did so Travis got a second function under his control. In addition to the shields he now gained control of those armor blocks and immediately began spreading them out over the hull like a wave of water. The shield ship kept pouring more in, as if it was a giant grain harvester unloading into a wagon. Meanwhile the rest of the cruiser kept fighting and getting hit, with Travis easily able to multitask the two duties. He poured a little more recharge energy into sectors 3 and 8, anticipating increased attacks on those vectors as the enemy ship placement began to shift again, then rushed the secondary armor to those areas first, just in case the shields did breach soon.
When the shield ship was done it pinged him, and Travis reformed the shield over the hole, with the clump of blocks there sitting just below the extended radius as he continued to move them out and around to the locations he wanted, simultaneously pushing the cruiser’s shields several meters out from the hull to accommodate the armor and holding clumps that he built up like wood stacks at various locations. He needed them nearby to reinforce upcoming damage, otherwise it would take too long to drag them across the hull from a single location and the enemy weaponsfire would get through to the primary armor or even interior mechanisms.
All this was done in his mind ahead of the incoming damage, for the shields had not failed yet, in any sector, but that was his job as shield controller. He had think ahead and preposition the matrix energy, for it didn’t form or move instantaneously, and neither did the secondary armor blocks.
And he didn’t need anyone to tell him why the support ship had reinforced the cruiser, for the answer was obvious. The smaller ships didn’t have cleansing beams, for the most part, and whoever was controlling this battle group wanted the cruiser’s beam in play constantly. Had they retreated to recharge their shields they would have temporarily lost the damage the weapon was doing.
That was better than losing the ship and the weapon permanently, but the support ship gave them another option and the cleansing beam kept poaching enemy ships at even greater range, targeting the more advanced models, Travis noticed, which was definitely the correct play. If they got the enemy down to all plasma varieties he could alter the shield settings for anti-plasma and tank up their ship considerably, but while those phasers were being used he couldn’t weaken their defense against them with the specialty shield, meaning the sooner the advanced models bit the dust, the better.
With that strategy making sense, the cruiser suddenly began to move forward, prompting an eyebrow raise from Travis. He wasn’t going to distract anyone by asking what was going on, but he was curious…then he noticed several smaller drones falling into position behind the cruiser a moment before he got a second prompt telling him to shift the majority of his shields into the forward arc and fan it out a bit to provide cover for them.
That was a very aggressive play, but if that’s what they wanted then so be it. Travis made the changes to shield shape, then gutted 80% of the rear shields and shunted that energy forward, losing a lot in the transfer but almost immediately doubled the forward matrix density. He left a thin layer around the rear of the ship and began redistributing armor blocks there to cover for the lesser defense, but for the moment the only ships with a good firing line on the cruiser’s rear were her sister ships, so it seemed to be a worthy gamble.
Over the next ten minutes the cruiser dished out and took a hell of a beating, eventually reaching a range where it was able to fire a number of cleansing beams into a nearby defense station before that weapon was damaged. It didn’t retreat then, and Travis stayed with it gaining every little advantage that he could for the ship as it played blocker, running
into a thick group of enemy cruisers and tearing into them with its maulers and talon cannons while subsequently attracting the majority of the enemy firepower to it.
The smaller drones that were following it were therefore allowed to get deeper into the enemy lines than they otherwise would have, bringing them within short weapon range. They stayed in the cruiser’s shadow as long as they could, then they broke up and dove at the enemy like a Nidalee on a half health ADC.
Travis only saw part of that battle before the cruiser was destroyed and his screen blanked, along with the mental connection severing. He had a breather of all of six seconds before he saw a request prompt on the screen asking him to take control of a specific function. The Archon accepted rather than surfing through the options and wasting time, suddenly finding himself in control of two mauler cannons on a frigate. He saw the end of one of them firing as his screen came up, meaning he’d just replaced another pilot from that duty…who would be shunted to another task or reduced from multitasking down to a single, more efficient focus.
Travis took the controls and got another salvo off with barely any break in sequence, seeing a full dreadnaught eclipsing his gunner’s view. The enemy ship had its shields down and bare hull in front of him, with Travis gladly using his pair of weapons to chew apart the yellow/tan hull plates at nearly pointblank range.
8
March 5, 2755
Pagaliss System (lizard territory)
Low stellar orbit
“Ouch,” the Captain of the troop jumpship said upon seeing the fleet status as it updated upon their arrival into the system.
“What?” Iden-202747 asked from the commander’s chair behind his, where a large holographic map of Varasiss had just come up showing a considerable lizard fleet still holding on to a piece of orbit centered on a trio of defense stations.
“Look at our drone count.”
The striker pulled up those numbers with a few button presses, seeing that better than two thirds of the drones had been destroyed. He frowned, bringing up the jumpship count and finding that all of those were still operational, meaning no one had died in what, at first glance looked to be a defeat for Star Force. It had been expected that the orbital battles would have been completed before the convoy of troop transports arrived, or at least with the lizards being driven off into other parts of the system to be hunted down later.
With the amount of drones lost and the lizard foothold in orbit, it appeared things were not going well.
“Orders,” the Captain said, relaying the updated transmission that was being bounced from jumpship to jumpship as they came into the star system, with Iden’s being the 18th in line. The mainline troops had jumped ahead of them, with this convoy being comprised of all the Clans. Behind them would be the Axius convoy followed by the others.
Iden read the orders, seeing the Captain signal to the helmsman to get them underway immediately. The jumpship began to move on the primary bridge map around the perimeter of the star following the other Clan vessels as they cleared the jumpline for more of their own to come in and began the trek over to the Varasiss jumppoint, for it seemed they were wanted at the planet immediately.
And not just for a holding orbit. As Iden read through the orders he saw that they contained a sitrep explaining the situation…and he suddenly understood why so many drones had been lost.
“Larkey?”
“What’s up?” the ranger asked, standing behind him a few steps.
“Looks like we’re going to have to earn this one on the ground. The lizards have set up some extremely large surface to orbit phaser arrays preventing orbital bombardment. The fleet sacrificed a lot of drones to punch out a few colonies to give us a blind spot, but the rest we’re going to have to take down on the ground before the fleet can move in.”
“Shit. Sounds like a Hoth scenario.”
“It is,” Iden said, pointing to the section of the orders that identified it as such, “and they want the Clans going in first.”
Larkey-319228 smirked. “We are the best.”
“Softening duty,” Iden continued. “Mainline will mount the main assault supported by the non-Human units. Extreme hazard conditions for us.”
Larkey nodded. “Looks like we’ve seen the end of lizard extermination missions then. Didn’t think it’d be that easy this long. About time they came up with a proper surface defense.”
“The fleet is going to work on taking out the last of the orbital defenses while we head down, meaning that if they lose we’re going to be in a very awkward place.”
“Did we lose that many ships?”
“Have a look,” Iden said, enlarging the armchair display and throwing it up as a second hologram that showed the losses on both sides, with the green lizard numbers far exceeding the Star Force gold.
“What the hell. Did they really have half the enemy fleet here?”
“Seems like it. Sorry we missed that fight, but it looks like we’re going to have an even harder one on the ground, for they’ve stacked defenses down there too.”
“Bring it.”
“Cap, give me shipwide,” Iden said, pausing a moment until a light on his armchair showed that he was connected. The Archon telekinetically pressed the button and began speaking to the air.
“Attention all badasses. Our favorite waste of bullets have proven themselves just as devious and dangerous as well all know they are, but this time really takes the cake. They’ve taken their new weapon and used it to take away our orbital bombardment capability via a lot of really big guns on the surface. Naval has pounded us an entry vector the hard way, leaving us with only a third of the drones we came with and more lizards in orbit left to kill.”
“While they work on winning that fight we’re going down to the surface, head of the line. The Clans are going to be the tip of this spear and tasked with the hardest objectives. We have to soften the lizard defenses up enough that the Calavari and Bsidd don’t get slaughtered, and mainline will be holding their hands throughout, but the lizards have dug in good and have a nearly infinity supply of their scaly asses to throw at us, so we’re in for a tough fight.”
“This one we have to earn, and without air cover until we knock down a lot of defense turrets. That means infantry and mechs and no Lacvamat until we take down the priority structures. Not sure how we’re going to play this one yet, but Clan Jinx gets to live up to its namesake in the coming days. Everyone get prepped immediately. In a few hours we’re going to be on Varasiss dirt.”
Iden clicked the button again, this time with his finger, cancelling the comm channel. “Cap, find us a good parking spot…and thanks for the ride.”
“Wreak some havoc,” he said, which was Clan Jinx’s version of ‘good luck.’
Iden threw him a two fingered salute as he stood up and jogged off the bridge with Larkey, intending to get geared up and on the first dropship heading down.
By the time Iden and some 200+ Jinxes were in a dropship flying down to the surface the first of his jumpship’s heavy transports had already detached from its holding rack. The four destroyer drones they’d brought with them were also gone, having been sent over to the main fleet to help replace what had been lost, but the rest of the jumpship’s carry space was full of landing ships carrying the bulk of the troops and the heavy equipment. A scattering of conventional dropships were going with them, along with a pair of drop pods.
Those two were trailing slightly behind Iden’s dropship and heading to firebase 8 on Larissa’s orders and would be depositing their Mark III Madcats directly into battle. The landing zone Iden was heading to was one of the more stable ones, located on a plain that existed between the mix of buildings and rubble that were the nearby lizard colonies that the fleet had painstakingly pounded from orbit to eliminate any aerial hazards that could have interfered with the grounding of the troops. As it was there were hundreds of thousands of wisps in the air and currently being held at bay by an army of mechs with anti-air capability.
The madcats would add to that considerably, with the first priority right now being to get the firebases up to snuff and their defenses online, which wasn’t only against ground troops but naval ships as well. Each of the prefab structures contained at minimum one cleansing beam capable of reaching back up to orbit located on the top of a high tower, allowing it to tip over and shoot targets on the ground so long as they weren’t too close, given the angles involved.
Clan Ninja Monkey and Clan Firestorm were already on the ground and had set up the most complete firebase, which was where Iden’s troops were coming down with the exception of the madcats. As soon as his dropship landed he and the other Archons streamed out, then split up to collecting their regulars that would be coming out of the larger transports.
Iden was the sixth highest ranking Jinx on site, but the operation was still under the trailblazer’s command so he had orders waiting for him in his helmet once he made it to ground and Larissa sent them out. Right now there were far too many wisps in the air and more on the way, crossing the planet to get to their location, and only a handful of anti-air batteries had been set up. Star Force’s skeets and other aerial craft were pinned to a small area around the firebases, else they’d run into the anti-air turrets of nearby colonies. That meant they could only fight here, in a region approximately 200 miles wide, and it was about to get very, very crowded.
Iden wasn’t assigned to deal with that, but he did need to protect the units on the ground that were setting up the prefab structures and growing the firebases. They couldn’t protect themselves yet, but buy them enough time and the battleforts would allow the rest of the troops the freedom to roam while they could fend off any nominal attacks on their own.